BEYOND New Irish Communities
Irish Writers Centre re-launches 10-week programme for new Irish communities. Sign up to BEYOND New Irish Communities and take part in creative writing workshops facilitated by experienced novelists, poets, short story writers and journalists.
Quick Links
Sign up for BEYOND New Irish Communities 2023
Welcome to BEYOND New Irish Communities
BEYOND New Irish Communities is a programme to encourage writers of diverse ethnicities to participate in specially curated creative writing workshops. This programme may be of interest to you if you are living on the island of Ireland and:
– English or Irish is not your first language OR
– You are Irish from a diverse background OR
– You are living in direct provision OR
– You think you might be an ideal participant
– Or a combination of the above
In short, we are reimagining our decade-old New Irish Communities programme, and throwing the door open widely to writers who wish to learn to write creatively through English and become part of our writers’ community. Our aim is to widen access to this wonderful network of writers and facilitators in our creative space. We hope the programme will be a valuable space where writers can make connections and create new work together over time. BEYOND New Irish Communities is ideal for beginner and emerging writers.
How BEYOND New Irish Communities Works?
What do these workshop sessions look like?
In-person curated workshop programme: From Saturday September 23rd at 11am – 1pm we are running weekly sessions in the IWC building on Parnell Square that are facilitated by experienced writers and poets working in different genres and forms.
Online workshop: While the majority of sessions take place in person at the Irish Writers Centre, each fifth session functions as a stand-alone online workshop, where a special guest will share their wisdom and experience, followed by a workshop.
Please note, it is not necessary to have attended any previous BEYOND sessions to join in, but it is necessary to sign up.
Sign up for each BEYOND NIC 2023 session below.
What do we do in these workshop sessions?
Each session lasts two hours and will consist of the following:
• Creative writing exercises
• Close readings
• Group discussion
• Critique and feedback of work
• Recommended reading
We hope that BEYOND NIC will be a valuable space where writers can make connections, learn to write creatively, and perhaps, to work together over time. However, each session functions as a stand-alone workshop, so it is not necessary to have attended any previous BEYOND NIC sessions to drop in at any point.
BEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 1
Facilitators: Mark Granier and Rafael Mendes
Date: Saturday 23 September 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Mark Granier has an MA in Poetry from Lancaster University, and has been teaching poetry and creative writing for The Irish Writers’ Centre’s New Irish Communities project and University College Dublin’s Lifelong Learning Department for many years. His awards include the 1997 New Writer Prize, several Arts Council Bursaries, The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and two Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowships. His fifth collection, Ghostlight: New & Selected Poems, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2017.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 2
Facilitator: Nithy Kasa
Date: Saturday 30 September 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Nithy Kasa is amongst the ten poets selected for the Poetry as Commemoration for the Centenaries Programme of the War of Independence and Civil War of Ireland. Her work can be found on the University of Galway’s Archive, as well as the special collections of the University College Dublin, and others. Her debut collection of poetry, Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, Doire Press 2022, was listed amongst the top poetry books of 2022 by the Irish Times.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 3
Facilitator: Fióna Bolger
Date: Saturday 7 October 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Fióna Bolger is a poet, writer and facilitator who has lived mainly in Ireland and India. Her publications include a compound of words, Yoda Press, Delhi (2019) and Love in the Original Language, Salmon Poetry, Clare (2022). Her poems have appeared in The Brown Critique, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Bus, Chattahoochee Review among others. She facilitates workshops with Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, Yoda Press, Delhi, Intercultural Language Centre, Ballybough and Women 4 Women DLR. Anti-racist and trauma informed strategies inform her facilitation practice. She is interested in plurilingualism as a strategy to cross borders and create new spaces for playing and thinking in words. www.fionabolgerpoetry.com
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 4
Facilitator: Jean O’Brien
Date: Saturday 14 October 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: Online
Jean O’Brien has facilitated many creative writing workshops in places as diverse as prisons, schools, community groups and festivals and at post graduate level. An award winning writer she received a Kavanagh Fellowship in 2017/18. She was the Writer in Residence in the Centre Culturel d’ Irelandais in Paris last November. She has six books to her name, her latest Stars Burn Regardless was published by Salmon Publishing in Spring 2022. She holds an M. Phil in creative writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Ireland. www.jeanobrien.ie
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 5
Facilitator: Sree Sen
