Unlocking Memory: Memoir Writing with Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
Info
Date: April 5, 2022
Time: 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
Duration: 4 weeks
Level: Beginner | Emerging |
Cost: €120 (€108 Members)
Course Summary
Memory is your capital. Imagination is your power of invention and skill in using memories to create a new work of art, unique to you – be it memoir, story, or novel. If you are an eager and voracious reader, you may have learnt how to do this so well that it feels like a natural instinct. For all of us, however, there is always plenty to learn about how to put an essay or a book together from other experienced writers.
Please note that this is an in-person course which will take place in the Irish Writers Centre building.
Course Outline
In this course on Memoir Writing, you will read and discuss technique and content in a memoir (to be read in advance of the class.) You will examine ways of selecting raw material for memoirs and various ways of shaping that material – into short pieces, essays, and books. Students will submit their own ideas for memoirs and some writing for workshopping with the group. Writing exercises designed to trigger memories and explore possible themes will be carried out in class.
Course Outcomes
Students will be asked to read one memoir in advance of the class. They will be asked to submit one short piece of writing – 1000 words max – for workshopping. In class, a few simple writing exercises will be carried out.
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne is a well-known writer of fiction, drama and memoir. She has published over thirty books, won many literary awards, including the PEN Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature, a Hennessy Hall of Fame Award, several Bisto Awards for Children’s Literature, and many others. Her memoir, Twelve Thousand Days (Blackstaff 2018) was shortlisted for the Michel Déon Award (RIA) for non-fiction in 2020. She is an experienced teacher of Creative Writing, and has taught at University College Dublin, Trinity College, Boston College, and the Irish Writers Centre.
She has just edited a collection of 21 memoir essays by Irish writers born in the mid-20th century: Look! It’s a Woman Writer! (Arlen House, 2021)
