Emerging Writers in Residence 2023-24
We are delighted to welcome 2 new emerging writers in residence to dlr LexIcon.
Following an open call Sonya Gildea and Joanne Hayden are the emerging writers in residence in dlr LexIcon from September 2023 until June 2024.
Let’s Talk about Writing
Writer’s Office Hours
Sonya Gildea and Joanne Hayden will hold ‘writer’s office hours’, which will be one-to-one meetings scheduled by appointment, to take place in person (at Dun Laoghaire Lexicon) or online
Sonya will be available on Wednesdays in the late afternoon.
Joanne will be available Mondays and Tuesdays in the late afternoon.
These can be meetings to discuss your work, your writing, or your thoughts about writing, your reading, your research, or your practice. If you have yet to begin writing, we can just to talk about your ideas and where you might like to start. All are welcome.
To schedule an meeting: please email Sonya or Joanne
sonyadlrwriterinresidence@gmail.com
joanne.dlrwriterinresidence@gmail.com
In your email, please describe briefly (in a few lines) what you would most like to discuss and please include a little background on yourself. (Please do not attach documents or reading material).
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sonya and Joanne
''Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It'' (a phrase borrowed from the short story collection of the same title by Maile Meloy)
8 week writer's workshop with Sonya Gildea
Reading & writing the short story from the inside out.
An in-person, generative, group workshop that includes close reading and in-depth discussion of selected short story texts. Some by leading exponents of the form, and others by leading disrupters of the form. And occasionally, a once off story by a writer of wonder.
For example, Ben Lerner, Wendy Erskine, Sam Shepard, David Means, Toni Morrison, Lucy Caldwell, Peter Orner, Alice Munroe, Thomas Morris, Grace Paley, Donald Barthelme, Gina Berriault, Tove Jansson.
Weekly, our workshops will also include generative guided free-writes to inspire and generate new ideas, thoughts and possible stories as we explore the week’s reading, discoveries, motifs and discussion in a supportive, encouraging and creative environment.
Wednesday Evenings, 6.00 pm - 8.00 pm for 8 weeks, starting November 15th 2023 and running until Jan 24th 2024 (with a winter break and assignment December 20th – Jan 9th)
Venue: In person at Dun Laoghaire Lexicon Library, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
Suitable for: All levels of interest and curiosity. Writers (across, and mixing in, all forms and genres) at every stage and level are welcome, including beginners, those who have yet to begin, mid-stage, and established writers or poets. Min age is 18. There no upper age limit (all are welcome).
Application:
Deadline to submit application is: 5pm, Tuesday October 17th
By Email: please include (i) brief cover email, (ii) a short background or bio, (iii) writing experience, if any (though not necessary), and (iv) a writing sample up to 500 words (please note, this will not be shared or form part of workshop), and (v) please confirm you are over 18 years of age.
All one word document (only). Please name the word document as your own name before attaching to email.
Email to: sonyadlrwriterinresidence@gmail.com
Places: There are 12 places available for this course of workshops.
All applicants will be contacted by email on/before Nov. 1st
Cost: For successful applicants, the fee for your place on this course of workshops will be covered by The Dun Laoghaire Arts Office Writer in Residence Programme.
Biographies
Joanne Hayden is a fiction writer and arts journalist. Her short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, Banshee, Crannóg, The Cormorant, Ambit, Splonk and York Literary Review. Two of her stories have been shortlisted for the RTÉ Short Story Competition and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. In 2021, her play ‘Salvage’ was shortlisted for the ESB/Fishamble Tiny Plays for a Brighter Future Award. In 2022 and 2023 she received an Agility Award from The Arts Council of Ireland. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.
Joanne has reviewed Irish and international literary fiction for The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and The Business Post, and has interviewed writers including Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Sebastian Faulks, Sebastian Barry and Paula Meehan for in-depth feature pieces.
Since May 2009, she has been a volunteer mentor at Fighting Words creative writing centre, most recently collaborating on a memoir project with Ukrainian women which culminated in an anthology of life writing called Inner Light. For over ten years, she has been a member of the editorial committee for the annual Fighting Words supplement of creative writing published with The Irish Times. She has also taught Creative Writing in Rathmines College.
Joanne is delighted to be a dlr Emerging Writer in Residence and during the residency will work on her collection of short stories. Beginning in January 2024, she will facilitate a series of workshops investigating and celebrating the sea.
Sonya Gildea is winner of the John McGahern Literature Award (2021) and the Cúirt International New Writer’s Fiction Award (2015). She is researching and writing her first novel, and writing a first poetry collection, 500 Seconds.
She is recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary Award (2021) and a DLR Emerging Artist Bursary Award (2023). She was awarded an Irish Writer’s Centre National Mentorship Award (2022/2023) to work under the mentorship of Wendy Erskine. Sonya was awarded a JHISS Bursary Award to attend the (2023) John Hewitt International Summer School & Festival of Literature, Politics & Art. She is a Poetry Ireland Introductions poet (2021), selected by Seán Hewitt, and winner of a post-grad Ireland Chair of Poetry Student Award (2021). She was one of the top ten long listed stories published by the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize (2023). She is recipient of an IWC Cill Rialaig Writer’s Residency (2022) and a Tyrone Guthrie Centre Artist Residency. She has published work in the Stinging Fly, Tolka, New Irish Writing, The Common, The Cormorant Broadsheet, Poetry Ireland Review, Keywords RTÉ Radio 1, The Maynard, Crannóg, The Night Heron Barks, The Irish Times, and Howl Journal of New Irish Writing; as well as anthologies, Romance Options (Dedalus Press 2022); This is What You Mean to Me (Poetry Ireland 2022); Hold Open the Door (UCD Press 2021); Washing Windows Too (Arlen House, 2022). She graduated with an MA 1st in Creative Writing from UCD under the thesis supervision & creative mentorship of Anne Enright. Sonya has written, and is out to query with, The Switching Yard, a first collection of short stories. She lives and works in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
www.sonyagildea.com
Twitter (x): @SonyaGildea
Instagram: @sonya.gildea
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