Creative Writing - Beginners

For courses next start date / enrolment check out this webpage https://www.gti.ie/parttime/courses

€140

Refunds: No refunds, under any circumstances, are available once a course has commenced.

If you have paid for a course which is subsequently cancelled, you will be notified and a full fee refund will be processed automatically. Refunds if processed are processed on a weekly basis and take approximately 2-3 weeks to present in the applicant bank account.

All other courses must remain viable and be self-financing: therefore a participant will not be permitted to commence a course/module unless the course/module has been paid for in full by the learner prior to commencement.

https://www.gti.ie/parttime/courses/apply/5355

Course Overview
This programme is suitable for individuals who want to try their hand at writing fiction, poetry or memoir and is specifically geared for those who are just starting to write.

Course Content
Examples of work by published writers will be available, which will be used as a basis for writing exercises each week. We will also look at metaphors, simile, characterisation, how to get started, how to avoid cliché, how to finish a story or poem etc. At the first class the tutor will ask all class members if there are any specific areas of creative writing they would like to see covered over the course of the ten weeks and will make participants own ideas/questions an integral part of the programme. If participants have stories or poems they have already written and would like feedback on, they are encouraged to bring them to class. The combination of flexible writing exercises each week and gentle feedback from the tutor and fellow class members will help each participant begin to find their own writing voice.

Tutor Biography
Kevin Higgins is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events in Galway, Ireland. He teaches poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre, Creative Writing at Galway Technical Institute, and is Creative Writing Director for the National University of Ireland - Galway Summer School. He is poetry critic of The Galway Advertiser. His poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry and features in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010) and in The Hundred Years’ War: modern war poems (Ed. Neil Astley, Bloodaxe, April 2014). Kevin’s poetry has been translated into Greek, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Serbian, Russian, & Portuguese. In 2014 Kevin's poetry was the subject of a paper 'The Case of Kevin Higgins, or, 'The Present State of Irish Poetic Satire' presented by David Wheatley at a Symposium on Satire at the University of Aberdeen. He was Satirist-in-Residence at the Bogman’s Cannon (2015-16). '2016 - The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins' was published by NuaScéalta in 2016; a pamphlet of Kevin’s political poems The Minister For Poetry Has Decreed was published, also in 2016, by the Culture Matters imprint of the UK based Manifesto Press. His poems have been praised by, among others, Tony Blair’s biographer John Rentoul, Observer columnist Nick Cohen, and Sunday Independent columnist Gene Kerrigan; have been quoted in The Daily Telegraph, The Times (UK), The Independent, The Daily Mirror, and on Tonight With Vincent Browne; and read aloud by the film director Ken Loach at a political meeting in London. The Stinging Fly magazine recently described Kevin as "likely the most read living poet in Ireland." He has published five collections of poetry with Salmon, most recently Song of Songs 2.0: New & Selected Poems (2017). Kevin has read his work at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013), Boston, Massachusetts, USA (2013) & Amherst, Massachusetts, USA (2013), & New Mexico, USA (2018).

Gretb email address: kevin.higgins@gretb.ie

Materials Needed: pen, paper, and imagination

Course Name - Creative Writing for Beginners
Award - Certificate of Attendance (on request).

Viable courses:
For a course to commence, it is necessary to enrol a minimum number of participants. If this number is not reached, the course will be cancelled.

Course deferral:
Once a course commences, participants may not defer their place on that course to another term.

Transfers policy:
If a participant wishes to transfer to a different course within the same term, a request should be sent by email to info.gti@gretb.ie

Assignments / projects:
Dates for submission of coursework will be provided by the tutor at the beginning of the course. Coursework will not be returned to the participant once submitted for assessment. Therefore, it is advised that a hard copy of all coursework submitted should be retained by the student.

Self-directed learning:
It is the responsibility of the participants to inform themselves as to course content, duration, etc.

Tel: +353 (0)91 581342
Fax: +353 (0)91 589267

info.gti@gretb.ie (Main email)
gtiadulted@gretb.ie (Part-time programme)