Teacher and Facilitator of Creative Writing
I am a teacher and mentor of creative writing living in the Cork city area, with over a decade of experience as a facilitator on two continents, working with young people, immigrants, migrants, as well as students with special needs. I have worked in a hospital setting, with teenagers in the South Bronx and in Dingle, Co. Kerry, and at New York University and University College, Dublin. I currently teach with Poetry as Commemoration and Writers in Schools (for my profile, follow this link). I am a mentor with The National Mentoring Programme, and on a panel of Arts Facilitators, via Cork County Council Library and Arts Service, delivering arts and creative writing workshops and classes throughout the county. I find it especially rewarding to see fantastic work emerge from writers who previously believed that they didn’t “get poetry“.
For Schools: Consult Writers in Schools for how to apply for a workshop or class visit.
Adults: Contact me directly to join an ongoing masterclass workshop or for one-on-one mentoring and manuscript consultation. In my individual consultations and group classes we use the collaborative workshop method. My classes are friendly and nurturing, and my goal is not only to assist you in bringing your work to completion, but also to support and strengthen your writing process.
Classes are in person and online and can be adapted to suit your needs. Rates are available upon request, email me via my website’s Contact Form.
Past and Recent Workshops
With Poetry as Commemoration
Mountmellick Library, Co. Laois, 8th and 9th December, 2023.
Scarriff Community College, 10th and 19th October 2023.
Cork Educate Together Secondary School, eight classes in September / October 2023.
Culture Night at Fermoy Library, 22nd September, 2023.
West Cork Literary Festival, workshop with teenagers, 8th and 9th July, 2023.
Limerick Museum, workshop with adults, 6th and 13th May, 2023.
Villiers school, Limerick city, 2 workshops on 9th May, 2023.
The Source Centre, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, workshop with adults, 14th and 21st March, 2023.
Ardscoil na Mara secondary school, Tramore, Co. Waterford, 27th and 28th February 2023.
Colaiste Ide Agus Iosef secondary school, Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, 20th February and 22nd March 2023.
Scoil Pól secondary school, Kilfinane, Co. Limerick, 19th and 26th January 2023.
Waterford City Library, workshop with adults, 11th and 18th November 2022.
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Classroom Visit and Reading: Cork Educate Together Secondary School, Early November 2021.
Creative Writing Teacher with Writers in Schools: Scariff Community College, April 2022.
Poetry Workshop Master Class, Hill-Stead Museum, on the poetry of place as part of the Sunken Garden poetry festival, May 2018.
New York University Writing Fellow and Creative Writing Teacher at Coler-Specialty Hospital (New York): September 2011 to May 2012. Weekly class with long-term-care patients and individual mentorship of a patient with Multiple Sclerosis.
Resident Writer, Hunts Point Alliance for Children (Bronx, New York) October 2013 to December 2014: Taught craft to teenaged, multilingual students (some with learning challenges) via the workshop method, creating syllabi and curricula involving the work of renowned writers, utilising bilingual Spanish-English texts where appropriate. Developed and used age-appropriate activities to encourage collaboration and constructive critique.
Creative Writing Instructor at New York University, September 2011 to December 2011, where I taught the undergraduate syllabus “An Introduction to Poetry and Fiction”.
Creative Writing and Editorial Mentor to the Young Emerging Writers’ Forum (Dingle, Co. Kerry) October 2008: an Arts Council sponsored project, where teenaged editors put together and published a literary magazine for young people, Dingle, County Kerry.
Graduate Instructor of Hispanic Literature (Spanish poetry and Latin American short story) at University College, Dublin, 2005.