Words on the Page: Writing Childhood Taster Workshop with Joanne Hayden
Info
Date: July 8, 2026
Time: 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm
Duration: 1 Hour
Level: Advanced | Intermediate | Beginner |
Cost: €20 (€18 Members)
Location: Irish Writers Centre
This course will take place in person at the Irish Writers Centre as part of our ‘Words on the Page Summer Sessions’ -a week of in-person intensive courses.
Course Summary
Why are some child characters so powerfully alive on the page? How can we write our young selves in ways that feel compelling and real? During this introduction to Writing Childhood and Adolescence we’ll focus on voice and dialogue. Drawing on a selection of texts, we’ll discuss some of the particularities of writing children such as how to balance innocence and precocity and avoid cutesiness. The workshop will be highly interactive and will include a sensory writing exercise.
At the end of the week, participants are invited to sign up to read their work at a showcase on Friday 10th July from 5-7pm.
Joanne Hayden’s work has been published in literary journals such as the Dublin Review, Banshee, the Cormorant and the Storms and has been broadcast on RTÉ Radio. She was shortlisted for the RTÉ Short Story Award twice. Joanne has worked extensively as a literary critic and arts journalist and has facilitated creative writing workshops for adults, teenagers and children. She is a longtime volunteer mentor with Fighting Words. In 2023/2024, she was an Emerging Writer in Residence for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
Booked out? To be added to the waiting list for this course, please email bookings@irishwriterscentre.ie.