Date: Saturday 21 October 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
From India, Sree Sen relocated to Dublin, Ireland in 2019. Her creative works have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, Dedalus Press ‘Local Wonders’ anthology, Honest Ulsterman, bath magg, The Night Heron Barks and others. She’s the winner of UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award 2020; recipient of the Cill Rialaig Residency 2020 and Agility Award 2021 by Arts Council of Ireland. Currently working as a digital content specialist for Skein Press. Her debut poetry pamphlet Cracked Asphalt will be published by Fly On The Wall Press (UK) on August 12, 2022. As a journalist, her articles have appeared in The Hindu BusinessLine, Firstpost, DNA, Times of India and other media platforms.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 6
Facilitator: Jean O’Brien
Date: Saturday 4 November 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Jean O’Brien has facilitated many creative writing workshops in places as diverse as prisons, schools, community groups and festivals and at post graduate level. An award winning writer she received a Kavanagh Fellowship in 2017/18. She was the Writer in Residence in the Centre Culturel d’ Irelandais in Paris last November. She has six books to her name, her latest Stars Burn Regardless was published by Salmon Publishing in Spring 2022. She holds an M.Phil in creative writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Ireland. www.jeanobrien.ie
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 7
Facilitator: Cauvery Madhaven
Date: Saturday 11 November 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Cauvery Madhavan was born in India and moved to Ireland thirty four years ago. Her latest novel, The Tainted, published to wide critical acclaim, was picked as An Post Book Awards’ Top Summer Reads in 2020. In the same year, it was also awarded the runner-up prize in SAHR Prize for Military Fiction and listed by The Times, UK, in their list of top 40 Historical Fiction novels. She lives with her husband and three children in County Kildare and is working on her fourth novel.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 8
Facilitator: Melatu Uche Okorie
Date: Saturday 18 November 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person at the Irish Writers Centre
Melatu Uche Okorie was born in Enugu, Nigeria and has been living in Ireland since 2006. She has an Mphil in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies including, Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber & Faber) and The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish short stories (Head of Zeus). Her debut collection, This Hostel Life, was published in May, 2018.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities 2023 Session 9
Facilitator: Mark Granier
Date: Saturday 25 November 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: Online
Mark Granier has an MA in Poetry from Lancaster University, and has been teaching poetry and creative writing for The Irish Writers’ Centre’s New Irish Communities project and University College Dublin’s Lifelong Learning Department for many years. His awards include the 1997 New Writer Prize, several Arts Council Bursaries, The Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize and two Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowships. His fifth collection, Ghostlight: New & Selected Poems, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2017.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Community 2023 Session 10
Facilitator: Suad Aldarra
Date: Saturday 2 December 2023
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: In person
Suad Aldarra is a Syrian-Irish writer and data scientist based in Dublin. She was selected as the Common Currency writer in residence for Cuirt International Festival and English/Irish PEN in 2021 and was awarded the Art Councils of Ireland English Literature bursary. Her debut memoir, I Don’t Want to Talk About Home, was published by Penguin in July 2022 and was shortlisted for An Post Irish Biography of the Year Award.
Sign Up HereBEYOND New Irish Communities is kindly supported by Dublin City Council.
A Little Bit of History About New Irish Communities
New Irish Communities (NIC) was founded in 2013 with the aim of providing a creative writing space for all those for whom English was not their first language. It is our longest running programme, underpinning our commitment to diversity and inclusion values. A decade ago, Ireland was a very different place, and it was much harder for those we were trying to welcome to participate in creative writing. The limitations of living in direct provision, or lack of access to transport, or language difficulties inhibited participation. Nevertheless, we established a small but loyal following from regular participants, with some going on to publish, win places on prestigious writing programmes, and to read publicly at IWC and other events.
Ten years on, with Ireland’s massive leap into positivity with regard to diversity, we felt it was time for our well-loved programme to be evaluated within this new context and to expand its brief to be more inclusive and to reflect the changing face of Irish culture.
In summary, BEYOND NIC keeps all that is good from the old programme and adds more curation, a greater diversity of guest speakers and facilitators, and invites a wider range of participants in this gesture of solidarity to reflect the broader demographic changes happening on this island. This explains the new name we chose for the reimagined programme, which keeps its historical roots, but goes beyond them.
