Creative Responses to the Political Collection

Join experienced author/writing community facilitator Fiona O’Rourke for an inspirational one-day retreat for writers at The Linen Hall.

Following a guided tour of the library’s world-renowned Political Collection with Senior Library Assistant Melissa Flynn, Fiona will lead a creative writing session during which participants will be encouraged to respond creatively to the tour’s pamphlets, posters, badges, prison artefacts, coins, and much more; items that reflect all shades of opinion and elucidate the lived experience of the recent past.

The Linen Hall is a safe space in which to find your form, develop works-in-progress or sketch out your ideas for future projects, and you’ll have the opportunity to meet like-minded writers and creatives. From new-to-the-page to seasoned writers, poets, memoirists, fiction writers, essayists, and creative nonfiction writers, all forms are very welcome.

For 20 participant writers and creatives, with quiet spaces available for those who prefer to write alone.

Bring your notebooks and pens; refreshments and lunch provided.

Fiona O’Rourke is a Pushcart Prize nominated author and Arts Council funded writer. Her stories have been published, broadcast, translated, and her Troubles fiction was included on a reading list at Saint Mary’s College, California. Her debut novel, a Troubles fiction, was selected for the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. Other work has been included in The Belfast Review, Fortnight magazine, Dublin Story Slam, The Southword Journal, The Storms Journal, Shorter Stories Ireland live, The Lonely Crowd, The Waxed Lemon, RTE Francis MacManus, The Fish Anthology, and more. Since earning an M.Phil. In Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin, she has facilitated writing communities for the Irish Writers Centre, a resource centre for writers all over Ireland. She also facilitates at festivals, and in libraries. She was curator and facilitator of the Northern Soul Roadshow for the Irish Writers Centre, supported by the Arts Council Northern Ireland Lottery funding, and facilitator of Writing The Troubles. She was guest sub-editor on The Storms Journal issue IV and has provided one-to-one mentorships for beginner and emerging writers who were supported by ACNI and ACI bursaries.

Full details of Fiona’s work can be found at FionaO.substack.com