ABROAD WRITERS' CONFERENCE

JULY 15th – 24th

ABROAD WRITERS’ CONFERENCE is going on a cruise with Finishing Line Press Authors. We’ll be traveling together as a group, from Athens to Rome on Atlas Ocean Voyages, to Mykonos, Greece; Santorini, Greece; Valletta, Malta; Syracuse (Sicily), Italy; Lipari Island (Sicily), Italy; Capri, Italy; Rome, Italy

We’ll be cruising on the Mediterranean Sea. Learning from Award Winning Authors and Listening to new and veteran authors reading excerpts from their latest books, while sipping a glass of wine. Daylight will be the time for walking on the footsteps of ancient worlds. In the evening, sea scents mingle with aromas of craft cuisine.

Authors joining us: Deirdre Fagan, Leah Maines, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Billy O’Callaghan.

For more information about the cruise please contact me directly: nancy@abroadwritersconference.com

COME JOIN US ON A JOUNEY INTO A WORLD OF PRODUCTIVE CREATIVITY AND INSPIRATIONAL JOY. ABROAD WRITERS’ CONFERENCE INTIMATE LITERARY CRUISE SALON.

VENICE TO ATHENS

JUNE 5 – 14, 2024

Award Winning Authors, Poets, Filmmakers and Lovers of the Arts will be joining us for a fabulous cruise on Atlas Ocean Voyage from Venice, Italy to Athens, Greece. From Venice we’ll be stopping in Ancona, Italy; Hvar Island, Croatia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Montenegro, Kotor; Corfu, Greece; Delphi. Our final destination is Athens, Greece

.We’ll be cruising on the stunningly beautiful Adriatic Sea. Crystal clear water that varies in color from green to azure blue, is home to an abundance of marine life, dolphins, sea turtles and various species of fish. On board, you’ll experience the delights of three different restaurants with a variety of choices—meals and drinks covered by the cost of your stateroom. Dive into the swimming pool or take a full treatment spa treatment, inviting hot tub. A voucher will be offered to use on services.

Evening begins with Learning from Award Winning Authors and Listening to new and veteran authors reading excerpts from their latest books, while sipping a glass of wine. Daylight is a time of exploration. Visiting the sites and sounds of ancient cities and ruins of the past.

Atlas Ocean Voyages is giving our group a $1,000 discount.

We’ll be offering a variety of workshops and master classes in poetry, children’s book writing, fiction & nonfiction, memoir.

Award Winning Authors joining us: LINDA OATMAN HIGH, BILLY O’CALLAGHAN, Poet to be announced shortly.

HONDARRIBIA, SPAIN

In mid June, Abroad Writers’ Conference is going to travel to San Sebastian, Spain. We’ll be staying in the ancient town of Hondarribia in a 10th century Castle. Hondarribia is just outside of San Sebastian. This charming Old Medieval Basque Town is one of the most beautiful places in the region.

This historic coastal fishing town, is surrounded by fortified walls. Inside the walls lies a beautiful old town, with cobble stone streets, old Basque houses in vivid colors, Michelin star restaurants, pinto bars and charming shops.

For the past 10 years, San Sebastian has been known as one of the food meccas of the world. Yearly, one of the top 10 restaurants in the world is situated in San Sebastian. A food and writing experience in San Sebastian, Spain.

I’m just starting to line-up authors for this exciting event.

Unfortunately, we will not be holding a conference this year because of a family illness. Hopefully, we’ll be having another event next summer.

I look forward to seeing you next year.

Best,

Nancy

ST ORRES, Gualala

ABROAD WRITERS’ CONFERENCE has been offering Full-Length Manuscripts Edit & Critique Workshops for Six years. This highly successful workshop has helped numerous writers get their manuscripts published.

This December, we’re planning on holding a special Full or Partial Manuscript Retreat at St. Orres in Gualala, California. We will be accepting both Fiction & Non-Fiction Manuscripts with no page limit.

What makes this event different from our normal workshop?

– The conference will focus specifically on Full Manuscripts. We will not be offering single chapter workshops, just completed work.

Daily Schedule

– 8:00 – 12:00 Daily morning workshops with Jacquelyn Mitchard or Connie May Fowler. Each day, one participant will receive a 4 1/2 hour critique of manuscript from instructor and participants in workshop. Prior to arrival, all participant in workshop must read, edit and write a critique of all participants manuscripts. Workshops will have a maximum of 8 attendees.

– 2:30 – 6:30 Afternoon Craftwork with Guest Authors will be teaching a series of Craft workshops. Workshops various topics such as:Time Present and Time Past in Visual Settings, Tension within a story, Dialogue, Plot, Narrative Structure and Writing about Politics.

-6:30 – 7:30 Readings & Panel Discussions

-7:30 Dinner

– All participants will submit information to Literary Agent, Jeff Kleinman prior to arrival:

– Query letter
– One-page single-spaced synopsis
– First 20 pages of manuscript, doublespaced, times roman 12, 1” margins.

At Retreat:

Jeff Kleinman will have, One on One with each participants. They will discuss their manuscript and the possibility of representation. If not with Jeff, whom he would recommend.

– Afternoons are devoted to writing and exploration. St Orres is located on the coast in Mendocino County. This uniquely crafted Russian style hotel is a California landmark. The owner built this magical hotel in the redwoods 45 years ago. magnificent location is rich in wildlife and natural beauty. From your cabin in the woods, you’ll experience the pleasure of being in
one of the most beautiful locations in California.

INSTRUCTORS:

CONNIE MAY FOWLER – Full Manuscript Edit & Critique

JACQUELYN MITCHARD – Full Manuscript Edit & Critique

GUEST AUTHORS:

ETHEL ROHAN – The Art of Tension

Tension is anticipation. Who are the main and secondary characters? What do they need and want? Why do they need and want what they do? How do they go about achieving their desires? What’s in their way? Will they succeed or fail? Story collapses without tension and conflict. There have to be burning motivations, high stakes, and mounting obstacles. In class, we will dissect a sampling of stories and zero in on tension in particular to study the various and most compelling ways it is achieved.

GABRIELLE SELZ – Visual Element of Setting/Time and Space in a Story

AGENT:   JEFF KLEINMAN of Folio Literary Management

Books Jeff Kleinman is looking for:

• Books with a distinctive, special voice.
• Books with a very unique premise,  “I haven’t seen this before”.
• Upmarket/literary suspense/thrillers. Psychological suspense stories with unique concepts and strong writing.
• Escape stories that take us totally out of our world and into another.
• History has always been a passion, so I’m on the lookout for something that brings the past to life.

A great story can allow you to enter other people’s thoughts and lives – and, when you close the book with a sigh, transform you: maybe you’re a little more grateful, or a little kinder, or a little wiser. I love books that inspire me to become better, smarter, more present. This has been the case with many of the books I’ve represented, and it’s something I seek in new projects. I believe strongly that books can make a difference. Good writing and smart ideas can change our world.

Dining Room

Price:

Single Room in Hotel with shared bathroom                                               $3,150

Choice of staying in a Single Creekside Cabin or an Elegant 2 bedroom Creekside Cottages with private bath                                 $3,350

Creekside Suite with Sauna or Deep Soaking Tub                                 $3,750

Price includes:

Full Manuscript Edit & Critique Workshop

Guest Author craft workshops & Seminars

Agent Review of Manuscript

Full Breakfast & Three Course Dinner

Spa with Sauna and Hot Tub – Extra fee for Massages

ABROAD WRITERS’ CONFERENCE

READING SCHEDULE

August 4th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 7:00

SARAH GRISTWOOD

After leaving Oxford, Sarah Gristwood began work as a journalist, writing at first about the theatre as well as general features on everything from gun control to Giorgio Armani. But increasingly she found herself specialising in film interviews – Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese and Paul McCartney. She has appeared in most of the UK’s leading newspapers – The Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) – and magazines from Sight and Sound to The New Statesman.

Turning to history she wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen and Elizabeth and Leicester; and the eighteenth century story Bird of Paradise: The colourful career of the first Mrs Robinson which was selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. She also published a book on iconic dresses, Fabulous Frocks (with Jane Eastoe); and a 50th anniversary companion to the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as co-authoring The Ring and the Crown, a book on the history of royal weddings. Her most recent non-fiction books are Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe (2016) Blood Sisters: the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses (2012) and The Story of Beatrix Potter (2016). She has also published a historical novel, The Girl in the Mirror.

