This weeklong workshop begins with two days in Dublin, visiting some of the famous literary sites, such as the Museum of Literature, the National Library, and James Joyce Tower. Then, we’ll travel north to Belfast, where we’ll spend five days together, writing and exploring this city’s rich literary history. The daily schedule will include writing workshops, readings, and excursions in and out of this vibrant city. Writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are welcomed to apply. Each workshop will be limited to ten writers. There will be craft discussions, workshop critiques, and one-on-one feedback with the instructors.

In Dublin, we’ll be staying at Stauntons on the Green, near St. Stephen’s Green. And in Belfast, the lodging will be provided at The Harrison on the Malone Road, a short walk to the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, and the Ulster Museum. Northern Ireland excursions will include a day trip to Derry/Londonderry and the Seamus Heaney HomePlace. A curation of Irish authors will give readings during the week, and at the end of the workshop, there will be a final reading celebration for all of the participants.

Applications are now open. We encourage writers of all levels and a desire to learn more about the rich, timeless intersections of literature and Ireland. Applications include a short questionnaire and a writing sample (15 to 25 pages for prose, or three to five poem, more than 10 pages). Please specify genre that you would like to work in (or if you’re uncertain, please let us know).

Workshop Application

Name

First Name

Last Name

Please write a few sentences about why you are interested in attending a writing workshop in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

What do you hope to get out of this experience as a writer?

Do you have previous experience of participating in a workshop or retreat environment? If yes, please describe (where, when, and what teachers you studied with):

Please tell us a little bit about yourself in about two or three sentences: What is your current writing project? What is your day job? What are your other interests/hobbies?

Have you traveled to Ireland or Northern Ireland before? If yes, when was the last tie that you were there?

Who are some of your favorite authors or stories or novels that you find yourself returning?

What are you currently reading?

For the rest of the application, please submit between fifteen to twenty-five pages—either of a story and an excerpt from a novel or tk selection of poems.

Anything else that you would like us to know:

Deadline for Applications: February 15, 2025.

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Deadline for Applications: February 15, 2025. 〰️

Workshop Fee: $3,500. This fee includes lodging, several meals, excursions, and travel between Dublin and Belfast. Payment is made in full upon acceptance, or half of the payment upon acceptance and then the second payment is due by July 1, 2025.

About the instructors:

Jenny Browne is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and an Honorary Professor at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including the recent Fellow Travelers: New and Selected Poems, and her poems and essays have appeared widely, most recently in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Oxford American, Poem a Day, Poetry Magazine, The Nation, The New York Times and The Slowdown. A former James Michener Fellow at the University of Texas, she has received the Cecil Hemley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and two Fulbright Fellowships to Northern Ireland from the US/UK Fulbright Foundation. She served concurrent terms as the 2016-2018 City of San Antonio Poet Laureate, and the 2017 State of Texas Poet Laureate. In 2023, she was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.

Learn more about Jenny

S. Kirk Walsh is a novelist, an editor, and a teacher based in Austin, Texas. Her debut novel,The Elephant of Belfast, inspired by true events that took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during World War II, was published by Counterpoint Press in April 2021. The novel became a national bestseller and generated praise from The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, and others. It was published as The Zookeeper of Belfast by Hodder/Hachette (the UK, the Commonwealth, and Ireland). The novel has been translated for foreign editions in Norway, Iran, and Romania. Over the years, her fiction, essays, and book reviews have been published in the New York Times Book Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Each year, she leads a nine-month workshop for advanced fiction writers. Walsh is a member of the core faculty of Alma College’s Low Residency MFA program.

Learn more about Kirk

Don’t Miss Your Chance to Write in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Immerse yourself in the literary heart of Dublin, Belfast, and the cities’ surrounding rural landscapes. Learn from acclaimed writers, explore historic sites, explore your own writing, and be inspired by these places and people.

This is your invitation to a once-in-a-lifetime writing adventure.