Carlo Gébler:

This workshop is hosted by author, playwright film-maker and memoirist Dr. Carlo Gébler who is passionate about the craft of writing.

It is intended for anybody who wants to improve their capacity and write better. All genres and forms are welcome (drama, prose, poetry, memoir, long fiction, short fiction, adult, children’s, et cetera, et cetera). All participants should come with a sample of their work and expect to read a short section aloud. Participants should also come with a question (or questions) regarding the manuscript they bring and from which they read a portion; participants will present their question or questions when they do their reading. Carlo Gébler will not be able to read written manuscript material, either in the course of the workshop or subsequently.

Carlo Gébler was educated at the University of York and the National Film & Television School. He is the author of novels, short stories, plays, memoirs, biographies and works of narrative history, most recently, Belfast by Moonlight (a masque, 2013), Confessions of a Catastrophist (memoir, 2015), Walking to the Ark (play, 2015), The Projectionist (biography, 2015) and The Wing Orderly’s Tales (short stories, 2016). His other publications include The Eleventh Summer (novel, 1985), Father & I (memoir, 2000), The Siege of Derry (history, 2005), My Father’s Watch (memoir written in collaboration with Patrick Maguire, youngest member of the Maguire Seven, 2008) and The Dead Eight (novel, 2011).

Alongside working as a writer, Carlo Gébler has also worked as a director and writer of films for television (his 1998 documentary Put to the Test won the 1998 Royal Television Society award for best regional documentary) and as a prison teacher. From 1991 to 1997 he was a part-time creative writing tutor in HMP Maze (Long Kesh) and from 1997 to 2015 he was writer-in-residence in HMP Maghaberry.

Currently he works at the Young Offenders Centre outside Belfast with young prisoners, and at the Working Out Unit, Crumlin Road Goal, with long term prisoners who are about to be released. His various awards and honours include a Major Individual Award (2006) from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Margaret Frazer Bursary (2007) from Queen’s University Belfast. He was elected to Aosdána in 1990.