A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4’s live coverage of the royal wedding; and has since spoken on royal and historical stories from the royal babies to the reburial of Richard III for Sky News, Woman’s Hour, BBC World, Radio 5 Live, and CBC. She has contributed to a number of television documentary series on cinema and fashion, as well as on history and the monarchy. Shortlisted for both the Marsh Biography Award and the Ben Pimlott Prize for Political Writing, she is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces.

DEREK MALCOLM

Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Merton College, Oxford. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper’s first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of the jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival. In the mid-1980s he was host of The Film Club on BBC2, which was dedicated to art house films, and was director of the London Film Festival for several years.
After leaving The Guardian in 2000, he published his final series of articles, The Century of Films, in which he discusses films he admires from his favourite directors from around the world. After The Guardian he became chief film critic for the Evening Standard, before being replaced in 2009 by novelist Andrew O’Hagan. He still contributes film reviews for the newspaper, but it emerged in July 2013 that his contribution to the title was to be reduced further.[5]
In 2008 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.
Malcolm is president of the British Federation of Film Societies and the International Film Critics’ Circle. In 2003 he published an autobiographical book, Family Secrets, which recounts how in 1917 his father shot his mother’s lover dead, but was found not guilty of murder.

August 5th

BLUE HAVEN 
5:00 – 7:00

TICKETS 15 euros

JOHN BANVILLE

JOHN BANVILLE will be joining us at the Abroad Writers’ Conference in Kinsale, Ireland, August 4 – 11th.

William John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945, the youngest of three siblings. He was educated at Christian Brothers schools and St Peter’s College, Wexford. After college John worked as a clerk for Ireland’s national airline, Aer Lingus, before joining The Irish Press as a sub-editor in 1969. Continuing with journalism for over thirty years, John was Literary Editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 1999.

John’s first book, Long Lankin, a collection of short stories and a novella, was published in 1970. His first novel, Nightspawn, came out in 1971, followed byBirchwood (1973), Doctor Copernicus (1976), Kepler (1981), The Newton Letter(1982), Mefisto (1986), The Book of Evidence (1989), Ghosts (1993), Athena(1995), The Untouchable (1997), Eclipse (2000), Shroud (2002), The Sea (2005),The Infinities (2009) and Ancient Light (2012). His non-fiction book, Prague Pictures: Portraits of a City, was published in 2003 as part of Bloomsbury’s ‘The Writer and the City’ series. In 2012, an anthology comprising extracts from John’s fifteen novels to date, together with selections drawn from his dramatic works and various reviews, was published under the title, Possessed of a Past: A John Banville Reader.

Among the awards John’s novels have won are the Allied Irish Banks fiction prize, the American-Irish Foundation award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, theGuardian Fiction Prize. In 1989 The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was awarded the first Guinness Peat Aviation Award; in Italian, as La Spiegazione dei Fatti, the book was awarded the 1991 Premio Ennio Flaiano. Ghostswas shortlisted for the Whitbread Fiction Prize 1993; The Untouchable for the same prize in 1997. In 2003 John was awarded the Premio Nonino. He has also received a literary award from the Lannan Foundation in the US. In 2005, John won the Man Booker Prize for The Sea. In 2011 he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize. Last year, John was awarded the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature.

Under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, John has published the following crime novels: Christine Falls (2006), The Silver Swan (2007), The Lemur (2008), Elegy for April (2010), A Death in Summer (2011) and Vengeance (2012). Later this year, Mantle will publish Holy Orders, the sixth book in the Quirke series. The first three have been adapted by Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson for the BBC, and will be broadcast later this autumn, starring Gabriel Byrne in the title role.

John (again writing as Benjamin Black) has also been commissioned by theRaymond Chandler Estate to pen a new Philip Marlowe novel which will be published by Holt in the US in 2014.

BILLY O’CALLAGHAN

Billy O’Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and grew up in Douglas village, where he still lives. His first collection of short stories, In Exile, was published by Mercier Press in 2008. This was followed a year later by a second collection, In Too Deep (also published by Mercier Press).[5][6] Then, in 2013, his third collection, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, was published by New Island Books. It earned him a 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award.

O’Callaghan’s short stories have been published in: Absinthe: New European Writing, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, the Bellevue Literary Review, Bliza, Confrontation, The Fiddlehead, Hayden’s Ferry Review, the Kenyon Review, the Kyoto Journal, the London Magazine, the Los Angeles Review, Narrative Magazine, the Southeast Review, Southword, Underground Voices, Versal, and Yuan Yang: a Journal of Hong Kong and International Writing, and many other literary journals and magazines around the world. His stories have also been translated into Polish and Turkish, and have been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1’s The Book On One,[9] Sunday Miscellany and the Francis McManus Award series.

O’Callaghan compiled a non-fiction book, Learning from the Greats: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers, which was published in 2014 by Cork City Libraries as part of their Occasional Series. He also regularly reviews books for the Irish Examiner.

In March 2016, it was announced that O’Callaghan’s first novel, The Dead House, would be released by Brandon Books in Spring 2017.

A novella, A Death In The Family, has been announced as a Ploughshares Solo, forthcoming in 2017.

In November 2013, the title story of O’Callaghan’s most recent collection, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind won the inaugural Short Story of the Year Award at the 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award. In January 2017, he was awarded second place for the Costa Short Story Award 2016 for his story The Boatman.

Listed among his other honours are The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award, the George A. Birmingham Award, and Bursaries for Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and the Cork County Council. He has also been shortlisted for many other awards both in Ireland and abroad, including the Seán Ó Faoláin Award, the Glimmer Train Prize, the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize and – on four occasions – the RTÉ/P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Award. In addition, one of his stories was selected, in 2014, as Ireland’s representative in the ongoing UNESCO Cities of Literature project.

“I know of no writer on either side of the Atlantic who is better at exploring the human spirit under assault than Billy O’Callaghan. The stories in The Things We Lose, the Things We Leave Behind are at once harrowing and uplifting, achingly sad and surpassingly beautiful. O’Callaghan is a treasure of the English language.”

— Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,
“The elegant force of Billy O’Callaghan’s prose is immediate and impossible to recover from. He is one of Ireland’s finest short story writers.”

— Simon Van Booy, Frank O’Connor Award-winning author of Love Begins in Winter,
Short story collections[edit]
In Exile (2008)
In Too Deep (2009)
The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (2013)
Non-fiction[edit]
Learning from the Greats: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers (2014)

August 6th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

MICHELE ROBERTS

Michele was born in 1949, twenty minutes after my twin sister Marguerite, to a French mother and an English father. She grew up in Edgware, a suburb of north-west London. She attended two local convent schools. Summer holidays were spent at the house of our French grandparents in Normandy, near Etretat in the Pays de Caux.

Michele read for a B.A. in English Language and Literature at Somerville, Oxford. In those days this was a women’s college: the majority of Oxford colleges did not accept women. Next, she spent two years studying to become a librarian. She knew that she wanted to write but knew, too, how important it was to be able to support herself. She spent a year working for the British Council in South-East Asia. The Vietnam War was devastating the area. She gave up her job and went travelling instead.

After this she gave up any idea of working as a librarian and began earning my living from a variety of part-time jobs. Often she wrote at night. She got involved in a writers’ group, writing short stories, and worked on my first novel, A Piece of the Night, which came out in 1978. It’s always been important her to be financially independent, and she worked as a hospital cleaner, temp secretary, clerk, teacher, journalist, reviewer and critic.

Life as a writer was very hard at first. Still, a chosen poverty is easier to bear than the enforced sort. When Daughters of the House was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992 and won the W.H.Smith Literary Award in 1993, Michele started making more money, and could finally give up the part-time jobs.

Michele lived in many different places, including Italy and North America, but at the age of forty-four I bought her first home: a small house in France. At the moment she lived in both France and England, moving back and forth between the two, and also spend some time at the University of East Anglia, where she’s currently Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing.

Recently she turned down an O.B.E. because she’s a republican, but she was honoured to be made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Michele a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of PEN and The Society of Authors. As well as writing, she serves as a judge for literary prizes, have presented radio arts programmes such as Night Waves, have chaired the British Council’s Literature Advisory Committee, and have travelled abroad extensively with other writers on tours organised by the British Council.

