Writing workshops now on sale for Dingle Lit 2023

An exciting line-up of workshops awaits at this year’s Dingle Lit festival. Always popular, they tend to sell out fast, so whether you want to brush up on your editing skills, try your hand at screenwriting or explore writing for wellness, book in now to avoid disappointment.

Justine Carbery

Festival regular Justine Carbery, a lecturer in Creative Writing at UCD, will be a familiar face to some, having chaired events last year. This year she returns with a Writing for Wellness workshop, exploring how reading and writing can enhance your sense of well-being and purpose.

We’re thrilled to host a workshop, A Realistic Roadmap for Aspiring Screenwriters, with local resident Ailbhe Keogan, (pictured above left), whose work has put words in the mouths of no less than Oscar-winner Olivia Coleman and the cast of Sharon Horgan’s hit show Bad Sisters.

Mary O’Donnell

While best-known as a poet, Mary O’Donnell will be leading a workshop on Autofiction, taking a look at the intersection of memoir and fiction in writing. Meanwhile, Victoria Kennefick will be taking up the poetry workshop mantle this year. The Cork native, who now lives in Tralee, was honoured to have her poem Guest Room, from her book Eat Or We Both Starve, feature on the Leaving Certificate English exam this summer. She told The Kerryman newspaper, “The fact that 50,000 people were reading my poem simultaneously is kind of overwhelming.”

For writers looking to refine their work, both Noel O’Regan and Jan Carson are here to help. Noel’s workshop, Polishing Your Prose, will go through the process of getting a manuscript – regardless of form or length – from first to final draft. Meanwhile, in Why Your Writing Is Broken and How to Fix It, Jan Carson has plenty of practical advice for novelists and short story writers, from sentence-level mistakes right up to structural issues.

Noel O’Regan

There will also be Irish language and children’s workshops at the festival this year. Check back for more announcements, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.