creative writing university of limerick

Creative Writing at the University of Limerick

Creative Writing

Our courses & programmes, masters of creative writing.

UL Creative Writing Summer School

Ul creative writing winter school.

UL Creative Writing PhD

Professor joseph o'connor.

Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing

Novelist, screenwriter, playwright and broadcaster, Joseph O'Connor is the author of nine novels including Star of the Sea, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book novel 2011) and Shadowplay (June 2019). Among his awards are the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. His work has been translated into forty languages. In 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Twice-Booker Prize-winner Peter Carey has written, ‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O'Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph.’

Lecturer in Creative Writing

Donal Ryan is the author of four bestselling novels and a short story collection. He has won numerous awards, among them the European Union Prize for Literature, The Guardian First Book Award and three Irish Book Awards. He was nominated for the Man Booker Prize in 2013 for his debut, The Spinning Heart, and again in 2018, for From A Low And Quiet Sea. His work has been adapted for stage and screen, and The Spinning Heart is a set text on the Leaving Certificate syllabus and in 2016 was voted Irish Book of the Decade in a nationwide poll run by Dublin Book Festival.

Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Prof of pedagogy

Sarah is professor of pedagogy and an award-winning teacher at the University of Limerick with a particular interest in creativity. She has researched extensively on the writing process across a range of contexts and uses her training in psychology and pedagogy to shed light on how writers can nourish and develop their practice. Also an author, her first novel, Back to Blackbrick was published in 2013 and adapted for the stage at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Arts Theatre in London’s West End. Her second novel, The Apple Tart of Hope, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Prize and her latest, A Strange Kind of Brave, was shortlisted in the 2019 Irish Book Awards. Her fiction has been translated into over sixteen languages, and in 2016 she was winner of the Irish Writers’ Centre’s Jack Harte Award. She is part of the creative writing team at UL and is programme founder and director of UL’s Creative Writing Winter School

Dr Gavin McCrea

UL Writer in Residence 2020

Gavin McCrea holds a BA and an MA from University College Dublin, and an MA and a PhD from the University of East Anglia. His first novel, Mrs Engels was published in 2015, and his second, The Sisters Mao, comes out in Spring 2021. He is currently Writer in Residence at the University of Limerick.

Kate O'Brien creative writing doctoral fellow at UL

Rob Doyle is a writer from Dublin. His first novel, Here Are the Young Men, was published in 2014 by Bloomsbury and the Lilliput Press. It was selected as one of Hot Press magazine’s ‘20 Greatest Irish Novels 1916-2016’, and has been made into a film. Rob’s second book, This is the Ritual, was published in 2016 to widespread acclaim. He is the editor of the anthology The Other Irish Tradition (Dalkey Archive Press), and In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep (Broken Dimanche Press). He has written for the Guardian, TLS, Vice, Sunday Times, Dublin Review, Observer and many other publications, and he writes a weekly books column for the Irish Times. Rob Doyle’s new novel, Threshold,was published by Bloomsbury in January 2020.

Professor Eoin Devereux

Professor in Sociology, University of Limerick and Professor of Contemporary Culture, University of Jyvasklya, Finland.

Eoin Devereux writes poetry and short fiction.   His work has been broadcast by RTE Radio 1’s Poetry Programme; The Bookshow on One and Sunday Miscellany.  Hennessy New Irish Writing published his poem ‘The Bodhi Tree’ in 2017 and it was subsequently shortlisted for a Hennessy Award. His short fiction has appeared in The Irish Times and on RTE Radio.  Eoin’s work has been published in Southwords, The Ogham Stone; Boyne Berries; Number Eleven; The Bohemyth; The HCE Review and The Galway Review. A member of the WritePace Co-operative, Eoin co-organises the UL Winter School in Creative Writing with Professor Sarah Moore and lectures at the UL Frank McCourt Summer School in Creative Writing at NYU.  Eoin has collaborated with singer Gavin Friday to record The Fall song ‘Slags, Slates, Slags etc.’ He has written extended sleevenotes for the re-issued versions of The Cranberries’ albums ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ (Universal Island, 2018) and ‘No Need To Argue’ (Universal Island, 2020).