Essays
Food, Sex & God: on Inspiration and Writing, 1988, Virago Press
Novels
A Piece of the Night, 1978, Women’s Press
The Visitation, 1978, Women’s Press
The Wild Girl (Also known as The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene), 1984, Methuen
The Book of Mrs Noah, 1987, Methuen
In the Red Kitchen, 1990, Methuen
Psyche and the Hurricane, 1991, Methuen
Daughters of the House, 1992, Virago and Morrow (USA)
During Mother’s Absence, 1992, Virago
Flesh & Blood, 1994, Virago
Impossible Saints. Hopewell, 1998, Ecco Press
Fair Exchange, 1999, Little, Brown
The Looking Glass, 2000, Little, Brown
The Mistressclass, 2002, Little, Brown
Reader, I Married Him, 2006, Little, Brown
Ignorance, 2012, Bloomsbury Publishing [6]
Poetry
Touch Papers: Three Women Poets (with Michelene Wandor and Judith Kazantzis), 1982, Allison and Busby
The Mirror of the Mother, 1986, Methuen
Psyche and the Hurricane , 1991, Methuen
All the Selves I Was, 1995, Virago
Short stories
Your Shoes, 1991
During Mother’s Absence, 1993, Virago
Playing Sardines, 2001, Virago
Mud: Stories of Sex and Love, 2010, Virago
Memoir
Paper Houses: A Memoir of the 70s and Beyond, 2007, Virago, ISBN 978-1844084074; paperback 2008, ISBN 978-1844084081

LINDA IBBOTSON

Linda Ibbotson is a poet, artist and photographer from the UK, currently residing in Co. Cork, Ireland. Her poetry has been published internationally including Levure Litteraire, Enchanting Verses Literary Review, Irish Examiner, California Quarterly, Live Encounters, Eastern World , (with her artwork) and Fifty Ways to Fly, also read on radio and performed in France by Irish musician and actor Davog Rynne. Forthcoming- poetry and artwork in Levure Litteraire XIII
Her painting Cascade featured as the cover of a cd and a selection of her paintings and photographs also published in Fekt and a painting in Immagine and Poesia. She writes a poetry and arts blog Contemplating the Muse.
Linda was invited to read at the Abroad Writers Conference in Lismore Castle and in Butlers Townhouse, Dublin.

August 7th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

JACQUELYN MITCHARD

Born and raised in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, Mitchard’s father was a plumber, from Newfoundland, Canada, and her mother a hardware store clerk, a competitive horsewoman, and a member of the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Cree tribe. She studied creative writing for three semesters under Mark Costello (author of The Murphy Stories) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She became a newspaper reporter in 1979, eventually achieving a position as lifestyle columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Her weekly column, The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, appeared in 125 newspapers nationwide until she retired it in 2007. Mitchard is a contributing editor for More (magazine) and is featured regularly in Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Hallmark, Real Simple and other publications. Her nonfiction work includes the 1986 memoir ‘Mother Less Child’ (WW Norton) and essays in more than 30 anthologies.
Mitchard married Dan Allegretti, a reporter for The Capital Times, and the couple had three children (Robert, Daniel, and Martin). Dan also had a daughter, Jocelyn, from a previous marriage. After 13 years of marriage, Allegretti died of cancer at the age of 45 in 1993.
After the death of Allegretti, while working freelance for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a part-time public relations position at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she started writing her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean.[5] The idea for the story had come to her in a dream in the summer of 1993.[6] She is an alum and distinguished fellow of the Ragdale Foundation, an artist’s colony in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she went to write the first two chapters on the encouragement of author Jane Hamilton.[5] After finishing the first six chapters, 70 pages, she received a contract with Viking Press in December 1994, for that book and a second one to be written later (The Most Wanted).
Bolstered by being featured by Oprah, the novel sold close to 3 million copies by May 1998. It has been Mitchard’s only #1 New York Times Bestseller, on the list for 29 weeks, including 13 weeks at number 1. The book had originally reached number 14, but after being selected by Winfrey, sales jumped. The paperback would spend 16 weeks on the list. The film rights were sold to Mandalay Entertainment, and the story later became a feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
But all of her other novels have been bestsellers as well as garnering critical acclaim—particularly for The Most Wanted, Cage of Stars and The Breakdown Lane. The Most Wanted was nominated for Britain’s Orange Prize for Fiction and Cage of Stars for Britain’s Spread The Word Prize.
In 2004 Mitchard published her first book for children and young adults. Her first children’s picture book, Baby Bat’s Lullaby, appeared in 2004 from HarperChildren’s. Her two middle-grade novels, also published by HarperChildren’s, Starring Prima!: The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie, and Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling appeared in 2004 and 2005. Her second children’s picture book, Ready, Set , School!, appeared in 2007.
Now You See Her, Mitchard’s first Young Adult novel, was published in 2007 by HarperTeen. All We Know of Heaven (HarperTeen) appeared in spring 2008, and the first in a series of Young Adult mysteries, The Midnight Twins (Razorbill/Penguin), based on the bewildering clairvoyant gift of twins Mallory and Meredith Brynn, debuted in summer 2008.

For adults
Non-fiction/biography:
1985: Mother Less Child — (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Fiction:
1996: The Deep End of the Ocean — (Viking Press)
1998: The Most Wanted — (Viking Press)
2001: A Theory of Relativity — (HarperCollins)
2003: Christmas, Present — (HarperCollins)
2003: Twelve Times Blessed — (HarperCollins)
2005: The Breakdown Lane — (HarperCollins)
2006: Cage of Stars — (Warner Books; ISBN 978-0-446-57875-2)
2007: Still Summer — (Warner Books; ISBN 978-0-446-57876-9)
2009: No Time to Wave Goodbye — (Random House; ISBN 978-1-4000-6774-9)
2011: Second Nature: A Love Story – (Random House; ISBN 978-1-4000-6775-6)
2016: Two if by Sea : A Novel – (Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-5011-1557-8)
For young adults
Non-Fiction/biography:
1992: Jane Addams: Pioneer in Social Reform and Activist for World Peace — (Gareth Stevens Children’s Books)
Fiction:
2007: Now You See Her — (HarperCollins)
2008: All We Know of Heaven — (HarperTeen)
2008: The Midnight Twins — (Razorbill)
2009: Look Both Ways — (Razorbill)
2010: Watch For Me By The Moonlight – (Razorbill)
2013: What We Saw at Night – (Soho Teen)
For children
2004: Baby Bat’s Lullaby — (with Julia Noonan; HarperCollins)
2004: Starring Prima!: The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie — (with Tricia Tusa; HarperCollins)
2005: Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling — (with John Bendall-Brunello; HarperCollins)
2007: Ready, Set, School! — (with Paul Rátz de Tagyos; HarperCollins)
Essays
Mitchard’s essays have appeared in:
1997: The Rest of Us: Dispatches From the Mother Ship — (Viking Press; ISBN 978-0-670-87662-4)
2005: A Love Like No Other: Stories from Adoptive Parents, edited by Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe (Riverhead)
2006: My Father Married Your Mother, edited by Anne Burt (W.W. Norton)
2007: Mr. Wrong: Real Life Stories About Men We Used to Love, edited by Harriet Brown (Ballantine)
2007: Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion, edited by Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont (McAdam Cage)
2007: Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings, edited by Collen Curran (Vintage)

August 8th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

CONNIE MAY FOWLER

CONNIE MAY FOWLER is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, and teacher. Her most recent book, A Million Fragile Bones, is a memoir that details her experience during the Gulf oil spill and explores the close ties between place, spirituality, family, and environmental devastation. It will be published by Twisted Road Publications in 2017.

Connie is the author of seven other books: six critically praised novels and one memoir. Her novels include How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award—and Before Women had Wings—recipient of the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Three of her novels have been Dublin International Literary Award nominees. Connie adapted Before Women had Wings for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Ms. Winfrey and Ellen Barkin.

In 2002 she published When Katie Wakes, a memoir that explores her descent and escape from an abusive relationship.

Her work has been translated into 18 languages and is published worldwide. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, London Times, International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, Oxford American, BestLife, and elsewhere. For two years she wrote “Savoring Florida,” a culinary and culture column for FORUM, a publication of the Florida Humanities Council.

In 2007, Connie performed in New York City at The Player’s Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in an adaptation based on The Other Woman, an anthology that contains her essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Connie performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charity.

