Connections and Multiplicities with Afric McGlinchey

Course Summary

Note that class will not take place on Thurs 27 June and will end on Thurs 4 Jul.

This course is designed for writers working in all genres, and those who have an interest in experimental writing.

Using a series of given prompts and innovative forms each week, we will arrive at new ways of processing our material to produce work that is alive and unexpected.

What I do in order to think is just take five things. It could be the five books on my desk or five words at random…and try to make the mind move from one to the other. Just the connection is where the thinking happens.

– Anne Carson

Course Outline

Week One: Convergence                                                                                                         

We will respond to a series of prompts to play with the possibilities of connection and how this might trigger unexpected outcomes.

Week Two: Coming at the secret slant

This week we will experiment with ways we can circle around a core issue, alluding to it without giving it away.

Week Three: Free-associating

How do we reflect the prismatic nature of the world and our multiple selves in it? This week we will explore the multitude of pieces in a jigsaw, and how to embody them in our work.

Week Four:  The power of lacunae and erasure

What’s conveyed but left unsaid can be as powerful as the writing on the page. This week we’ll look at how to use the white space, what to put in and what to leave out.

Week Five: What’s the through-line?

How do we create a narrative drive? This week, we’ll find ways of ensuring that out of many disparate elements, there’s a unifying theme.

Week Six: Cutting to the chase

In the final week we’ll be using Elmore Leonard’s advice to ‘cut the parts that readers tend to skip over’ in a forensic editing session, with group feedback on our final work.

Course Outcomes

By week six, participants can expect to have up to three finished pieces of work, plus sufficient generative material and new tools from which to elicit future ideas.

Afric McGlinchey’s latest book is a hybrid childhood memoir, Tied to the Wind (Broken Sleep Books, 2021). Her collections of poetry are The lucky star of hidden things and Ghost of the Fisher Cat (Salmon Press). Both books were translated into Italian (Casa L’Arcolaio Editrice). A chapbook, Invisible Insane, (SurVision) appeared in 2019. Afric’s honours include two Arts Council Literature Bursaries, Northern Liberties award (USA), Poets Meet Politics prize and a Hennessy award.