Villanova University & The
Seamus Heaney Centre Queens University, Belfast
What is it? Writing through Conflict is a full semester course which
explores the important role of creative writing in confronting, protesting, and
engaging with socio-political conflicts. The goals of this course are to study the work of
established American, Irish, and other international authors who focus their
creative eye on socio-political conflicts in their many forms, from poverty and
racism to war and atrocity, and use these models as guides for the student’s
own original creative writing. In this
course students will examine the lens through which established writers view
these conflicts, will analyze the elements of craft employed by those writers,
and use similar techniques in their own creative writing.
As
part of this course, students will travel to Belfast, Ireland over Villanova’s
Spring Break to participate in an intensive creative writing conference.The
students will participate in writing workshops, readings, and symposiums at
Queens University’s Seamus Heaney Centre with famous Irish writers. They will also share their work in a student
showcase on the final night of the exchange, all while touring the city of
Belfast.
Where? The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is
located at Queens University Belfast, and named after the late Irish poet, Seamus Heaney,
recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class
Honours in English language and literature.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SeamusHeaneyCentreforPoetry/
When? Spring
Break, March 2-9, 2019.
Who? Alan
Drew is the
author of the literary thriller, Shadow
Man (Random House, 2017), which the Wall
Street Journal named as one of the ten best mysteries of 2017, and the
critically acclaimed debut novel, Gardens
of Water (Random House, 2008). His
novels have been translated into a dozen languages and published in nearly
two-dozen countries.
Glenn Patterson was born and lives in Belfast. He is a graduate of the
University of East Anglia creative writing course. He has written several
acclaimed novels and co-wrote the screenplay of the film Good Vibrations, based on the Belfast music scene of the 1970s.
In addition to Alan Drew and Glenn Patterson, students will also work
with Jimmy McAleavey, Leontia Flynn, and more distinguished faculty TBA.
Cost? $1,500 total, including:
- Round-trip flight and bus transfer from Dublin to Belfast
- Housing on Queens University Campus
- Breakfasts and most lunches and dinners
- Tours around Belfast
How?
- Register for ENG 2003-001: Writing Through Conflict and the one-unit co-requisite lab course on November 5th
- Apply for the program through the Passport system at the Office of Education Abroad before December 1st here.
Contacts? alan.drew@villanova.edu