Domestic violence shelters and family violence organizations have honored her with numerous awards. Throughout the 1990s she directed the Connie May Fowler Women with Wings Foundation, an organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. In 2009, she received the first annual Peace, Love, and Understanding Award from WMNF Community Radio.

She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low residency creative writing MFA program and directs the College’s VCFA Novel Retreat held each May in Montpelier, Vermont. Connie, along with her husband Bill Hinson, is founder and director of the newly minted Yucatan Writing Conference. For ten years, she directed various writing conferences in Florida, including the prestigious St. Augustine Writers Conference, which she recently closed in order to concentrate her efforts in the Yucatan. She and Bill reside in Cozumel, Florida, and Vermont with their two dogs, Ulysses and Pablo Neruda, and Catalina The Cat.

“We think our palette is words and paper, but it’s not. It’s the sensations and memories that reside in the dark vaults of our hearts.”~~Connie May Fowler

Novels and memoirs
A Million Fragile Bones, 2017;
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, 2010;
The Problem with Murmur Lee, 2005;
When Katie Wakes, 2002;
Remembering Blue, 2000;
Before Women had Wings, 1996;
River of Hidden Dreams, 1994;
Sugar Cage, 1992
Poetry
Two Thing Thing Poets: Steve Sleboda and Connie May, UT Review, Vol. 5, 1977.
“A Soliloquy of a Seven Year Old,” “Crowded Closets,” Ann Arbor Review, Vol. 27, Washtenaw Community College, 1977.
“You Have Created Me,” Goethe’s Notes: A Literary Magazine, Vol. 6, 1978.
“A Purity of Crabs,” “America: The Invitation and Rejection,” “A Celebration of Nothingness,” Outside the Museum: Contemporary Writings — An Anthology, Ann Arbor Review, Vol. 28, Washtenaw Community College, 1978.
“Genetic Lace,” “The Fear,” Open Twenty-four Hours: Collective Consciousness, Vol. 3, 1984.
“Kateland,” “Ybor City Number One,” The Midwest Quarterly, A Journal of Contemporary Thought, Vol. XXIX, Pittsburg State University, 1988.
“Homesick,” Roberts Writing Awards 1988, The H.G. Roberts Foundation, 1988.

August 9th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

DEBORAH HENRY

Deborah Henry is the author of the critically acclaimed debut, The Whipping Club, which appeared on Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012 list, was praised by Publishers Weekly and selected for Oprah’s Summer Reading List.. She holds an MFA from Fairfield University. Her first short story was published in the Copperfield Review, was a historical fiction finalist for Solander Magazine, and was long listed in the Fish Short Story Prize. She has been an expert guest on radio programs as well as on NBC, FOX and CBS television in top markets nationally. An active member of The Academy of American Poets, a patron of the Irish Arts Center in New York, she recently founded the Deborah Henry Scholarship Fund for the Abroad Writers Conference in Dublin. She has traveled extensively in Ireland, and divides her time between New York and New England. She is currently working on a book to film project as well as completing her second novel.

ELLE MORGAN

Elle Morgan, is an adjunct faculty instructor at Pennsylvania State University. She teaches Civic Engagement and Public Speaking. She is also a certified IMMC Yoga instructor.

Elle is the creator and director of The Elements of New Life Scripts, a one of a kind personal development program which focuses on stress reduction through mindfulness, work/home balance, and life purpose as a guiding principle. Using theatre as the medium, people can change their paradigms by changing their life scripts and acting out the stories we tell ourselves and others.

With a background in theatre and public speaking, Elle is unique in the field, bringing a special expressiveness to the arena of self-help. Through her groundbreaking Yoga of Public Speaking video series, she synthesizes ancient wisdom with current theories in neuroscience and positive psychology to provide a program that meets everyone’s need for comfort and joy.

New Life Scripts was developed at Diakon Wilderness Center where Elle served as a counselor for adjudicated youth. She currently provides rehabilitative re-entry programs to prisons. While in Ireland, she will be giving a workshop at Wheatfield Prison, Dublin for 11 incarcerated men.

Her book, The Elements of New Life Scripts–a Retreat Guide is available on Amazon.Information on Destination retreats, retreat-in-a-box, and “You the Movie self discovery party game are all on her website, NewlLifeScripts.com.

August 10th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

CLARIE KEEGAN

Born in County Wicklow in 1968, she is the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and later lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales.
Her first collection of short stories was Antarctica (1999). Her second collection of stories, Walk the Blue Fields, was published in 2007. September 2010 brought the publication of the ‘long, short story’ “Foster”. American writer Richard Ford, who selected “Foster” as winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009, wrote in the winning citation of Keegan’s “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life’s vast consequence and finality”.

Keegan has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009. Other awards include The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship, The Martin Healy Prize, The Kilkenny Prize and The Tom Gallon Award. Twice was Keegan the recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was also a Wingate Scholar. She was a visiting professor at Villanova University in 2008. She is a member of Aosdána.

1999 – Antarctica
2007 – Walk the Blue Fields
2010 – “Foster”

KINSALE, IRELAND

We’re so excited about holding our next event in Kinsale, Ireland, August 4th – 11th. This is going to be a true gourmet adventure. Great authors, wonderful food, stimulating discussions in a surrounding of absolute beauty.

In 2014, Kinsale was selected as the Prettiest Small Town in Ireland. Originally a medieval fishing port, historic Kinsale in County Cork, Ireland is one of the most picturesque, popular and historic towns on the south west coast of Ireland. It has been hailed as the Gourmet Capital of Ireland, with no shortage of pubs, cafes, and restaurants. Kinsale is still a fishing village. Located some 25 km (18 m) south of Cork City on the coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon and has a population of more than 2000. Kinsale is a popular holiday resort for Irish and foreign tourists.

When you’re not busy in workshops, there’s so many things to do in Kinsale, on and off the water. From historical walking tours, castles, forts, galleries and shops, arts & crafts, golf and the recently launched Kinsale Gourmet Academy – you’ll never be bored in Kinsale! With three marinas, a yacht club, two outdoor activity centres, boat and yacht hire, harbour cruises, beaches, sailing, kayaking, fishing and scuba diving there is so much to see and do in this busy harbour town.

Participants will be staying at a lovely boutique hotel collection, the Blue Haven, located in the heart of town. It consist of two hotels and three restaurants. The antique Georgian townhouse, the Old Bank House is part of the Blue Haven collection. Every bedroom is uniquely decorated.

Wake-up every morning to a fabulous breakfast buffet plus your choice of a full Irish breakfast, eggs benedict, eggs florentine or a selection of omelettes. All the pastries, scones and breads are freshly made daily in-house.

CONNIE MAY FOWLER – Three time finalist for the Dublin Int. Literary Award

SARAH GRISTWOOD – Bestselling British Historian

DEBORAH HENRY – Oprah’s Summer favorite

CLAIRE KEEGAN – Trevor Prize, Rooney Prize and Davy Byrnes for Irish Literature

JACQUELINE MITCHARD – NY TIMES Bestselling author

MICHELE ROBERTS – Man Booker Prize finalist

IRISH & International GUEST AUTHORS giving readings:

JOHN BANVILLE –Tentative–Booker Prize winner

BILLY O’CALLAGHAN — Costa Short Story Award finalist

DEREK MALCOLM — Renown Film & Theatre Critique

AUTHORS

CONNIE MAY FOWLER –FULL MANUSCRIPT Edit & Critique

Connie May Fowler is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, and teacher. Her most recent book, A Million Fragile Bones, is a memoir that details her experience during the Gulf oil spill and explores the close ties between place, spirituality, family, and environmental devastation. It will be published by Twisted Road Publications in 2017.

Connie is the author of seven other books: six critically praised novels and one memoir. Her novels include How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award—and Before Women had Wings—recipient of the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Three of her novels have been Dublin International Literary Award nominees. Connie adapted Before Women had Wings for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Ms. Winfrey and Ellen Barkin.

In 2002 she published When Katie Wakes, a memoir that explores her descent and escape from an abusive relationship.

Her work has been translated into 18 languages and is published worldwide. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, London Times, International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, Oxford American, BestLife, and elsewhere. For two years she wrote “Savoring Florida,” a culinary and culture column for FORUM, a publication of the Florida Humanities Council.

In 2007, Connie performed in New York City at The Player’s Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in an adaptation based on The Other Woman, an anthology that contains her essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Connie performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charity.