What's on

Creative Writing at UL hosts, promotes and supports a range of local, national and international events, publications and graduate achievements. Check back here for regular updates

Joseph O'Connor's Shadowplay won the An Post/Eason Irish novel of the year; was shortlisted for the Costa Novel award and has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

About creative writing at the university of limerick.

At UL all our creative writing programmes are carefully designed to support the best kind of learning and development - taught by active creative writers who are also experienced teachers.

Get in Touch

We’d love to hear from you! If you're interested in making contact this Spring, please email Sarah Moore with any questions, or queries about our programmes

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Corona Virus Update

March 12 2020

The University of Limerick campus is closed until after March 29th in line with Ireland's National Corona Virus prevention measures. We have a full set of arrangements in place for current students to ensure continuity of learning and tuition.

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Creative Writing

The Creative Writing at University of Limerick enables students to develop their skills in creative writing through careful consideration of the work of established writers; through study of the elements and formal structures of a piece of creative writing.

University of Limerick Multiple locations Limerick , Ireland Top 3% worldwide Studyportals University Meta Ranking 4.2 Read 112 reviews

About Creative Writing at University of Limerick

Through coursework students consider the role of plot, characterization, dialogue, and point-of-view in crafting compelling fiction and drama.

Students experience teaching-visits from leading contemporary authors. Our Creative Writing students experience teaching-visits, seminars and readings from outstanding contemporary authors. Recent visitors have included Colum McCann, Claire Keegan, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Colin Barrett, Sara Baume and Pulitzer prize winner Richard Ford.

Recent graduates of our Creative Writing MA have been published nationally and internationally and have won or been short-listed for major literary prizes, including the prestigious Hennessy New Writer of the Year Award, the RTE Francis McManus Award, the Listowel Writers’ Week Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, the Arts Council Next Generation Award and the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair Award

Programme Structure

Courses Included:

• Applied Writing and Editing Skills
• Creative Writing 
• Project Development for Creative Writers
• Literary Modernism
• Gender & Sexuality in Irish Writing Literature
• Literature, Film & Human Rights
• Literature of Migration

Key information

• 12 months

Start dates & application deadlines

• Apply before 2024-08-15 00:00:00 , EEA/EU The deadline is applicable to the students from EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ">
• Apply before 2025-07-12 00:00:00 , International The deadline is applicable to students from outside the European Economic Area who want to study within the EEA, or to students who want to study outside the EEA but are not nationals of that country. ">

EU Applicants: Early application is advisable.

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Disciplines

Academic requirements.

We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.

English requirements

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Other requirements

General requirements.

• Applicants must normally have a first or second class Level 8 honours degree (NFQ or other internationally recognised equivalent) in a relevant or appropriate subject, or equivalent prior learning or experience that is recognised by the University as meeting this requirement. This might include creative work in writing or the arts.
• Applicants must also satisfy the English Language Requirements of the University.  The University reserves the right to shortlist and interview applicants as deemed necessary.

Tuition Fee

International.

Part-time fees:

• EU: 4,328 EUR
• NON-EU: 10,100 EUR

Living costs for Limerick

The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find Master's scholarship opportunities for Creative Writing.

Available Scholarships

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University of limerick: creative writing.

This programme is available full-time over one academic year or part-time over two years. It enables students to develop their Creative Writing skills through consideration of the work of established writers; through study of the many aspects of a piece of successful Creative Writing; through assignments that foster strategies for revision of work; and through an understanding of the requirements of the redrafting, submission and publication processes

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Creative Writing

Entry requirements.

Applicants must normally have a first or second class Level 8 honours degree (NFQ or other internationally recognised equivalent) in a relevant or appropriate subject, or equivalent prior learning or experience that is recognised by the University as meeting this requirement. This might include creative work in writing or the arts.

Months of entry

Course content.

