Seminar in Ireland 2018
Morning writing workshops. Literary
discussions over lunch. Afternoon writing time followed by tea and a talk.
Readings before breaking for dinner. Set that daily schedule against the
stunning seaside backdrop of Ireland’s acclaimed Dingle Peninsula. Populate it
with a gifted group of Bay
Path MFA students plus writers from the larger community, and a faculty
including bestselling writers and poets from both the U.S. and Ireland. Stand
back and revel in the resulting magic.
In a nutshell, that’s the annual Summer
Writing Seminar in Ireland offered through Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative
Nonfiction. This year’s week, which ran July 28 to Aug. 4, was no exception.
Hailing from throughout the USA, our 21 participants studied with American
writers Ann Hood, Dinty W. Moore, Suzanne
Strempek Shea, and Tommy
Shea, and Irish writers and poets Annie
and Ted Deppe, Mia
Gallagher, and Nuala O’Connor,
along with guest speaker and musician Tommy Joe Lynch.
Days prior to the launch of her critically
lauded latest novel, Becoming
Belle, Nuala O’Connor traveled to County Kerry from Galway,
returning to teach for the second time and offering a keynote titled “The
Drowsy Swallow,” which focused on writing short fiction and nonfiction -
fitting for a week in which many tried their hands (and pens) at flash. Ann
Hood dissected the objective correlative, Ted Deppe reminded us that trouble is
an element necessary in any successful story, Dinty Moore was serious about
offering the keys to humor writing. Mia Gallagher sent us forth with wisdom on
sitting through the pain in writing. And Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tommy Shea
recreated their desk at home and talked about lessons learned from one another
over three decades of sharing the same workspace.
"This
week has changed my life as a writer,” said 2018 grad Pamela Estes.
"My students were
some of the most open, bravest, loveliest people I’ve taught,” noted faculty
member Ann Hood.
And MFA student Naomi
Kooker had this final observation: "It’s hard to focus on one talk,
one reading when the week was rich with wisdom.”
A reading by all participants in our
top-floor classroom at An Diseart Centre for Spirituality and Culture closed
another memorable week.
We thank all who helped deliver those innumerable returns. And
we look forward to meeting up again in Dingle next summer. Please join us for our fifth annual Summer
Writing Seminar in Ireland. Watch this space for specific dates, which will
fall somewhere between July 2017 and August 11, 2019.
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