Domestic violence shelters and family violence organizations have honored her with numerous awards. Throughout the 1990s she directed the Connie May Fowler Women with Wings Foundation, an organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. In 2009, she received the first annual Peace, Love, and Understanding Award from WMNF Community Radio.

She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low residency creative writing MFA program and directs the College’s VCFA Novel Retreat held each May in Montpelier, Vermont. Connie, along with her husband Bill Hinson, is founder and director of the newly minted Yucatan Writing Conference. For ten years, she directed various writing conferences in Florida, including the prestigious St. Augustine Writers Conference, which she recently closed in order to concentrate her efforts in the Yucatan. She and Bill reside in Cozumel, Florida, and Vermont with their two dogs, Ulysses and Pablo Neruda, and Catalina The Cat.

SARAH GRISTWOOD – Historical Fiction & Non fiction

After leaving Oxford, Sarah Gristwood began work as a journalist, writing at first about the theatre as well as general features on everything from gun control to Giorgio Armani. But increasingly she found herself specialising in film interviews – Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese and Paul McCartney. She has appeared in most of the UK’s leading newspapers – The Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) – and magazines from Sight and Sound to The New Statesman.

Turning to history she wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen and Elizabeth and Leicester; and the eighteenth century story Bird of Paradise: The colourful career of the first Mrs Robinson which was selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. She also published a book on iconic dresses, Fabulous Frocks (with Jane Eastoe); and a 50th anniversary companion to the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as co-authoring The Ring and the Crown, a book on the history of royal weddings. Her most recent non-fiction books are Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe (2016) Blood Sisters: the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses (2012) and The Story of Beatrix Potter (2016). She has also published a historical novel, The Girl in the Mirror.

A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4’s live coverage of the royal wedding; and has since spoken on royal and historical stories from the royal babies to the reburial of Richard III for Sky News, Woman’s Hour, BBC World, Radio 5 Live, and CBC. She has contributed to a number of television documentary series on cinema and fashion, as well as on history and the monarchy. Shortlisted for both the Marsh Biography Award and the Ben Pimlott Prize for Political Writing, she is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces.

DEBORAH HENRY – Connecting With Your Readers

Deborah Henry attended American College in Paris and graduated cum laude from Boston University with a minor in French language and literature. She received her MFA at Fairfield University. She is an active member of The Academy of American Poets, a Board member of Cavankerry Press and a patron of the Irish Arts Center in New York.

Curious about the duality of her own Jewish/Irish heritage, Henry was inspired to examine the territory of interfaith marriage and in so doing was led to the subject of the Irish Industrial School system. She has traveled to Ireland where she has done extensive research and interviews, including those with Mary Raftery (States of Fear documentary filmmaker and co-author of Suffer the Little Children) and Mike Milotte (award-winning journalist), as well as first-hand reports from the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, Mother Baby Homes, Orphanages and the Industrial Schools.

Her first short story was published by The Copperfield Review, was a historical fiction finalist for Solander Magazine of The Historical Novel Society and was longlisted in the 2009/10 Fish Short Story Prize.

THE WHIPPING CLUB is her first novel. She is currently at work on her next book.

CLAIRE KEEGAN (born 1968) is an Irish short stories writer. She was born in County Wicklow in 1968, the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales. Her first collection of short stories was Antarctica (1999). Her second collection of stories is Walk the Blue Fields (2007). Her latest publication is Foster which at over 120 pages she describes as a long short story and which we will be launching at the festival. She has won the William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009. Other awards include The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship, The Martin Healy Prize, The Kilkenny Prize and The Tom Gallon Award. Twice was Keegan the recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was also a Wingate Scholar. The American writer Richard Ford, who selected her short story Foster as winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009, wrote in the winning citation of Keegan’s “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life’s vast consequence and finality”.

DEREK MALCOLM born in 1932 and was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford, having been sent to various boarding schools from the age of four. On leaving university, where he studied history, he attempted to get into publishing but couldn’t get a job and instead became an amateur steeplechase rider, winning 13 races over three seasons before trying a professional acting career in the theatre. Later, he became a journalist, being engaged as a show biz correspondent by the Daily Sketch. From there he went to Cheltenham and worked for the Gloucestershire Echo as general reporter and theatre critic.

In the late fifties, he went to The Guardian in Manchester as an arts page sub-editor under Brian Redhead. A few years later, he moved to The Guardian in London, again as arts sub-editor and was eventually made deputy drama critic to Philip Hope-Wallace, then deputy film critic to Richard Roud. When The Guardian started horse racing, he became the first racing correspondent of the paper until appointed film critic in the early sixties. He remained film critic for over 25 years until his enforced retirement at 65.

A few years later he succeeded Alexander Walker as film critic of the Evening Standard. Earlier this year, he left regular reviewing to become the Standard‘s critic at film festivals. During his time at The Guardian, he won the IPC Critic of the Year title, directed the London Film Festival, became a Governor of the BFI, President of the International Association of Film Critics (Fipresci) and President of the British Federation of Film Societies. He has also served on juries at the three main European Festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice, as well as at the Moscow, Istanbul, Goa, Singapore, Chicago, Dinard and Rio Festivals.

He has written three books — Robert Mitchum, 100 Years of Cinema and Family Secrets. The last was a personal memory of his father’s marriage to his mother and the famous case during the First World War during which his father was accused at the Old Bailey of shooting his wife’s lover. In 2001 he was named by an American film trade paper as one of the six most influential film critics in the world.

Outside the world of film, he has been a keen cricketer, tennis and squash player, and was Captain of The Guardian cricket team for some years, touring India, Sri Lanka and California with the team.

JACQUELINE MITCHARD will be returning. She’ll be teaching her extremely successful workshop, FULL MANUSCRIPT EDIT & CRITIQUE. This workshop fills-up rapidly since she only accepts 6 participants.

Jacqueline is a New York Times Bestselling Author, was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction, winner, The Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Aware, nominated two times for Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, Anne Powers Award for Fiction, New York Times notable books, Banks Street Notable Books, Bluebonnet Prize

Jacqueline has published 13 Bestselling novels, 7 Young Adult books, 4 Children Books and numerous articles in journals in newspapers.

MICHELE ROBERTS, BOOKER FINALIST – Fiction

Michèle Roberts is the author of twelve highly acclaimed novels, including The Looking Glass and Daughters of the House which won the WHSmith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud- stories of sex and love (2010). Half-English and half-French, Michèle Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

DAILY SCHEDULE

AUGUST 4TH

Arrival

Morning workshops will begin at 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Connie May Fowler

Beach House, Gazebo —   Sarah Gristwood/Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction–I will be picking up Sarah’s participants at 7:50 am. Please be on time. Otherwise, you’ll have to take a taxi.

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Michele Roberts

5:00 – 7:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Welcome Dinner Party at LEMON LEAF in Kinsale

~

AUGUST 5TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshops 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Connie May Fowler

Beach House, Gazebo — Sarah Gristwood/Historical Fiction & Non-Fiction–I will be picking up Sarah’s participants at 7:50 am. Please be on time. Otherwise, you’ll have to take a taxi.

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Michele Roberts

5:00 – 6:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Dinner at Beach House

~

AUGUST 6TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshops 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven,  Connie May Fowler

Beach House, Gazebo,  Deb Henry–I will be picking up Deb’s participants at 7:50 am. Please be on time. Otherwise, you’ll have to take a taxi.

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Michele Roberts/Fiction

5:00 – 6:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Harbor Cruise 6:00 – 7:00

Dinner free night out

~

AUGUST 7TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshop 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Jacquelyn Mitchard

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Deb Henry

5:00 – 6:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Dinner at the Beach House

~

AUGUST 8TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshop 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden Jacquelyn Mitchard

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden, Claire Keegan/Intensive workshop

 5:00 – 6:00

Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Dinner – Free night out

~

AUGUST 9TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshop 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Jacquelyn Mitchard

Afternoon Workshop 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Claire Keegan

5:00 – 6:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Dinner at Beach House

~

AUGUST 10TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Morning Workshops 8:00 – 12:00

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Jacquelyn Mitchard

Afternoon Workshops 12:30 – 4:30

Secret Garden at Blue Haven, Claire Keegan

 5:00 – 6:00

Readings at Prim’s Bookstore in Kinsale

Farewell dinner at Lemon Leaf 

~

AUGUST 11TH

Breakfast 7:30 – 10:30

Departure 10:30

Price

Package Price

$2,600 Shared Twin Room – includes full breakfast, 5 dinners, workshops and readings

$3,600 Single – you’re welcome to bring a companion for a fee of $300 – includes full breakfast, 5 dinners, workshops and readings

Price without hotel room

$1,500 – only includes workshops and readings

$350 –5 Dinners with Wine

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

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SARAH GRISTWOOD – HISTORICAL NON-FICTION & FICTION

This workshop is about, exploring the ground between historical fact and historical fiction, is led by Sarah Gristwood who has worked widely in both fields. For many years a film journalist (working for the ‘Guardian’ and ‘The Times’ among others), she is now a bestselling Tudor and royal historian, with half a dozen biographies and two historical novels to her name.

