Ireland’s creative writing college courses
IT Sligo has launched an exciting pathway to a career in writing, the creators of a new course tell Emilee Jennings
Sligo writing course offers more than just Yeats and poetry.
Love writing? Imagine a college course that allows you to focus on all aspects of writing – everything from novels to journalism and even screen plays.
Up until last year, only one undergrad writing course was available in Ireland - a BA with Creative Writing in NUI Galway. Now there are a number of BA courses that specialise in writing, including one at UCD. It’s interesting that two are based in the West - testament to the area’s richness of writing heritage.
The latest course - BA Writing and Literature - has only been available at IT Sligo since September 2017. So, any Leaving Cert students considering this course in 2018 will be the second bunch of graduates to enter the course.
In true creative style, the idea for the BA Writing and Literature course was born over coffee. A chat between award-winning writer and lecturer, Una Mannion; film-maker, photographer and lecturer, Tommy Weir; and writer and lecturer, Rhona Trench led to the idea of starting this new hands-on course.
“We’re in the first year of the course now and all is going well,” says Una Mannion Programme Chair. “We only went onto the CAO in April 2017, which was quite late, so we didn’t know if students would even apply, but we ended up having so many applicants that we decided to run two groups. We now have 26 students registered.”
And it’s not just students from the North
West either. Una says: “We have students from Tipperary, Offaly and Dublin on this year’s course, so we’ve gone outside our catchment area again. We’ve seen that with our BA in Performing Arts course as well. Sligo is known to be a good college town with plenty of options and it’s affordable too. We even have a student from Canada joining us for the second semester of the writing course.”
One of the most interesting aspects of the BA Writing and Literature course is the mix of people it has attracted in its first year alone. “There’s a 50/50 gender split,” says Tommy Weir, “and we’ve discovered a real combination of experience as well. We have some very experienced people on the course, so it’s great for students coming from leaving cert to meet and collaborate with these experienced writers and to learn from them as well. People come with different purposes, but it’s been a very supportive, safe place.”
This Sligo-based level 8 course is proving popular even in its pilot year. Rhona Trench says this is down to a few factors. “All of our teachers are writers, so we’re all involved in the world of writing and the students are really immersed in the process of writing as well. And there’s a whole vibrant writing community here in Sligo, so we like to get our students involved in that scene too.”
Tommy agrees: “It’s all about connecting with the writing community. Over the three-year degree, students will be building a portfolio of different forms of writing, while developing their own unique voices. In their final year they will meet visiting practitioners – novelists, publishers, screen writers, film producers – giving them a path to follow after completing the course.”
This writing course has also kept itself broad enough to cover a wide selection of career options from journalism to novel writing, digital media, film production and so on. “It’s heavily writing focused,” says Rhona, “but we also cover literature for the people who may consider doing a Higher Diploma in Teaching later.
The aim of the course according to Tommy is to “bring in practitioners who are mid-career and highly regarded. We want to involve teachers and guest teachers who bring experience and networking to the course.”
The current writing teachers are crime writer Eoin McNamee, who has written 18 novels and Gerard Beirne, an award-winning writer who has also penned numerous books. Una says: “A lot of our students really enjoy young adult fiction and fantasy, so we’re aiming to bring some young adult fiction writers into the course too as guest teachers. It’s important for prospective students to know that it’s not all poetry and Yeats in Sligo – there’s a whole mix of writing styles up here.”