Autumn 2026 · Live online
One course is for people who want to begin. The other is for writers already deep in a novel. Both are live, practical and limited to ten participants, because a writing course works best when there is room for everyone in it.
Choose your course ↓Course 01
Introduction · No experience required
An Introduction to Creative Writing
For people who want to read more closely, write more freely and see what happens when creativity is allowed to be worthwhile in itself. Publication does not have to be the point. Curiosity is enough to begin.
Course 02
For experienced writers
A Six-Week Course for Writers
For writers with a novel or substantial fiction project already under way. We will look closely at how the work is built, where it is resisting you and what it may need next. This is not a beginner course.
01 · Finding Your Voice
I have taught people who arrived with half a novel and people who had not written creatively since school. The useful starting point is the same: attention. Over six weeks, we will read short pieces closely, try different ways into new work and talk honestly about what makes a sentence, character or story feel alive.
This course is for anyone who has wanted to write but has been unsure where to begin, as well as readers who would like to understand literature from the inside. You do not need a project, a plan or a secret conviction that you are going to publish a book. You need only a willingness to read, experiment and write.
Six two-hour live Zoom sessions; short readings supplied in advance; guided exercises during and between sessions; a small, supportive group; and practical ways to keep writing after the course ends.
02 · The Novel in Progress
A novel can become so familiar that it is difficult to see what it is doing. This course creates some distance. We will examine structure, character, point of view, time, scene and summary, then bring those questions back to the particular book each writer is trying to make.
You should already be working on a novel or substantial fiction project and have enough material to discuss, revise and develop. The emphasis is not on generating a first idea. It is on making clearer decisions about an existing work and finding a workable route through the next stage.
Six two-hour live Zoom sessions; focused craft readings; practical revision work; a maximum of ten writers; and individual written feedback from Patrick on one extract submitted during the course.
Your tutor
Patrick is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, poet, editor and teacher. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing and is the 2026 Arts Council Writer in Residence at Maynooth University. He has taught creative writing at Maynooth University, the Irish Writers Centre, UCC and PUCRS in Brazil, and through libraries, festivals and literary organisations.
His debut novel, The Language of Remembering, was named one of RTÉ’s Top 10 Irish Books of 2025. His second novel, Interlude, will be published by Eriu (Bonnier Books UK) in 2027. His fiction has won the Bath Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award. He is the founding editor of The Four Faced Liar.