The workshop, at once practical and theoretical, will explore questions such as:
– the use of historical research in historical fiction
– the way fiction bleeds into historical fact
– new forms in historical narrative
– the creation of a saleable narrative from the messy world of history.’

~

DEBORAH HENRY – Connecting With Your Readers

We will discuss in three part sections the myriad ways we can find our niche and connect with our readers in the digital age.

Part One: Four to Six months before publication date.

Part Two: Before and After Launch Date.

Part Three: After initial launch and onward – How to build a wider audience.

Throughout the three segments, we will have Q & A which will be organic to the flow of discussion as we share the journey — including utilizing traditional and social media skills to land an agent, an editor, a publisher, blurbs and much more as well as how to build a global writing community with ever increasing innovative marketing models.

~

CLAIRE KEEGAN – 3,000 WORD MANUSCRIPT OR SHORT-STORY EDIT

Claire Keegan, internationally acclaimed author and teacher of creative writing, will run a three day fiction workshop. This three day workshop will concentrate on works-in-progress submitted by the participants.

Keegan will spend between 3-5 hours on each text before the workshop begins, and will then examine and discuss every text with the group during the weekend.

Discussion will concentrate on structure of a narrative, paragraph structure, time, tension, drama, melodrama, statement,description, suggestion, conflict, character, humour, point of view, place, time and setting.

The aim, always, is to help each author with the next draft. The workshop will be of particular interest to those who write, teach, read or edit fiction — but anyone with an interest in how fiction works,improving their prose and/or helping others to do so, is welcome to attend. While most participants like to submit a manuscript, this is not a requirement.

~

JACQUELYN MITCHARD -Full Manuscript Edit & Critique

LIMITED to six students, #1 New York Times Bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard will host a full-manuscript intensive critique. Each student will receive advance digital copies of the other writers’ manuscripts and, at Lismore Castle, Mitchard will lead a full half-day session on each completed book of fiction or creative non-fiction. Admission to this class is based on individual manuscript potential, and application must be made well in advance of the conference in order to assure that the extra demands of a full-book seminar can be met. Mitchard also will provide a written critique with editing and revision suggestions to each participant. Contact conference organizer Nancy Gerbault for guidelines and specifics.

This is an intensive workshop. Plan on only taking this workshop along with a second workshop at the end of the week.

~

MICHELE ROBERTS – Fiction

One of the pieces of advice I offer in the morning workshop to students tackling writer’s block is to have something delicious to eat. Another tip is to practise automatic writing. Given a phrase, you then write non-stop for three minutes, whatever comes up, without censoring. A good way to get the juices flowing is to begin with “I hate” or “I am disgusted by . . .” Hate and disgust are helpful energies and provoke original writing.”

None of us gets nostalgic about school dinners, do we? From primary school, I remember fatty mutton in greasy gravy. Rice pudding, tapioca pudding, semolina pudding, macaroni in warmish sweetened milk. Slimy and disgusting. At secondary school, a convent, the nuns’ speciality was carrots boiled to a pulp, tasting of soap. Slimy. Or spinach, bitter and sour and, yes, slimy. Too close in texture and appearance to spit and sick, to all those bodily wastes we shun, which the feminist author Julia Kristeva calls “the abject”. Giving an abstract name to wanting to throw up helps keep it at bay. Kristeva refers somewhere to “those currents of bodily feeling we call emotion”. In the writing workshop, we begin by translating abstract words like bliss and desire and contentment into sensual, physical images.

READING SCHEDULE

August 4th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 7:00

SARAH GRISTWOOD

After leaving Oxford, Sarah Gristwood began work as a journalist, writing at first about the theatre as well as general features on everything from gun control to Giorgio Armani. But increasingly she found herself specialising in film interviews – Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese and Paul McCartney. She has appeared in most of the UK’s leading newspapers – The Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) – and magazines from Sight and Sound to The New Statesman.

Turning to history she wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen and Elizabeth and Leicester; and the eighteenth century story Bird of Paradise: The colourful career of the first Mrs Robinson which was selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. She also published a book on iconic dresses, Fabulous Frocks (with Jane Eastoe); and a 50th anniversary companion to the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as co-authoring The Ring and the Crown, a book on the history of royal weddings. Her most recent non-fiction books are Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe (2016) Blood Sisters: the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses (2012) and The Story of Beatrix Potter (2016). She has also published a historical novel, The Girl in the Mirror.

A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4’s live coverage of the royal wedding; and has since spoken on royal and historical stories from the royal babies to the reburial of Richard III for Sky News, Woman’s Hour, BBC World, Radio 5 Live, and CBC. She has contributed to a number of television documentary series on cinema and fashion, as well as on history and the monarchy. Shortlisted for both the Marsh Biography Award and the Ben Pimlott Prize for Political Writing, she is a Fellow of the RSA, and an Honorary Patron of Historic Royal Palaces.

DEREK MALCOLM

Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Merton College, Oxford. He worked for several decades as a film critic for The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper’s first horse racing correspondent. In 1977, he was a member of the jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival. In the mid-1980s he was host of The Film Club on BBC2, which was dedicated to art house films, and was director of the London Film Festival for several years.
After leaving The Guardian in 2000, he published his final series of articles, The Century of Films, in which he discusses films he admires from his favourite directors from around the world. After The Guardian he became chief film critic for the Evening Standard, before being replaced in 2009 by novelist Andrew O’Hagan. He still contributes film reviews for the newspaper, but it emerged in July 2013 that his contribution to the title was to be reduced further.[5]
In 2008 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.
Malcolm is president of the British Federation of Film Societies and the International Film Critics’ Circle. In 2003 he published an autobiographical book, Family Secrets, which recounts how in 1917 his father shot his mother’s lover dead, but was found not guilty of murder.

August 5th

PRIM BOOKSTORE
5:00 – 6:00

BILLY O’CALLAGHAN

Billy O’Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and grew up in Douglas village, where he still lives. His first collection of short stories, In Exile, was published by Mercier Press in 2008. This was followed a year later by a second collection, In Too Deep (also published by Mercier Press).[5][6] Then, in 2013, his third collection, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, was published by New Island Books. It earned him a 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award.

O’Callaghan’s short stories have been published in: Absinthe: New European Writing, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, the Bellevue Literary Review, Bliza, Confrontation, The Fiddlehead, Hayden’s Ferry Review, the Kenyon Review, the Kyoto Journal, the London Magazine, the Los Angeles Review, Narrative Magazine, the Southeast Review, Southword, Underground Voices, Versal, and Yuan Yang: a Journal of Hong Kong and International Writing, and many other literary journals and magazines around the world. His stories have also been translated into Polish and Turkish, and have been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1’s The Book On One,[9] Sunday Miscellany and the Francis McManus Award series.

O’Callaghan compiled a non-fiction book, Learning from the Greats: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers, which was published in 2014 by Cork City Libraries as part of their Occasional Series. He also regularly reviews books for the Irish Examiner.

In March 2016, it was announced that O’Callaghan’s first novel, The Dead House, would be released by Brandon Books in Spring 2017.

A novella, A Death In The Family, has been announced as a Ploughshares Solo, forthcoming in 2017.

In November 2013, the title story of O’Callaghan’s most recent collection, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind won the inaugural Short Story of the Year Award at the 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award. In January 2017, he was awarded second place for the Costa Short Story Award 2016 for his story The Boatman.

Listed among his other honours are The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award, the George A. Birmingham Award, and Bursaries for Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and the Cork County Council. He has also been shortlisted for many other awards both in Ireland and abroad, including the Seán Ó Faoláin Award, the Glimmer Train Prize, the Faulkner-Wisdom Prize and – on four occasions – the RTÉ/P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Award. In addition, one of his stories was selected, in 2014, as Ireland’s representative in the ongoing UNESCO Cities of Literature project.