The University of Limerick offers a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, taught by internationally successful authors including our Chair of Creative Writing, Professor Joseph O’Connor (author of the million-selling Star of the Sea), Donal Ryan (The Spinning Heart) and Giles Foden, (The Last King of Scotland). This one-year programme enables students to develop their skills in creative writing through careful consideration of the work of established writers; through study of the elements of a piece of creative writing; through assignments that enable students to master strategies for revision of their work; and through an understanding of the requirements of the submission and publication process. Through coursework students consider the role of plot, characterization, dialogue, and point-of-view in crafting compelling fiction and drama.

Students experience teaching-visits from leading contemporary authors. Our Creative Writing students experience teaching-visits, seminars and readings from outstanding contemporary authors. Recent visitors have included Colum McCann, Claire Keegan, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Colin Barrett, Sara Baume and Pulitzer prize winner Richard Ford.

Students gain practical experience through working on our literary journal The Ogham Stone and in the preparation of their dissertation portfolios. Ireland was the homeland of some of the twentieth century's most accomplished writers, and the city of Limerick has a rich history in creative writing, memorialized in the Frank McCourt museum, and celebrated annually with several literary festivals - the Limerick Literary Weekend; the Eigse Michael Hartnett Poetry Arts and Literary Festival; and Cuisle, the Limerick International Poetry Festival.

Fees and funding

Qualification, course duration and attendance options.

• Campus-based learning is available for this qualification

Course contact details

University of Limerick

• Public University, Estd 1972
• Limerick , Munster
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DREAMS – 50 years of creativity, culture and community at University of Limerick

A new book documenting 50 years of creativity, culture and community at University of Limerick has been launched.

Professor of Creative Writing at University of Limerick and international bestselling author Joseph O’Connor devised and lead-edited a special edition collection of essays in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the University’s foundation. ‘DREAMS – 50 years of creativity, culture and community at University of Limerick’, was co-edited by Eoin Devereux, Professor of Cultural Sociology and Sarah Moore, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Creative Practice at UL.

The book features fifty contributions from or about people associated with the University, including, among others - internationally acclaimed composer Bill Whelan, entrepreneur Paddy Meskell, Noel Hogan of The Cranberries, Irish rugby legend Paul O’Connell, interview with rap artist Denise Chaila, award winning author Donal Ryan, human rights activist Donnah Vuma and President of Ireland Michael D Higgins.

The sumptuously illustrated book, published by Irish Academic Press, also features a wide variety of writing, with poetry, personal memoirs, scholarly essays, and students’ tweets among the rich contributions celebrating a wide spectrum of members of the UL community, from catering and ground staff to teachers, researchers, inspirational current students, and alumni.

Speaking at the launch of DREAMS at UL’s Plassey House this Wednesday, UL President Professor Kerstin Mey said: “I t is very difficult to capture the essence of a place at a moment in time but this is precisely what Professor Joseph O’Connor and co editors Eoin Devereux and Sarah Moore have achieved with DREAMS. The composite picture of University of Limerick presented by the book is a moving tapestry of the amazingly vibrant people of our community. There is a richness of stories and a sense of belonging to UL within the pages of DREAMS that is truly humbling. This magnificent text will hold its place as an anthology of creative and scholarly writings to celebrate our milestone fiftieth anniversary. Between these pages, there is a restlessness to push on, to do more around the vital issues of sustainability, inclusion, class, disability, participation, and equality. It is a book that entertains and educates, that celebrates and honours – but also a book that challenges us to DREAM. ”

Professor Joseph O’Connor said: “ To have been asked by University of Limerick to devise and project-manage the fiftieth anniversary book was an honour and a challenge, for which I am profoundly grateful. “When researchers and readers in the future want to know what UL was like in 2023, they will have this book, made by so many of us who value and believe in this place, as map of where we were, and of where we wanted to go .”

Included among the pages of the beautifully illustrated volume are many images of the institution and its people, as well as the Special Collections and Archives of the Glucksman Library, highlighting the many treasures located there. Also featured are contributions from professors, lecturers, researchers, PhD students, writers-in-residence, poets, former Fulbright scholars at UL, biographers who have used the Library.

