The Writers’ Surgery with Adam Wyeth

Course Summary

Is your writing feeling a bit under the weather and in need of some literary care? Look no further! Join award-winning and acclaimed poet Adam Wyeth for an opportunity to have your writing workshopped and critiqued in a supportive and relaxed atmosphere. In these sessions, Adam provides a space for writers to bring in a page of their own poetry or prose for a workshop-style critique. Each piece will be read aloud and analysed, with detailed feedback provided by Adam.

While the course is open to writers of all levels, each participant must come with at least 12 pieces of writing that are typed, worked on, and have undergone some degree of self-editing. This course is not intended for brand new drafts or pieces written on the spot, but rather for work that has been thoughtfully developed and is ready for considered outside feedback.

Course Outline

Participants will take turns reading their work to the group, followed by constructive feedback from each reader. While comments may vary in perspective, Adam will steer the discussion towards critical and constructive suggestions for improvement. Adam will then offer a final summary with his own feedback. Once everyone has spoken the author will then have the opportunity to respond, should they wish to do so.
Rather than addressing the writer, comments will be addressed towards the work itself. While all work will be met with constructive feedback, the idea is that this is not a back-slapping workshop, but an opportunity for each writer to receive a varied response on a piece of work that they feel they might like to improve.

Course Outcomes

This workshop will be an invaluable and lasting experience for any writers who want to improve their writing and will help strengthen their critical and editorial eye for future work.

Please note that while this course runs for four sessions, it will not take place on Wednesday 27th August, so will finish on September 3 September. 

Adam Wyeth is an award-winning poet, playwright and essayist with five books published with Salmon Poetry. His debut collection Silent Music (2011) was Highly Commended by the Forward Poetry Prize. In 2013 Salmon Poetry published his book of essays, The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic Mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry, with a 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. His second collection The Art of Dying (2016) was an Irish Times Book of the Year. His play This Is What Happened was published by Salmon in 2019. In 2019 he received The Kavanagh Fellowship Award. In 2020 Adam was selected for an Abbey Theatre Development Programme to work on an audio production of about:blank his third collection, which premiered at Dublin Theatre Festival 2021, starring Olwen Fouere and Owen Roe. about:blank was published in 2021 to critical acclaim. In 2024 his collaborative piece there will be no silence with Emmy-nominated composer David Downes premiered at the National Concert Hall as part of the 2024 New Music Dublin festival and was released by Diatribe Records.