“I know of no writer on either side of the Atlantic who is better at exploring the human spirit under assault than Billy O’Callaghan. The stories in The Things We Lose, the Things We Leave Behind are at once harrowing and uplifting, achingly sad and surpassingly beautiful. O’Callaghan is a treasure of the English language.”

— Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,
“The elegant force of Billy O’Callaghan’s prose is immediate and impossible to recover from. He is one of Ireland’s finest short story writers.”

— Simon Van Booy, Frank O’Connor Award-winning author of Love Begins in Winter,
Short story collections[edit]
In Exile (2008)
In Too Deep (2009)
The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (2013)
Non-fiction[edit]
Learning from the Greats: Lessons on Writing, from the Great Writers (2014)

August 6th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

MICHELE ROBERTS

Michele was born in 1949, twenty minutes after my twin sister Marguerite, to a French mother and an English father. She grew up in Edgware, a suburb of north-west London. She attended two local convent schools. Summer holidays were spent at the house of our French grandparents in Normandy, near Etretat in the Pays de Caux.

Michele read for a B.A. in English Language and Literature at Somerville, Oxford. In those days this was a women’s college: the majority of Oxford colleges did not accept women. Next, she spent two years studying to become a librarian. She knew that she wanted to write but knew, too, how important it was to be able to support herself. She spent a year working for the British Council in South-East Asia. The Vietnam War was devastating the area. She gave up her job and went travelling instead.

After this she gave up any idea of working as a librarian and began earning my living from a variety of part-time jobs. Often she wrote at night. She got involved in a writers’ group, writing short stories, and worked on my first novel, A Piece of the Night, which came out in 1978. It’s always been important her to be financially independent, and she worked as a hospital cleaner, temp secretary, clerk, teacher, journalist, reviewer and critic.

Life as a writer was very hard at first. Still, a chosen poverty is easier to bear than the enforced sort. When Daughters of the House was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992 and won the W.H.Smith Literary Award in 1993, Michele started making more money, and could finally give up the part-time jobs.

Michele lived in many different places, including Italy and North America, but at the age of forty-four I bought her first home: a small house in France. At the moment she lived in both France and England, moving back and forth between the two, and also spend some time at the University of East Anglia, where she’s currently Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing.

Recently she turned down an O.B.E. because she’s a republican, but she was honoured to be made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. Michele a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of PEN and The Society of Authors. As well as writing, she serves as a judge for literary prizes, have presented radio arts programmes such as Night Waves, have chaired the British Council’s Literature Advisory Committee, and have travelled abroad extensively with other writers on tours organised by the British Council.

Essays
Food, Sex & God: on Inspiration and Writing, 1988, Virago Press
Novels
A Piece of the Night, 1978, Women’s Press
The Visitation, 1978, Women’s Press
The Wild Girl (Also known as The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene), 1984, Methuen
The Book of Mrs Noah, 1987, Methuen
In the Red Kitchen, 1990, Methuen
Psyche and the Hurricane, 1991, Methuen
Daughters of the House, 1992, Virago and Morrow (USA)
During Mother’s Absence, 1992, Virago
Flesh & Blood, 1994, Virago
Impossible Saints. Hopewell, 1998, Ecco Press
Fair Exchange, 1999, Little, Brown
The Looking Glass, 2000, Little, Brown
The Mistressclass, 2002, Little, Brown
Reader, I Married Him, 2006, Little, Brown
Ignorance, 2012, Bloomsbury Publishing [6]
Poetry
Touch Papers: Three Women Poets (with Michelene Wandor and Judith Kazantzis), 1982, Allison and Busby
The Mirror of the Mother, 1986, Methuen
Psyche and the Hurricane , 1991, Methuen
All the Selves I Was, 1995, Virago
Short stories
Your Shoes, 1991
During Mother’s Absence, 1993, Virago
Playing Sardines, 2001, Virago
Mud: Stories of Sex and Love, 2010, Virago
Memoir
Paper Houses: A Memoir of the 70s and Beyond, 2007, Virago, ISBN 978-1844084074; paperback 2008, ISBN 978-1844084081

August 7th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

JACQUELYN MITCHARD

Born and raised in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, Mitchard’s father was a plumber, from Newfoundland, Canada, and her mother a hardware store clerk, a competitive horsewoman, and a member of the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Cree tribe. She studied creative writing for three semesters under Mark Costello (author of The Murphy Stories) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She became a newspaper reporter in 1979, eventually achieving a position as lifestyle columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper. Her weekly column, The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, appeared in 125 newspapers nationwide until she retired it in 2007. Mitchard is a contributing editor for More (magazine) and is featured regularly in Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Hallmark, Real Simple and other publications. Her nonfiction work includes the 1986 memoir ‘Mother Less Child’ (WW Norton) and essays in more than 30 anthologies.
Mitchard married Dan Allegretti, a reporter for The Capital Times, and the couple had three children (Robert, Daniel, and Martin). Dan also had a daughter, Jocelyn, from a previous marriage. After 13 years of marriage, Allegretti died of cancer at the age of 45 in 1993.
After the death of Allegretti, while working freelance for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and a part-time public relations position at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she started writing her first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean.[5] The idea for the story had come to her in a dream in the summer of 1993.[6] She is an alum and distinguished fellow of the Ragdale Foundation, an artist’s colony in Lake Forest, Illinois, where she went to write the first two chapters on the encouragement of author Jane Hamilton.[5] After finishing the first six chapters, 70 pages, she received a contract with Viking Press in December 1994, for that book and a second one to be written later (The Most Wanted).
Bolstered by being featured by Oprah, the novel sold close to 3 million copies by May 1998. It has been Mitchard’s only #1 New York Times Bestseller, on the list for 29 weeks, including 13 weeks at number 1. The book had originally reached number 14, but after being selected by Winfrey, sales jumped. The paperback would spend 16 weeks on the list. The film rights were sold to Mandalay Entertainment, and the story later became a feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
But all of her other novels have been bestsellers as well as garnering critical acclaim—particularly for The Most Wanted, Cage of Stars and The Breakdown Lane. The Most Wanted was nominated for Britain’s Orange Prize for Fiction and Cage of Stars for Britain’s Spread The Word Prize.
In 2004 Mitchard published her first book for children and young adults. Her first children’s picture book, Baby Bat’s Lullaby, appeared in 2004 from HarperChildren’s. Her two middle-grade novels, also published by HarperChildren’s, Starring Prima!: The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie, and Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling appeared in 2004 and 2005. Her second children’s picture book, Ready, Set , School!, appeared in 2007.
Now You See Her, Mitchard’s first Young Adult novel, was published in 2007 by HarperTeen. All We Know of Heaven (HarperTeen) appeared in spring 2008, and the first in a series of Young Adult mysteries, The Midnight Twins (Razorbill/Penguin), based on the bewildering clairvoyant gift of twins Mallory and Meredith Brynn, debuted in summer 2008.

For adults
Non-fiction/biography:
1985: Mother Less Child — (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Fiction:
1996: The Deep End of the Ocean — (Viking Press)
1998: The Most Wanted — (Viking Press)
2001: A Theory of Relativity — (HarperCollins)
2003: Christmas, Present — (HarperCollins)
2003: Twelve Times Blessed — (HarperCollins)
2005: The Breakdown Lane — (HarperCollins)
2006: Cage of Stars — (Warner Books; ISBN 978-0-446-57875-2)
2007: Still Summer — (Warner Books; ISBN 978-0-446-57876-9)
2009: No Time to Wave Goodbye — (Random House; ISBN 978-1-4000-6774-9)
2011: Second Nature: A Love Story – (Random House; ISBN 978-1-4000-6775-6)
2016: Two if by Sea : A Novel – (Simon & Schuster; ISBN 978-1-5011-1557-8)
For young adults
Non-Fiction/biography:
1992: Jane Addams: Pioneer in Social Reform and Activist for World Peace — (Gareth Stevens Children’s Books)
Fiction:
2007: Now You See Her — (HarperCollins)
2008: All We Know of Heaven — (HarperTeen)
2008: The Midnight Twins — (Razorbill)
2009: Look Both Ways — (Razorbill)
2010: Watch For Me By The Moonlight – (Razorbill)
2013: What We Saw at Night – (Soho Teen)
For children
2004: Baby Bat’s Lullaby — (with Julia Noonan; HarperCollins)
2004: Starring Prima!: The Mouse of the Ballet Jolie — (with Tricia Tusa; HarperCollins)
2005: Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of a Duckling — (with John Bendall-Brunello; HarperCollins)
2007: Ready, Set, School! — (with Paul Rátz de Tagyos; HarperCollins)
Essays
Mitchard’s essays have appeared in:
1997: The Rest of Us: Dispatches From the Mother Ship — (Viking Press; ISBN 978-0-670-87662-4)
2005: A Love Like No Other: Stories from Adoptive Parents, edited by Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe (Riverhead)
2006: My Father Married Your Mother, edited by Anne Burt (W.W. Norton)
2007: Mr. Wrong: Real Life Stories About Men We Used to Love, edited by Harriet Brown (Ballantine)
2007: Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood and Abortion, edited by Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont (McAdam Cage)
2007: Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings, edited by Collen Curran (Vintage)