All of UL’s faculties are represented in the book, as is the University Concert Hall and the very special place that sport plays at UL. One highlight includes a piece by the great Paul O’Connell (in conversation with Joseph O’Connor) in which he looks forward to UL’s growing presence in the city. He says: “ I always felt UL was open and it was the place you did your sports. It was brilliant…I joined the gym here about 17 and started doing my weights here. And literally, until I retired as a professional rugby player at the age of 35, I would have been going in and out to UL all the time. So, it’s a second home in one way .”

Among other essential voices is an essay from Wafa Rougab, one of the many Algerian PhD candidates who enriched UL by becoming part of the community in 2021, while also saluting the courage and commitment of those like Charlie Mullowney who campaigns for people with disabilities.

It also honours the profound example of Donna Sibandah Vuma, whose studies began while she was a mother living in Direct Provision. Donna writes about the positive experience she had with the Mature Access programme at UL, adding that pursuing education later in life should not be “frightening” but something that can be coped with, so just “zone in”. Her piece finishes with some inspiring words about the value of education, as she writes: “Education to me means knowledge, hope and power. It means and shifting in one’s way of thinking and being able to identify one’s own worth.”

‘DREAMS – 50 years of creativity, culture and community at University of Limerick’ is published by Irish Academic Press and is available now in bookshops and also online from the publisher here .

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Novelist and founder of the Kit De Waal Fellowship Kit de Waal Kit de Waal, is a British/Irish writer. De Waal used some of her advance from her debut novel, My Name is Leon, to set up the Kit de Waal Creative Writing Fellowship to help improve working-class representation in the arts. She's won many awards for her novels and short stories and is editor of 'Common People' an Anthology of working class writers. Kit says: 'We all need the support of our friends, writers perhaps more so. Delighted to be part of this important group of writers, helping one another along the journey.'

Novelist and Lecturer in Creative Writing at UL Donal Ryan Donal is the award winning author of five novels. He's won many awards and twice been long-listed for the booker prize. He teaches creative writing at the University of Limerick. Donal says: 'It’s lovely to be part of this wonderful group of passionate and talented writers. The world can be a cold, harsh place, and we writers need the comfort of our mutual support and our friendships.'

Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing, UL Joseph O'Connor Joseph is the author of nine novels including Star of the Sea, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book novel 2011) and Shadowplay (June 2019). Among his awards are the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. His work has been translated into forty languages. In 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Twice-Booker Prize-winner Peter Carey has written, ‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O'Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph.’ Joseph says “Writepace is supporting writers in so many invaluable ways, offering community and commitment, a sense of building and belonging, the wisdom and insight of writerly experience meeting the energy and power of new storytellers.”

Writepace membership is most suitable for people who: a) Are serious about their creative writing b) Want to practise their writing more regularly and with more support c) Are normally working on a piece of writing aimed for publication d) Are interested in constructive encouragement and feedback on their work in progress

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Master of Arts in Creative Writing

At university of limerick.

Qualification

• Masters Degree (Taught)

Next intake

09 September 2024

Entry Score

About the course

This programme is available full-time over one academic year or part-time over two years. It enables students to develop their Creative Writing skills through consideration of the work of established writers, through study of the many aspects of a piece of successful Creative Writing, through assignments that foster strategies for revision of work, and through an understanding of the requirements of the redrafting, submission and publication processes The University of Limerick offers a Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Our Chair of Creative Writing is Prof Joseph OConnor (author of nine novels including Ghost Light, The Thrill of it All, the million-selling Star of the Sea, and Shadowplay, winner of the Novel of the Year Award at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, shortlisted for the UK's prestigious Costa Novel Award, 2020). Our outstanding teachers include twice Booker-Prize-longlisted Donal Ryan, (author of The Spinning Heart, From a Low and Quiet Sea and Strange Flowers), widely acclaimed Rob Doyle (Here Are the Young Men and This is the Ritual), and Irish Book Award nominee Prof Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (The Apple Tart of Hope and A Strange Kind of Brave), internationally published Young Adult author and lecturer on self-motivation for writers.

