Speculative Fiction with Rosemary Jenkinson

Course Summary

The one-day intensive in-person course (five hours) is an introduction to writing speculative fiction. Speculative fiction allows us to imagine our world in the future, using a combination of fantasy and educated guesses to build a dystopia/utopia. This scintillating and thought-provoking course will show how we can use this unique form of writing to reveal truths about our society, country, or world today. The course will provide analysis of classic speculative fiction as well as hands-on writing exercises where participants will generate ideas for believable dystopias/utopias and write their own beginning to a novel/story. We will look at how setting, character and concept can combine to forge unforgettable fiction.

Course Outline

A one-day in-person intensive course at the Irish Writer’s Centre.

Hour one – examining the opening paragraphs of classic dystopian fiction, such as in The Handmaid’s Tale, to assess the importance of setting.
Hour two – brainstorming ideas on how our future will look
Hour three – writing exercise on the importance of character
Hour four – the participants will write their own beginning of a speculative novel
Hour five – feedback on the participants’ work and conclusions

Participants will be expected to work on a character outline in the morning session.
In the afternoon session, they will be expected to write their own beginning to a speculative world, based on everything we have discussed.

There will be a one hour break from lunch from 1pm to 2pm.

Course Outcomes

Participants will come away with fresh ideas for their fiction and a greater knowledge of the writing process in speculative and general fiction.

Rosemary Jenkinson is a short story writer, novelist, playwright and poet. Her debut dystopian novel The Memorisers was published by Arlen House in 2025 and is a blistering portrayal of World War III. Her debut poetry collection Sandy Row Riots was published in 2024. Her latest short story collection is Laganside Lights. She is an Arts Council of Northern Ireland Major Artist and Royal Literary Fund fellow at Queen’s University.