Cúirt Founder Delivers Creative Writing Course

national | arts and media | event notice Thursday September 03, 2009 15:24 by Western Writers' Centre - Western Writers' Centre, Galway - Ionad Scríbhneoiri Chaitlín Maude westernwriters at eircom dot net Canavan House, Nuns Island, Galway. 0872178138

NUIGalway Course by Fred Johnston

Writer, founder of the annual Cúirt literature festival and Director of The Western Writers' Centre (Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude) Fred Johnston will commence with his Creative Writing Classes at NUIGalway on Thursday, October 1st. This course is aimed at beginners with some experience of writing prose or poetry, for more mature participants who are interested in Creative Writing (prose and poetry) and for those who are interested in the processes involved in researching, writing and publishing their work in the future.

Fred Johnston

This course creates an awareness of creative writing in everyday life and encourages more active reading of contemporary prose and poetry while also using elements of reading of contemporary and other such writings. Questions such as; How can we translate experience into prose or poetry? Why should we? What "use" is a poem? How do prose and poetry differ?, will be covered throughout the 8-week series. The basics of short story and poetry composition will also be explored and outlined, as well as the creative use of language. The course will focus on open discussion and free criticism of work presented and developed each week.
His last novel was 'The neon Rose,' which was based in Paris, and his last collection of poems, 'The Oracle Room.' Reviewing the collection in the current issue of the prestigious UK literary journal, 'Tears in the Fence,' London poet Dzifa Benson remarks: "Fred Johnston . . . is a Belfast born, Galway based controversial man of letters (who) believes 'writers and artists should always have some engagement with the politics of their time. ' He knows he has a reputation for being difficult - 'I question things. That's considered to be impudently disruptive.'."
On another and separate level, Fred Johnston has been writing and publishing his poems almost entirely in French for some time now; but it all began with translating short stories of Breton folklore and French poems. This year will see the publication of a longer project when his translations of the Breton-based poet, Colette Wittorski, are finally published.
"We met recently in Brittany - in Huelgoat, the town from which novelist Jack Kerouac's people emigrated in the 18th century - and discussed the final touches," he says. "Colette is a prize-winning poet and her work deserves a wider audience. This dual-language collection, hopefully, will acquire that to some extent."

Working on the project for two years, he found it tough but satisfying. "It was pleasurable, but it was a translation in the real sense, not merely something built on a crib by someone else. Often a phrase would seem clear, then turn out to have several meanings. Anyone who has attempted translation will understand. But finalising each phrase was like opening a window on a new way of seeing things. Colette Wittorski is happy with the end result and that's what matters." It is expected that the book will be launched both in Dublin and in Brittany and further details will be announced. Fred Johnston's own poems written in French have appeared in, among others, Hopala! (Brittany), L'Empreinte Orange, Fôret de Milles Poètes, Le Cerf-Volant (Paris), Éclats de Rêves, Ouste, In-Fusion, Le Grognard, and here in The Stony Thursday Book and Studies Review. Plans are in motion to bring out a selection of his short stories, translated into French by writer and film-maker, Kristian Le Bras, later this year or early next year. He has read his work at the Franco-Irish Literature Festival in Dublin.

Meanwhile, the Western Writers' Centre is working to conclude the Bus Éireann-sponsored Irish-language poetry project for which they received an award at the end of last year. And next year being the 25th anniversary of the festival he founded, Cúirt, no doubt the festival will be acknowledging his seminal contribution to the literary arts in Galway.

Further details at: nuala.mcguinn@nuigalway.ie