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Start dates and prices

Course fees are indicative and should be used as a guide. to get an accurate price.

Duration: 1 Year (s)

Fees: EUR 17552

How to apply

Entry requirements for university of limerick, application deadline.

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If you aren't eligible for the above entry requirements, you might ant to explore pathway options at University of Limerick . If you want to find out more, speak to our counsellors.

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The world ranking.

401 st / 1250

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We have 15 Masters Degrees in Creative Writing, Ireland

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Masters Degrees in Creative Writing, Ireland

Maynooth University

One of four constituent universities of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth University is in the top 90 global Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2024. Maynooth University is a place of lively contrasts–a modern institution, dynamic, rapidly growing, research-led and engaged, yet grounded in historic academic strengths and scholarly traditions. With over 16,000 students from more than 120 countries, Maynooth offers a range of programmes at, Master’s and PhD level in the humanities, science and engineering, and social sciences, including business, law, and education. Maynooth’s unique collegial culture fosters an interdisciplinary approach to research, which its world-class academics bring to bear in tackling some of the most fundamental challenges facing society today. The University’s research institutes and centres consolidate and deliver this impact as vibrant communities of learning, discovery and creation. Maynooth University is recognised among the top 500 universities in the world and in the top 250 European universities.

Atlantic Technological University

Postgraduate study available here, apply now!

Dublin City University

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University College Cork

Unparalleled breadth and quality postgraduate programmes across all major disciplines

University of Limerick

World class teaching and research facilities

MA Writing for Stage & Screen

University college dublin ucd school of english, drama and film.

The Writing for Stage and Screen MA offers you the opportunity to devote a considerable amount of time to write, evolve and reflect on your own creative practices. Read more

MA Creative Writing (Full-time)

Maynooth university department of english.

The MA in Creative Writing combines workshops and seminars with one-on-one mentoring of writing projects. Students may take optional modules in literature or other creative modules from across the Faculty, such as Writing for Screen Media. Read more

Creative Writing MA

University college cork college of arts, celtic studies and social sciences.

Only you can write the book that you would like to write, be it a collection of poetry, or essays, or a novel, or a memoir… nobody else can write that book. Read more

MA in Creative Writing

Dublin city university faculty of humanities and social sciences.

Have you always wanted to write but never had the time, the focus, the space, or the encouragement? The DCU MA in Creative Writing aims to unlock the writer in you through an immersion in Drama, Poetry and Fiction. Read more

University of Limerick Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This programme is available full-time over one academic year or part-time over two years. Read more

MA Creative Writing

UCD offers two graduate courses in creative writing, an MA and MFA. Read more

MFA Creative Writing

UCD offers two graduate courses in creative writing, an MA and MFA.  The MFA programme is a more advanced degree than the MA, and in some instances can follow on from the MA. MFA students will be part of a smaller cohort which offers very close supervision of a work in progress for the duration of an academic year. Read more

MA Creative Writing (Part-time)

Technical writing - graduate certificate.

Technical communication is a fast-growing discipline worldwide, as communication media become more pervasive and technology more complex. Read more

MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature

The study of children’s literature at the School of English, Dublin City University, has its origins in the long tradition of scholarship in the discipline… Read more

Higher Diploma in English (Part-time)

The Higher Diploma in English is a programme designed for applicants who already hold a BA or comparable degree, and who wish to add English to their list… Read more

Higher Diploma in English (Full-time)

The MA in English provides opportunities and skills for the advanced study of literatures in English, literary and cultural theory, and textual practices. Read more

Master of Arts in Creative Practice

Atlantic technological university online, flexible and professional development.

A Level 9 qualification in Creative Practice, available over 12 months from October to September. The MA in Creative Practice offer artists, designers and filmmakers a creative and critically informed environment in which to develop and consolidate their practice. Read more

ProfCert Contemporary Irish Writing

University college dublin ucd school of irish, celtic studies and folklore.

