We are pleased to announce the arrival of the new Carlow Writer-in- Residence, Arnold Thomas Fanning, a short story and memoir writer. The Carlow Writer in Residence Programme is brought to you courtesy of the Arts Office in Carlow County Council in partnership with Carlow College/St Patrick’s, Carlow County Library, and the Arts Council of Ireland. The Writer in Residence programme is in its third year and has seen world class writers work with the local community in Carlow.
Arnold will be delivering two writing courses over the summer through The Writing Room, which continues online every Wednesday from 1.00pm-3.00pm via Zoom. The first course, ‘Exploring Fiction Writing’ has just finished after a successful eight week sequence.
The programme sessions will resume 1pm-3pm on Wednesday 7th July on Zoom with a series of workshops on Exploring Memoir/ Life Writing and will continue at the same time on Wednesdays thereafter.
Course 2: Exploring Memoir/ Life Writing Workshop- July- August
This will be a course that will cover key themes in Memoir/ Life Writing including Approaches, Technical Aspects, Challenges. Themes and Ideas covering the genre will be covered, and it will be a Practice and Workshop based series with an emphasis on writing, reading, critique, and discussion. Genres as diverse as Memoir, Personal Essay, Diary, Place Writing and Food Writing are explored, amongst others. This Memoir/ Life Writing Workshop series will include presentations, readings, writing, and critique of peer work under a supportive environment. Work under consideration will be from authors including Yiyun Li, Tara Westover, Helen MacDonald, Ian Maleney, Lynn Barber, John Healy, Xialou Guo and others
If you wish to be added to the mailing list for this course, you can contact Arnold at: carlowwiratf@gmail.com.
More information on Arnold Thomas Fanning:
Arnold Thomas Fanning’s short stories, articles, and essays have been published in The Dublin Review, Banshee, The Irish Times, Crazyhorse Magazine, The Phoenix Anthology of New Irish Writing, gorse, Longreads.com, Paper Visual Art Journal Online, The Lonely Crowd, Correspondences: An Anthology to Call for an End to Direct Provision, The Music of What Happens: The Purple House Anthology of New Writing & Empty House: Poetry and Prose on the Climate Crisis & elsewhere. In 2020 he was Arts Council Writer in Residence, NUI Galway. His book, Mind on Fire: A Memoir of Madness and Recovery was published by Penguin Ireland in 2018 and shortlisted for the Butler Literary Award, The Irish Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, and the Wellcome Book Prize 2019. www.arnoldthomasfanning.com
