Tag Archives: mark kelleher

Students and staff do us proud

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A room of one’s own – Glenville Park

Creative writing students have been busy over the summer – and not just working on their dissertations.  The class of 2015/16 have been getting published out there in the real world. MA student  Mark Kelleher led the posse with his 12 episode soap “Scattered” commissioned by the Evening Echo as part of the Writing for Media module, which ran in the paper and on the Echo website during August.

This proved such a success that the Echo is publishing a second soap from that class – “Pure Awkward” by Kelly Warburton – currently running.  Check it out on http://www. eveningecho.ie

Meanwhile, Nora Shychuk‘s story “Ghosts in a Small Town” has been accepted for publication by The Rose literary magazine. http://www.the rosemagazine.com.This is the title story of the collection she’s working on for her thesis. Two of our PhD students, Fiona Whyte and Niamh Prior will have fiction and poetry appearing in  the forthcoming edition of The Holly Bough http://www.facebook.com/corkhollybough

Not to be outdone, our newly appointed faculty poet Leanne O’Sullivan, read at the Struga International Poetry Festival in Macedonia in August. The Struga festival is a major event and the festival has awarded some of the world’s most eminent literary figures, including several Nobel Prize winners, such as Joseph Brodsky, Pablo Neruda and Seamus Heaney.http://www.svp.org.mk

Upcoming on September 17, Laura McKenna, another of our  PhD creative writing students,  will lead a workshop at Glenville Park, Cork. Glenville is an 18th century house full of history and faded grandeur. Nothing faded about Laura’s workshop, however, which is suitable for all writers including beginners.

For more information contact: http://silviabencejones@hotmail.com

Soap stars!

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Mark Kelleher, one of our MA students, has been commissioned to write a 12-episode online soap opera which will appear in the Evening Echo http://www.eveningecho.ie/ this summer.  The project is part of a new association between Examiner publications and the newly established Writing for Media module (EN6057) on the MA in Creative Writing.

Eight students pitched soap ideas and wrote three pilot episodes as part of their final portfolio for the module.  Features editor of the Echo, John Dolan, and his deputy, Elaine Duggan, made the final decision on which idea they would commission on the strength of these submissions.

After much deliberation, John said they went for Mark’s entry, entitled “Scattered” whose hero is a Cork street cleaner.

“We loved the strong Cork city setting for the story, and the excellent descriptive style throughout. The story gripped us from the start with its fine blend of dark topics and light moods and after introducing us to Timmy Riordan, the plot swiftly took us on unexpected turns. The subject matter of male suicide is very topical and very serious and if the story can touch local people who have had, or will have, an experience of this, directly or indirectly, it may well do some good.”

John said he was “overwhelmed” by what he called “the amazing standard” of all the submissions. It was such a difficult task choosing an overall winner, he said, that he decided to nominate a runner-up – PhD creative writing candidate Fiona Whyte.

Her soap, “Legacy”,  will appear as a short story in the annual Holly Bough, which John also edits. As you might guess from the title, there’s money and a will involved in this one!

Watch out for “Scattered” which will be appearing some time in mid-summer and congrats to Mark and Fiona, and indeed all the students who came up with such a diverse range of ideas for the project. We’re really grateful to John Dolan and Elaine Duggan, who advised on the project, and to Evening Echo editor Maurice Gubbins who started the ball rolling on this late last year.

We’re hoping that it’s the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship!