Masterclass: Creative Reading with Cathy Sweeney
Info
Date: May 16, 2026
Time: 11.00am - 1.00pm
Duration: 2 hours
Level: Advanced | Intermediate | Beginner |
Cost: €50 (€45 Members)
This session will take place online on Saturday 16 May, 2026 (one session in total).
Course Summary
The novelist Cormac McCarthy said: ‘The ugly fact is books are made out of books.’ But I don’t think this is an ugly fact at all, quite the opposite. There is something beautiful in imagining all the books that have ever been written, from antiquity to the present day, as one long exploration of what it means to be human, and as something essential, I think, in acknowledging the influence, overtly or subtlety, of other writers in our own work. It is a way to keep books alive, but it is also a political act, countering the fetish with novelty in current times.
So, in this masterclass, I will explore the subject at a personal level: how reading turned me into a writer and how writing turned me into a different kind of reader, how particular books influenced both my short story collection Modern Times and my novel Breakdown, and how Oscar Wilde, as both a public figure and a writer, became a ten-year obsession that is finally coming to an end with the completion of my second novel The Villa, due to be published in 2028.
Cathy Sweeney’s collection of short stories, Modern Times, her was published by The Stinging Fly Press and W&N in 2020. Her debut novel, Breakdown, was published by W&N in January 2024. Cathy has twice been awarded a Literature Bursary from The Arts Council of Ireland and in 2022 she was Writer in Residence at University College Cork. In 2023 she was the recipient of a Hawthornden Fellowship.
