This site is a road map to the world of creative writing at UCC. The School of English offers creative writing at undergraduate, Masters and PhD level. See what we do – check out our blog written by students, see the major names in literature who visit our campus, and explore the numerous courses we offer that redefine and broaden what it is to be a 21st century creative writer.
News and Events
Christie on song with her sonnets
Christie Kannapel (MA 2018/19) has been busy since she handed in her thesis in September and returned to her native Utah. Her sonnets “On the Edge” (the title poem of her thesis) and “The Fall” were finalists and semi-finalists respectively for the prestigious Atlanta Review’s Dan Veacher Prize for Young Poets. (http://atlantareview.com/poetry/dan-veach-prize-for-younger-poets-a-tie-for-winner/)
Three of her poems, “Little on Shore”, “Tower Ravens” and “Echo” have been included in Provo Utah’s Poemball Machine initiative.
And upcoming in December, her sonnet “Almost” will be featured on the Irish-founded cultural website Headstuff in the "New Voices" poetry blog.
Christie was also one of two MA students whose fictional serial, "One Summer in Cork", appeared in the Echo in July under the Summer Soap banner, an ongoing liaison between the MA's Writing for Media module and Examiner publications.
Remembering John Rodgers
A memorial book of the late John Rodgers' writing, Deadlines, - a title chosen by John himself with typical mordant wit - will be launched at this year's Rostrevor Literary Festival on November 23.
John was a much admired student on the MA in Creative Writing 2017/18 when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Although he never got to complete his studies, he continued writing, as he had done for over 30 years. One of the earliest poems in this volume dates back to October 1980; the latest was written on a hospital trolley during his final illness.
Born in 1957, John worked as a chartered building surveyor for 30 years, many of them in London, before returning to Ireland to settle in Rostrevor, Co Down. His son Fionbharr and his lifelong friend, Paddy McGuinness, have selected and edited the work that appears in Deadlines, a publication that had been planned before John got sick.
Deadlines will be available for purchase at the Rostrevor Literary Festival.
Handel in America : The Trumpet Shall Sound!
Our Director of Creative Writing Eibhear Walshe was in the US last week, reading from his new novel on Handel in Dublin.
Above, Eibhear, before his reading in Fordham College in New York with Keri Walsh and Cathal Pratt
With Kevin Kenny and Miriam Nyhan at Glucksman House
Reading from The Trumpet Shall Sound in Wellesley College in Boston.
Shortlists and scholarships!
More publishing news from our just past students.
Molly Twomey (MA 2018/19), pictured, has been shortlisted for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award 2019 with her poem "Atalanta" while her classmate, Breda Joyce has also made the shortlist for the Words by Water prize for writing in the Irish language with her poem "Slán leis an Airc". The Words by Water festival in Kinsale is currently in full force - check it out here - https://www.wordsbywater.ie/ .
Christina Hession, also from our graduating MA class, will appear in the Bangor Literary Journal's Aspects Issue 10 this weekend with her poem "Dearg Doom".
Meanwhile, Fiona Murphy, BA in English graduand, topped off her achievements at last night's UCC Undergraduate Awards - two prizes, one for an English essay, the other as top-ranked creative writing student - with a long-listing in the Aeon Magazine Short Story Award 2019 for a story she wrote during her third-year fiction workshop under the direction of Mary Morrissy.
Collecting her Eoin Murray Memorial Scholarship prize at the undergrad awards last night was current BA student and Quercus scholar Rose Keating. Runner-up for this year's scholarship was Molly Twomey, which is where we came in.