August 8th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

CONNIE MAY FOWLER

CONNIE MAY FOWLER is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, and teacher. Her most recent book, A Million Fragile Bones, is a memoir that details her experience during the Gulf oil spill and explores the close ties between place, spirituality, family, and environmental devastation. It will be published by Twisted Road Publications in 2017.

Connie is the author of seven other books: six critically praised novels and one memoir. Her novels include How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award—and Before Women had Wings—recipient of the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Three of her novels have been Dublin International Literary Award nominees. Connie adapted Before Women had Wings for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Ms. Winfrey and Ellen Barkin.

In 2002 she published When Katie Wakes, a memoir that explores her descent and escape from an abusive relationship.

Her work has been translated into 18 languages and is published worldwide. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, London Times, International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, Oxford American, BestLife, and elsewhere. For two years she wrote “Savoring Florida,” a culinary and culture column for FORUM, a publication of the Florida Humanities Council.

In 2007, Connie performed in New York City at The Player’s Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in an adaptation based on The Other Woman, an anthology that contains her essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Connie performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charity.

Domestic violence shelters and family violence organizations have honored her with numerous awards. Throughout the 1990s she directed the Connie May Fowler Women with Wings Foundation, an organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. In 2009, she received the first annual Peace, Love, and Understanding Award from WMNF Community Radio.

She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low residency creative writing MFA program and directs the College’s VCFA Novel Retreat held each May in Montpelier, Vermont. Connie, along with her husband Bill Hinson, is founder and director of the newly minted Yucatan Writing Conference. For ten years, she directed various writing conferences in Florida, including the prestigious St. Augustine Writers Conference, which she recently closed in order to concentrate her efforts in the Yucatan. She and Bill reside in Cozumel, Florida, and Vermont with their two dogs, Ulysses and Pablo Neruda, and Catalina The Cat.

“We think our palette is words and paper, but it’s not. It’s the sensations and memories that reside in the dark vaults of our hearts.”~~Connie May Fowler

Novels and memoirs
A Million Fragile Bones, 2017;
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, 2010;
The Problem with Murmur Lee, 2005;
When Katie Wakes, 2002;
Remembering Blue, 2000;
Before Women had Wings, 1996;
River of Hidden Dreams, 1994;
Sugar Cage, 1992
Poetry
Two Thing Thing Poets: Steve Sleboda and Connie May, UT Review, Vol. 5, 1977.
“A Soliloquy of a Seven Year Old,” “Crowded Closets,” Ann Arbor Review, Vol. 27, Washtenaw Community College, 1977.
“You Have Created Me,” Goethe’s Notes: A Literary Magazine, Vol. 6, 1978.
“A Purity of Crabs,” “America: The Invitation and Rejection,” “A Celebration of Nothingness,” Outside the Museum: Contemporary Writings — An Anthology, Ann Arbor Review, Vol. 28, Washtenaw Community College, 1978.
“Genetic Lace,” “The Fear,” Open Twenty-four Hours: Collective Consciousness, Vol. 3, 1984.
“Kateland,” “Ybor City Number One,” The Midwest Quarterly, A Journal of Contemporary Thought, Vol. XXIX, Pittsburg State University, 1988.
“Homesick,” Roberts Writing Awards 1988, The H.G. Roberts Foundation, 1988.

August 9th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

DEBORAH HENRY

Deborah Henry attended American College in Paris and graduated cum laude from Boston University with a minor in French language and literature. She received her MFA at Fairfield University. She is an active member of The Academy of American Poets, a Board member of Cavankerry Press and a patron of the Irish Arts Center in New York.

Curious about the duality of her own Jewish/Irish heritage, Henry was inspired to examine the territory of interfaith marriage and in so doing was led to the subject of the Irish Industrial School system. She has traveled to Ireland where she has done extensive research and interviews, including those with Mary Raftery (States of Fear documentary filmmaker and co-author of Suffer the Little Children) and Mike Milotte (award-winning journalist), as well as first-hand reports from the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, Mother Baby Homes, Orphanages and the Industrial Schools.

Her first short story was published by The Copperfield Review, was a historical fiction finalist for Solander Magazine of The Historical Novel Society and was longlisted in the 2009/10 Fish Short Story Prize.

THE WHIPPING CLUB is her first novel. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with her husband and their three children. She is currently at work on her next book.

August 10th

PRIM BOOKSTORE

5:00 – 6:00

CLARIE KEEGAN

Born in County Wicklow in 1968, she is the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and later lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales.
Her first collection of short stories was Antarctica (1999). Her second collection of stories, Walk the Blue Fields, was published in 2007. September 2010 brought the publication of the ‘long, short story’ “Foster”. American writer Richard Ford, who selected “Foster” as winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009, wrote in the winning citation of Keegan’s “thrilling” instinct for the right words and her “patient attention to life’s vast consequence and finality”.

Keegan has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009. Other awards include The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship, The Martin Healy Prize, The Kilkenny Prize and The Tom Gallon Award. Twice was Keegan the recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was also a Wingate Scholar. She was a visiting professor at Villanova University in 2008. She is a member of Aosdána.

1999 – Antarctica
2007 – Walk the Blue Fields
2010 – “Foster”

Connie May Fowler will be joining us in Kinsale, Ireland. Connie will be teaching a Full Manuscript Edit & Critique Workshop.

Connie May Fowler is an award-winning novelist, memoirist, screenwriter, and teacher. Her most recent book, A Million Fragile Bones, is a memoir that details her experience during the Gulf oil spill and explores the close ties between place, spirituality, family, and environmental devastation. It will be published by Twisted Road Publications in 2017.

Connie is the author of seven other books: six critically praised novels and one memoir. Her novels include How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue—recipient of the Chautauqua South Literary Award—and Before Women had Wings—recipient of the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award from the League of American Pen Women. Three of her novels have been Dublin International Literary Award nominees. Connie adapted Before Women had Wings for Oprah Winfrey. The result was an Emmy-winning film starring Ms. Winfrey and Ellen Barkin.

In 2002 she published When Katie Wakes, a memoir that explores her descent and escape from an abusive relationship.

Her work has been translated into 18 languages and is published worldwide. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, London Times, International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, Oxford American, BestLife, and elsewhere. For two years she wrote “Savoring Florida,” a culinary and culture column for FORUM, a publication of the Florida Humanities Council.

In 2007, Connie performed in New York City at The Player’s Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in an adaptation based on The Other Woman, an anthology that contains her essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Connie performed in The Vagina Monologues alongside Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez in a production that raised over $100,000 for charity.

Domestic violence shelters and family violence organizations have honored her with numerous awards. Throughout the 1990s she directed the Connie May Fowler Women with Wings Foundation, an organization that was dedicated to aiding women and children in need. In 2009, she received the first annual Peace, Love, and Understanding Award from WMNF Community Radio.

She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low residency creative writing MFA program and directs the College’s VCFA Novel Retreat held each May in Montpelier, Vermont. Connie, along with her husband Bill Hinson, is founder and director of the newly minted Yucatan Writing Conference. For ten years, she directed various writing conferences in Florida, including the prestigious St. Augustine Writers Conference, which she recently closed in order to concentrate her efforts in the Yucatan. She and Bill reside in Cozumel, Florida, and Vermont with their two dogs, Ulysses and Pablo Neruda, and Catalina The Cat.