FIRST SENTENCE, FIRST PARAGRAPH, FIRST PAGE…

Brian Leyden leads a dedicated writing workshop on getting your first sentence, first paragraph, first page, first chapter right. Drawing on examples from his own work and the work of other novelists, memoirists, and poets, and the work produced and suggested by participants on the day, Brian will demystify what’s meant by genre, theme, voice, style, plot, story-arc, development, turning points, reversals, pace, tension, and resolution. This special workshop will give new and more experienced writers the tools they need to pursue their own writing and story making. Known for his highly regarded creative writing workshops with the Hawk’s Well over many years, and for his trademark enthusiasm and insight, this promises to be an illuminating, playful, informative, and productive event.


Biography

Brian Leyden is a novelist, short story writer, memoirist, playwright, screenwriter, librettist, and editor. Remember Me, his most recent one-act stage play premiered in May 2023 at the Hawk’s Well Theatre). Published work includes the bestselling memoir, The Home Place, the novels, Death and Plenty and Summer of ’63, the short story collections, Departures and Sweet Old World: New & Selected Stories. He is the co-writer of the feature film, Black Ice, currently on Netflix. His fiction and essays have been widely anthologised and broadcast. With new work in Winter Papers 8, ed. Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith, and Sunday Miscellany: A Selection 2018-2023, ed. Sarah Benchy. His new novel is Love These Days.