Irish poet and author, Pascal O’Loughlin, and National Poetry Librarian, Chis McCabe, lead an informal writing and reading workshop inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses.

2023 marks over a century since its first publication in Paris and 90-years since the United States District Court ruled Ulysses not to be obscene. The latter judgement opened the doors for its first mass market editions.

In this workshop, participants will look at Irish experimental writing from the 20th and 21st centuries. Through close reading and loose, informal exploration we’ll investigate how modes of writing outside the mainstream can add to our reading and writing practices, enriching our art and having fun on the way.

By the end of the day attendees will have:

• investigated new and exciting ways to describe the world around them and their very particular and peculiar place in it
• explored the limits of language where the unsayable and the indescribable somehow are said, somehow are described
• pondered how failure and success in writing are opposite sides of the same coin
• developed new practices to carry into their writing and reading lives.

The workshop is suitable for writers aged 16+, with some experience of creative writing, who are serious about their craft. It’s not necessary to be previously published.

It would be advantageous for participants to have an understanding of the importance of Ulysses to contemporary literature (but a close read of the Ulysses Wikipedia entry would suffice). The workshop leaders suggest RTÉ’s 1982 radio version as an additional starting point, available here. Highly recommended (though with a note of caution about explicit content) for its style and expression, is Episode 18, which works as a standalone piece.

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