WRITE A SHORT STORY IN A WEEKEND

with

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Carlo Gebler

and Tobias Hill

Friday 1st- Sunday 3rd July 2011

10am-5pm

Cost: €425

 The James Joyce Centre, 

35 North Great George’s Street, 

Dublin 1

"Everyone knows what a short story is anyway _ whether it be a prose narrative glibly described as "shorter than a novel" or as the first commentator on the form, Edgar Allan Poe, specified, "no longer than can be read in a single sitting." … Beyond that, I believe only two things can be said about the nature of the short story, and these statements seem at first so different from each other and so unrelated as to appear random. First, a short story tells of something that happened to someone. Second, the successful contemporary short story will demonstrate a more harmonious relationship of all its aspects than will any other literary art form, excepting perhaps lyric poetry."

Rust Hill, Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular, p.1. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1977; Mariner Books 2000).

You know that the short story is a great fictional form, and writers are always taking time out to tell you it’s harder to write than a novel.   But the short story  has a great advantage over the novel, which is: it’s short. It can be read in one sitting and it can also be written, or drafted in one sitting – even if some writers rewrite it fifty times.

This intensive three day course will give you an overview of the history of the short story form, from Gogol’s Overcoat to Roddy Doyle’s Pram, from Chekhov’s Lapdog to Alice Munro’s Nettles.   It will introduce you to various short story writing techniques, comparing the modernist epiphany story to the older surprise ending story, which is enjoying a bit of a come-back.  We’ll look at time, setting, and character in the short story, and at the surprisingly important role of the strong image:  those prams and nettles and necklaces and oranges and honeycombs are not popping up in the history of the great story by accident.

The course will involve some preparatory reading, plenty of class discussion, and lots of writing. By the end of the three days you will have written a completely new short  story of 2000-3000 words, and you will be so immersed in the short story form that you will go home longing to write more.

Previous experience is not necessary but it is not a disadvantage.

The course will include:

• 3 days’ intensive tuition by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and guest workshops from Tobias Hill and Carlo Gebler.

• A  complimentary copy of Faber’s ‘New Irish Short Stories’ collection edited by Joseph O’Connor

• A daily artisan lunch

• Regular coffee breaks

• A handy course pack including hotel and restaurant recommendations

• A special discount off Faber books purchased at www.faber.co.uk

About the tutors

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s first short story was published in New Irish Writing when she was eighteen. Since then she has written four collections of short stories, and her fifth is due to be published in October. Stories have  appeared in many anthologies, most recently  in The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story (Granta 2010) and Best European Short Fiction 2011 (Dalkey Archive Press, 2011).  Heather Ingman, in A History of the Irish Short Story, calls her ‘one of the most significant Irish short story writers... one of  the most penetrating observers of the Irish social scene.’  Éilís teaches on the MA in Creative Writing in UCD, and has also taught in Trinity College, at Listowel Writers’ Week, and the Faber Academy Dublin.

Carlo Gébler was born in Dublin in 1954. He is the author of novels including The Cure (1994) and How to Murder a Man (1998), the short story collection W.9. & Other Lives (1996), the memoir Father & I (2000), the narrative history The Siege of Derry (2005), and two travel books, Driving Through Cuba (1988) and The Glass Curtain (1991), as well as several plays for both radio and stage, including 10 Rounds, which was short listed for the Ewart-Biggs Prize (2002). He has also written for children and reviews widely. He has taught at Trinity College, Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast (where he is the current Royal Literary Fund Fellow), and HMP Maghaberry where he has been writer-in-residence since 1997.  He was elected to Aosdána in 1990 and was chairman of the Irish Writers’ Centre until January 2009. He is, finally, an occasional broadcaster and director of network television documentaries. He is married, with five children.

Tobias Hill was born in London in 1970. He read English at Sussex University and spent two years teaching in Japan. In 2003 the TLS nominated him as one the best young writers in Britain. In 2004 he was selected as one of the country’s Next Generation poets. His collection of stories, Skin, won the PEN/Macmillan Prize for Fiction. His fiction includes The Love of Stones (2001) which has been published in seven languages and 11 countries, and is being developed into a film. His latest novel is The Hidden (Faber, 2009). He is a Royal Society of Literature Fellow at Sussex University. His Short Story Not That It Matters has been longlisted for The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011.