short fiction
Walled Garden Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill at Aspects Festival, Bangor
North Down Museum Town Hall, The Castle, Bangor, United KingdomJoin facilitator Bernie McGill for a writing workshop - indoors and out - that takes inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of Bangor Castle Walled Garden and Castle Grounds. The workshop will offer prompts and writing exercises to spark ideas and develop work. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors to write (weather permitting) or at a social distance indoors in North Down Museum. The group will come together to share work. All levels of experience welcome, from seasoned writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. Suitable for ages 16+ Dress for the weather and in comfortable walking shoes and bring a hardback notebook for writing outdoors. Full workshop details and booking at Aspects Festival. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her collection of short stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her new short story collection This Train is For will be published by No Alibis Press in 2022. Eílís Ní Dhuibhne and Evelyn Conlon in conversation […]
Back in the Writing Room with Bernie McGill at Burnavon Arts Centre, Cookstown
Burnavon Arts & Cultural Centre Burn Road, Cookstown, United KingdomAfter months of online working, are you ready to get back into the writing room? This workshop, led by writer Bernie McGill, will offer a kickstart to your creative writing with prompts and suggestions to spark new ideas. All levels of experience welcome, from seasoned writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. The workshop will be fully participative with attendees taking part in writing exercises and sharing their work with group participants. Come with writing materials, prepared to write. There will be a short break for lunch (bring your own). Please bring your own notebook and pen. Suitable for age 16+ Book online at The Burnavon. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her collection of short stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her new short story collection This Train is For will be published by No Alibis Press in 2022. *Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
Creative Writing Workshop with Bernie McGill: The Growing Light
Burnavon Arts & Cultural Centre Burn Road, Cookstown, United KingdomA creative writing workshop that looks forward to the stretch in the days, the growing of the light. This workshop, led by writer Bernie McGill, will offer a kick start to your creative writing with prompts and suggestions to spark new ideas. All levels of experience welcome, from seasoned writers to first-timers, poets and fiction writers alike. The workshop will be fully participative with attendees taking part in writing exercises and sharing their work with group participants. Come with writing materials, prepared to write. There will be a short break for lunch (please bring your own). This workshop is suitable for 16yrs + Bernie McGill is the author of novels The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House and of the short story collection Sleepwalkers. Bernie's new short story collection, This Train is For will be published by No Alibis Press in June 2022. Book through the Burnavon Arts Centre.
Launch of This Train is For by Bernie McGill
No Alibis Bookshop 83 Botanic Avenue, BELFAST, United KingdomNo Alibis Press is delighted to invite you to a live event in No Alibis bookshop to celebrate the launch of Bernie McGill's wonderful new collection of short stories, This Train Is For. This launch happily coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of No Alibis Bookstore. About Bernie McGill: Bernie McGill is the author of two novels, The Watch House, (2017, Tinder Press), nominated for the Ireland/European Prize for Literature, and The Butterfly Cabinet, (2010, Headline Review), and one short story collection Sleepwalkers, (2013, Whittrick Press), shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Her short fiction has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Award in the USA. Her work has been anthologised in award-winning collections including The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore, Her Other Language, The Danger & the Glory, Belfast Stories, and Female Lines. "Beneath the exquisite surface - at once lyrical and plain-spoken - of each of these stories is carried a great freight of feeling that McGill handles with humanity and restraint. An excellent collection from one of the finest short story writers working in Ireland today." Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses. This is a free event but […]
David Park & Bernie McGill in Conversation with Emma Warnock at Belfast Book Festival
Crescent Arts Centre 2-4 University Road, BELFAST, United KingdomJoin two of Northern Ireland’s most acclaimed writers at this year's Belfast Book Festival as they discuss their latest releases for Novel Journeys Book Club. Bernie McGill’s This Train Is For is a collection of short stories; some unpublished, some stories previously published within award winning anthologies. David Park’s Spies in Canaan is a bold and unsettling parable about guilt, atonement and redemption. Novel Journeys Book Club is a partnership between the Belfast Book Festival, Translink and independent bookstore, No Alibis, to champion the benefits of reading and to stay connected with their passengers and the wider public. Every month, Translink announces a new title via social media to help passengers switch off, unwind and support their mental wellbeing. Bernie McGill was born in Northern Ireland. She has written plays, a collection of short stories entitled Sleepwalkers and two novels, The Butterfly Cabinet and The Watch House, which was shortlisted for the Irish/European Union Prize for Literature in 2019. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for numerous awards and is anthologised in The Black Dreams, The Cormorant, Her Other Voices, Belfast Stories, Reading the Future, Female Lines, The Glass Shore and The Long Gaze Back. In 2008 she won the Zoetrope: All-Story […]
Book Signing at Waterstones, Coleraine: This Train is For by Bernie McGill