Full Time option suitable for: Domestic(EEA) applicants:  Yes International (Non EEA) applicants currently  residing  outside of the EEA Region.  No. Read more

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ABOUT JOSEPH

Novelist, screenwriter, playwright and broadcaster, Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of nine novels including Star of the Sea, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book novel 2011) and Shadowplay (June 2019). Among his awards are the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. His work has been translated into forty languages. In 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Twice-Booker Prize-winner Peter Carey has written, ‘There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph.’

Longer Profile

Joseph O’Connor is the author of eighteen books, including the novels Cowboys and Indians, The Salesman, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light, The Thrill of it All and Shadowplay (2019). He has also written screenplays, two collections of short stories, True Believers and Where Have You Been?, several warmly received stage plays, six non-fiction collections and hundreds of radio diaries. His novel Star of the Sea sold more than a million copies, becoming a UK Sunday Times number one bestseller. It has been published in 40 languages. He is currently working on a novel entitled My Father’s House inspired by the real-life story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who saved many Allied prisoners and Jewish Romans from the Nazis.

A frequent and acclaimed broadcaster, Joseph O’Connor has worked with many musicians, including Paul Brady, The Chieftains, Camille O’Sullivan, Mel Mercier, Martin Hayes, Iarla O’Lionaird, composer Brian Byrne and Scullion. He has performed spoken-word pieces at major venues including the National Concert Hall, New York’s Lincoln Centre, the Barbican Centre, London, and the Royal Albert Hall. He was concept developer and lyrics writer for the major international dance show Heartbeat of Home (Dublin run, German tour, two Canadian and two Chinese tours, London Palladium, London Piccadilly Theatre autumn 2019) and he has adapted Daphne Du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel for the stage (Gate Theatre Dublin, Theatre Royal, Bath, and forthcoming UK run, autumn/winter 2019).

In 2011, he won the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland and was elected to membership of Aosdana. Among his other awards are the Hennessy Hall of Fame Award for Irish Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, Hot Press Irish Writer of the Decade, and the Prix Madeleine Zepter for European Novel of the Year. He is Frank McCourt Professor and Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He has been Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, City University of New York, and Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library. He is an Honorary Ambassador of the Irish Writers’ Centre, Dublin, and founder of the UL Frank McCourt Creative Writing Summer School at Glucksman Ireland House, NYU.

Write on the Edge – An On-Line Creative Writing Course from the Limerick Writers’ Centre

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University of Limerick celebrates creativity, culture and community at 50 years

A new book documenting 50 years of creativity, culture and community at university of limerick has been launched.

Thanks to everyone who came out to @UL yesterday for the official launch of Dreams: 50 Years of Creativity, Culture and Community at the University of Limerick. Dreams is available now in all good bookshops, online and at https://t.co/ZX5kGuCMJp pic.twitter.com/83GrcsfDKh — Irish Academic Press (@IAPbooks) March 23, 2023

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Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.

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Writers tend to romanticize the craft. For me, it’s a job

Writer Drew Hayden Taylor. Sara Cornthwaite/Supplied

I have spent a good 3 1/2 decades hunched over a pad of paper/typewriter/computer making things up for a living. Some might call me a writer. Others a dreamer. Still others an Anti-Cthulhu/Shiva … or a creator of worlds. Me, I think of myself as a storyteller. I tap a few keys on my keyboard and anything can happen.

It’s something fun. It’s interesting. It pays for cat food. It beats working in a cubicle. That wasn’t always my path. I woke up one day and was asked to write a TV script. Another time, out of nowhere, I was asked to write a play. Same with a novel, and later documentaries. I’m afraid one day soon I’ll wake up and be asked to write some important religious text – ‘Thou shall not covet thy neighbours land’.

