The Mythic Imagination: Creative Writing Workshop with Adam Wyeth
Info
Date: June 11, 2022
Time: 10.30 am - 1.30 pm
Duration: 2 Days
Level: Beginner | Emerging |
Cost: €96/€87
Course Summary
‘Mythology is not a lie, it is poetry, it is metaphorical’ Joseph Campbell
Adam Wyeth will take you on a journey through the great panoply of Celtic myth, revealing how these ancient narratives and traditions are deeply intertwined into the fabric of our daily lives.
Adam has developed a series of unique creative writing exercises, showing the many ways in which you can interlace your writing with Celtic references. Once you’ve unlocked the mythic imagination, you’ll be shown how you can add your own 21st century twist to the rich bedrock of Celtic heritage – finding new ways from the old ways to enhance your work with hidden layers and depth.
Course Outline
You’ll explore many of Ireland’s major traditional forms from Early literature, Immrama, Dindsenchas to aisling, and look at themes of metamorphosis, animal symbolism, tree folklore, archetype and lots more. Through readings and discussion you’ll discover that the mythic imagination is not a tacked on idea or an exercise in nostalgia pining for a bygone age, but that it speaks to our inner lives and is at the heart of all great literature and art.
As well as poetry, the course is tailored towards prose writing too. You’ll explore how you can apply these mythic ideas and archetypes to develop characters and enhance plot, adding hidden layers to your work. We’ll see how leading Irish writers have used and transformed these forms and then find exciting ways to apply these ideas to your own work with inspirational exercises, writing prompts and games.
Course Outcomes
Expect to come out of the workshop with some great new work and a deepened appreciation and awareness of modern literature, myth, tradition and writing craft. These workshops are designed for writers of all levels of experience and no knowledge of mythology is required. All you need is paper, pen – and your imagination!
Adam Wyeth is an award-winning and critically acclaimed poet, playwright and essayist with five books published with Salmon Poetry. In 2019 he received The Kavanagh Fellowship Award. Wyeth is the author of Silent Music, Highly Commended by the Forward Poetry Prize and The Art of Dying, an Irish Times Book of the Year. In 2013 Salmon Poetry published his book of essays, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic Mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry, Foreword by Paula Meehan. This book is used as a teaching tool around the world and has been officially added to DeSales University (Pennsylvania) MFA program in Creative Writing and DePaul University classes in Chicago – Books for Celtic Mythology and Books for Contemporary Celtic Literature. Wyeth’s plays have been performed across Ireland and also in New York and Berlin. His play This Is What Happened was published by Salmon in 2019. His fifth collection about:blank is a large four-part poetical sequence, which blurs genre, moving across, poetry, prose and dialogue. In 2020, Wyeth was selected for The Abbey Theatre’s (Ireland’s National Theatre) Engine Room Development Programme where he worked on about:blank as an audio-immersive piece. Subsequently, he received the Arts Council Ireland Literature Project Award to complete the project. about:blank premiered at Dublin Theatre Festival 2021. Wyeth is also a recipient of the Live Music & Performance Scheme for a new music and text work in collaboration with Emmy-nominated composer David Downes, performed by pianist Rolf Hind and Cellist Adrian Mantu. Wyeth is an Associate Artist of the Civic Theatre, Dublin, and works on ideas and research for the RTÉ Poetry Programme. He teaches online creative writing correspondence courses at adamwyeth.com and Fishpubli
