Creative-Critical Writing Workshops in Dublin, Tartu and Ljubljana, Nov-Dec 2018


Following the success of our workshops at the UNESCO Creative Cities annual meeting in Katowice (Poland), Dan Cordle and Jo Dixon visited three more European partners in the Cities of Literature network.

In November, Jo Dixon delivered a creative-critical writing workshop on the theme of the environment to writers in Dublin (Ireland) and Tartu (Estonia). Earth and Sky, a workshop for emerging and established writers, considered representations of the natural world in creative and critical texts and across art forms and asked participants to re-imagine their relationship with a changing planet. One writer from Dublin enjoyed the ‘new […] style and way of approaching writing’ and the possibilities of ‘merging genres’, and in Tartu participants reported that the workshop provided them with ‘new angles to look at life and [the] non-human world’.

In December, Dan Cordle led Texts and Technologies. This workshop produced some exciting new writing inspired by creative and critical texts concerned with a range of technologies. The creative-critical approach of the workshop was praised for providing ‘new perspectives’ about technology and ‘how to address’ this theme in writing. Writers who attended all three workshops are now applying to join a free online creative-critical writing course, hosted and convened by members of the English department, on the themes of Technologies, Environment and Home and Belonging. It is hoped that some of these writers will progress onto the mentoring programme and publish new writing in an NTU publication exploring ideas of the contemporary through creative and critical writing.