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
Reminder ! A Journey Called Home; UCC Readings - Tuesday, 5th February
A Journey Called Home
Multilingual readings from this anthology by writers from across the world
Tuesday 5th February at 6.30pm
Social Area, Block B, Floor 1, O’Rahilly Building.
Cork City Libraries in association with Ó Bhéal made a call for poems and short prose about Cork city experiences, from writers living in Cork who are not originally from Ireland, inviting them to write in their own languages. This project is one of the Cork City Council Creative Ireland Programme initiatives for 2018. The book includes thirty images from three Cork-based photographers who have migrated to Ireland – Azem Koleci, Silvio Severino and Jed Niezgoda.
Edited by Paul Casey, the anthology presents original works from sixty-two writers in twenty languages, along with translations into English, including Croatian, German, Urdu, Portuguese, French, Shona, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Kurdish, Filipino, Galician, Polish, Dutch, Ndebele, Romanian, Italian and Somali.
This event features contributors currently connected to UCC.
Very much looking forward to our next reading event on Monday 11th February , 6;30 with Liz Quirke, Paul Casey and Elaine Feeney !
Donal Ryan and Colette Bryce Readings next Tuesday 22nd January
UCC’s School of English Reading 2019 Series kicks off on Tuesday, January 22, with two of Ireland’s leading writers, Donal Ryan and Colette Bryce.
The reading will take place in the Creative Zone of the Boole Library January 22 @ 6.30pm.
Admission is free and all are welcome
Photographs: Murdo MacLeod (The Guardian)
The Trumpet Shall Sound!
Eibhear Walshe, Director of Creative Writing here in UCC, is publishing his new novel, The Trumpet Shall Sound this month, with a launch on 7th February in the Handel House Museum in London, and then in Dublin at the Royal Irish Academy on 21st February.
A date for the Cork launch will be announced soon.
the_trumpet_shall_sound_cover final
It is 1742 and the celebrated composer Georg Handel is in Dublin for the first performance of his new work Messiah. Once the most successful composer of opera in London, and fêted by aristocracy and royalty alike, Handel is now nearly penniless, recovering from a debilitating illness and out of favour and his exile in Dublin a sign of his fall from grace. With him and due to sing in his Messiah is the celebrated young actress, Susannah Cibber, the subject of scandal and public disgrace, on the run from an abusive husband and considered with suspicion by the musical elite of Dublin.
‘A plausible, sensuous coming-of-age story about a genius wrestling with love and ambition across eighteenth century Europe.’ Emma Donoghue
‘Eibhear Walshe brings us into Handel’s world with such precision, clarity and beauty that it seems real and unforced, the work of a true artist. The story of a truly memorable event in the cultural history of Ireland, this fine novel is also a profound meditation on creativity itself, told with imaginative audacity and tempered by scholarly scruple. An immensely enjoyable read.’ Joseph O'Connor