In all those years, perhaps the most interesting thing I’ve learned is how serious so many people in the industry take what we do. To some, it’s already almost a religion, with a set of existing rules and guidelines that must be followed if you are to be taken seriously. This could be perhaps why so many of my friends tell me I was lucky to not have been formally trained in a higher educational institution. Instead, I learned what I learned on the rough and tough streets. That’s where I saw the Brechtian and Aristotelians knife fight in alleyways. Bar brawls between free-verse poets and the limerick artists taught me so much.

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Still, many think I should take my profession more seriously. Not that long ago, I wrote a collection of Native-themed science fiction short stories, titled Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories . What’s interesting here is my publisher obtained a painting by Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw/K’omoks artist Andy Everson, of an Indigenously drawn toy robot. We all thought it was perfect for the cover. But as the days went by, I became obsessed with the fact none of my stories featured a West Coast-designed toy robot. So, to avoid misrepresentation, I endeavoured to write one. Two days of working it out, and three days of writing it and I sent it off. My publisher loved it.

At the time I was the writer-in-residence at Wilfrid Laurier University and I told this experience to one of the instructors. She found it interesting and asked permission to share it with her students. I asked why. “They’re first-year creative writing students. At this point they don’t believe they should be forced to write anything unless the Muses whisper in their ears or they are properly inspired.”

I told her to tell them “As a writer, the best motivation is a mortgage.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time I’ve had to disillusion future writers.

One time, a young director of one of my plays, perhaps seeking a window into the Indigenous spirit of creation, asked me with an intense look on her face, emphasizing every single word, “Why did you write this play?”

“To get paid,” I answered nonchalantly. For most of my adult life, I’ve had a horrible, insatiable, vicious creature haunting me constantly. No, not the Wendigo. A landlord. The director looked at me, stunned for a moment, then she ran off, mumbling angrily something about “ … then why are we all here?” As I said, writing is fun but it’s also a profession.

The general manager of a theatre company in California once asked me the same question and I gave the same answer. She refused to believe me. “There’s got to be a reason you wrote this play, at this particular time.” Maybe. The stories come to me and I write them down. I don’t question origin. I embrace results.

I was doing a Zoom session with a university class in Germany. They wanted to know how I started and I mentioned that a thousand years ago the artistic director of an Indigenous theatre company on Manitoulin Island asked me to write a play for him. I was reluctant as I had never done that before. To entice me, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Properly motivated, I did as requested.

One bohemian student far across the Atlantic raised his electronic hand, and looking quite surprised, said “So, you are a capitalist.” I guess in Germany, people who write plays aren’t paid. My mother spent several decades cooking and cleaning for people and, to the best of my knowledge, she expected to get paid. I guess she was a capitalist, too.

The thing about writing that I enjoy so much is the simple fact that you, the writer, have so much more control over the world you create than the world you live in. Who wouldn’t like that? I’m just amused when others romanticize the industry. Sitting in a room for hours on end, staring at a blank screen loses its idealization quickly.

I have a cousin who’s a plumber. I don’t think he waits for the Muses to install a toilet.

Essentially, I write because I write. I lay out my traps and occasionally one catches a story.

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Regional Writing Centre

Welcome to the regional writing centre.

The Regional Writing Centre at UL (RWCUL) offers a free and friendly place for all students (undergraduate and postgraduate) to come and address any aspect of their writing.

This resource is dedicated to helping students develop strategies to become more confident, critical and autonomous writers.

The Centre practices a non-invasive, inductive approach to writing development, utilising peer tutors and experts who work with undergraduate students, postgraduate students and staff respectively to identify their writing practices in order to assess and improve strategic effectiveness.

The Centre is also available to staff who are interested in developing their students' writing.

The Centre is relevant to all students who write, regardless of their discipline, and this article explains why.

Explore our resources

Book a peer tutor session, submit a quick query, view weekly timetable, student resources, upcoming workshops.

Why book a session with a peer tutor?

Have a recommendation for a useful link? Is there a book you find particularly helpful when you are writing? We would love to hear from you.

You can get in touch with us via phone, email or by visiting us on campus (C1065). 

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