Dates: 2 October to 20 November 2024

Time: 11am-1pm  

Venue: Connolly Building, room S3A, UCC

Fee: €220

Closing date for registrations: 30th of September 2024.

Course Overview: 

Taking a look at the branches of modern creative nonfiction we will learn how to examine our own interests, experiences and history to find the genre that fits it best, within a supportive community of likeminded writers. Writing exercises throughout the course will help to organise written material and broaden perspectives on how to curate experiences on the page.  

Looking at the work of authors and critical commentators such as Safiya Sinclair, Seán Hewitt, Noreen Masud, Danielle Dutton, Ben Lerner and more, we will explore the freedom and innovation inherent in the form and learn about the techniques used by these authors to create comeplling and unforgettable nonfiction.  

We will aim to produce one piece of longer work or alternatively two micro flash CNF pieces with the opportunity to workshop the piece in class and receive constructive feedback. This course is ideal for those who have already written nonfiction as well as complete beginners to the genre who are uncertain how to begin and are looking to expand their understanding of memoir and the ways it can be approached.   

Course Schedule: 

Course Schedule (max 500 words): 

Week 1 – Brief introductions, reading around genre. In-class writing exercise, discussing and sharing relevant or topical newly published work from contemporary writers of creative nonfiction etc. Assignment set based on class discussion.  

Week 2 – Landscape. Taking Noreen Masud’s A Flat Place as our main focus we will also look at texts such as Ian Maleney’s Minor Monuments and discuss how authors interweave environment with biography to create a new genre of CNF that grapples with trauma, family history and healing. Workshopping of Week 1 exercise.    

Week 3 – Pop Cultural Memoir. Main text: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy. We will also look at Caroline Calloway, Emily Ratajkowski, Julia Fox and more writers skewering the genre of the celebrity ‘tell all’. How does memoir age when situated resoutely in contemporary culture? What can we learn from ‘extreme lifestyle’ memoir that can help with our own creative process?   

Week 4 – Queer love and poetic footprints. Main texts: Sean Hewitt’s All Down Darkness Wide and Robert Hamberger’s A Length of Road. This week’s task will be to identify parallels of personal experience in the work and lives of admired writers of the past. In class writing exercise and workshopping of Week 3 exercise. 

Week 5 – Ekphrastic Nonfiction. Discussing the work of Danielle Dutton and Ben Lerner amongst others, we will look at many different examples of how ekphrasis can help to create compelling CNF. Writing exercise centred on piece of art. Exercise set as assignment.. 

Week 6 – Adolescence, religion and grief. Main texts: Educated by Tara Westover and Hua Hsu’s Stay True. We will also look at work from Jamaica Kincaid & Safiya Sinclair. Class discussion and writing exercise. Workshopping of Week 5 assignment.   

Week 7 –  The Muse. Reimagining the life of the creative muse and its occurrence in works of nonficition, and redefining the term. How is the muse a necessity or essential component in the creative process? Main text: My Life With Picasso by Françoise Gilot but we will also discuss the work of Tracey Emin and Kate Zambreno amogst others.   

Week 8 – Walking and retreating. Main texts: Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust and Katherine May’s Wintering but also discussion of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. Exploring the freedom offered by either escape or hibernation within memoir. Free writing. Class discussion and writing exercise. Special guest reading. 

Course Lecturer: 

Lucy Holme is a writer, mother and creative writing teacher from Kent who lives in Cork, Ireland. She gained a BA in English at Manchester University and then travelled the world, working in the private yachting industry as a chief stewardess, sommelier  and purser. Her poems feature in PN Review, Banshee, The London Magazine, The Stinging Fly, Southword, Atrium, Poetry Wales, Wild Court and Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal amongst others. She has been shortlisted for The London Magazine Poetry Prize, The Red Line Poetry Competition and the Fool for Poetry Chapbok Competition. She was runner-up in the Munster Literature Centre’s Southword Literary Essay Award and Subscriber’s Poetry Competition, placed as 1st runner up in the Mairtín Crawford Award for poetry, and won the Cúirt New Writing Prize for Poetry. Her debut chapbook, Temporary Stasis, which was shortlisted for The Patrick Kavanagh Award, was published by Broken Sleep Books in August 2022. Her CNF features in The Pig’s Back, Banshee, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Annie Journal and Southword and a collection of personal essays will be published by Broken Sleep Books in September 2024. She holds an MA with distinction in Creative Writing from UCC and is currently studying for a PhD in Poetry also at UCC. She was founding co-editor of Cork based literary and visual arts journal, The Four Faced Liar. 

Requirements: 

Applicants must be at least 18 years old at course commencement. 

Assessment: 

Short courses are not assessed. Students will receive a UCC Certificate of Attendance upon completion. 

Contact Details for Further Information: 

Email: shortcourses@ucc.ie  

Please note our refund policy as follows: 

100% refund if student cancels 1 week prior to course commencement, less €50 processing fee.

100% refund if student's course is cancelled due to insufficient numbers.