Waterstones, Coleraine 10 Church Street, Coleraine, United KingdomJoin us on Thursday 23rd June at 3.00 pm when Portstewart author Bernie McGill will be signing copies of her new short story collection This Train is For. Bernie McGill’s award-winning stories have been widely praised for their emotional depth and their lyrical language. She is a writer of profound sensitivity and observation. Her masterful deployment of linguistic precision and economy enables her to plumb the depths of human experience while neatly avoiding sentimentalism. This new collection, her first since 2013, contains unpublished stories along with a number of previously published stories featured within award winning anthologies. ‘This Train is For portrays the complexities of the heart with sensitivity and acute psychological insight. Rendered in the most perfect prose, Bernie McGill presents lives in physical and emotional transit, uncertain of the journey’s destination, understanding that sometimes the most important moments in our lives involve travelling not forward, but to moments we thought we had left long behind.’ David Park ‘Bernie McGill is one of the most accomplished short story writers in Ireland today. These stories contain powerful truths and unsettling revelations, delivered in the gentlest voice. An absolute joy of a collection from start to finish with not a word […]
Reading & Book Signing at Waterstones, Foyleside: This Train is For by Bernie McGill
Waterstones, Foyleside Unit 7, Foyleside Centre, Derry, United KingdomJoin us on Friday 24th June at 7.00 pm when author Bernie McGill will be signing copies of her new short story collection This Train is For. Bernie McGill’s award-winning stories have been widely praised for their emotional depth and their lyrical language. She is a writer of profound sensitivity and observation. Her masterful deployment of linguistic precision and economy enables her to plumb the depths of human experience while neatly avoiding sentimentalism. This new collection, her first since 2013, contains unpublished stories along with a number of previously published stories featured within award winning anthologies. ‘This Train is For portrays the complexities of the heart with sensitivity and acute psychological insight. Rendered in the most perfect prose, Bernie McGill presents lives in physical and emotional transit, uncertain of the journey’s destination, understanding that sometimes the most important moments in our lives involve travelling not forward, but to moments we thought we had left long behind.’ David Park ‘Bernie McGill is one of the most accomplished short story writers in Ireland today. These stories contain powerful truths and unsettling revelations, delivered in the gentlest voice. An absolute joy of a collection from start to finish with not a word wasted […]
Bernie McGill & Rosemary Jenkinson in Conversation at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy
Seamus Heaney HomePlace 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, United KingdomIn Conversation with Emma Warnock Seamus Heaney HomePlace is delighted to welcome two of Northern Ireland’s finest writers in a celebration of the short story. Both Bernie McGill and Rosemary Jenkinson have released short story collections this year and have had their work anthologised in many collections. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels: The Watch House (nominated for the Ireland European Union Prize for Literature in 2019) and The Butterfly Cabinet (named by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes as his novel of the year in 2012). Her first collection of short stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies The Black Dreams, Her Other Language, Belfast Stories, The Long Gaze Back, The Glass Shore and Female Lines. Her new short story collection, This Train is For, will be published in June 2022 by No Alibis Press. Rosemary Jenkinson is an award-winning playwright and short story writer. Her plays include The Bonefire, which won the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Award, Here Comes the Night and Lives in Translation and she was the 2017 Artist-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Rosemary’s short story collections include Contemporary Problems Nos. 53 & 54, Aphrodite’s Kiss and Catholic Boy which was shortlisted for the […]
An Arrow in Flight: A Panel Conversation on the short story at Cairde Sligo Arts Festival
Hawk's Well Theatre 2 Temple Street, Abbeyquarter North,, Sligo, IrelandWith Bernie McGill, Sheila Armstrong and Stephen Walsh, hosted by Jan Carson. Irish author Mary Lavin once famously referred to the short story as ‘an arrow in flight’, a ‘flash of lightning lighting up the whole landscape at once’ with no need for a classical beginning, middle and end. For our panel event on the short story, Jan Carson will chat with three Irish writers who have all published collections of short stories this year. Bernie McGill's award-winning stories have been widely praised for their emotional depth and their lyrical language. This Train is For is her latest collection. Sheila Armstrong is a writer and editor from the northwest of Ireland. How To Gut A Fish, her first collection of fiction, was published by Bloomsbury in 2022, and she is working on her debut novel. Stephen Walsh published his debut collection of short stories late 2021. Shine/Variance has been described as Beautiful little studies of unspoken fear and longing and love, told with a sure-footed delicacy rare in a debut. - The Irish Times Book here for this event. Please note that Bernie McGill will facilitate a workshop on the morning of 6th July in the Yeats Building, Sligo, as part […]
Creative Writing Workshop: Summer Home with Bernie McGill at Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Bellaghy
Seamus Heaney HomePlace 45 Main Street, Bellaghy, United KingdomJoin writer and facilitator Bernie McGill for a writing workshop in the Moyola Hall and Sensory Garden at Seamus Heaney HomePlace. This will be a practical workshop on the everyday craft of writing with the aim of sparking ideas for new work. Prompts and exercises will take inspiration from the words ‘summer’ and ‘home’ and from Seamus Heaney’s poem of that title. All levels of experience are welcome from experienced writers to first-timers, as well as poets and fiction writers alike. Participants will have the option to find a spot outdoors in the Sensory Garden (pictured here) to write, weather permitting, or indoors in the adjoining Moyola Hall. Come with writing materials, prepared to write! A hard back notebook or clipboard may be useful for writing outdoors. Bernie McGill is the author of two novels The Watch House and The Butterfly Cabinet. Her collection of short stories, Sleepwalkers, was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2014. Her new collection of short stories, This Train is For, is published by No Alibis Press in June 2022. Book at Seamus Heaney HomePlace.