A Warm Irish Welcome June 2007 Residency Carlow, Ireland

Dear MFA Students,

On behalf of Carlow College, Co. Carlow, I would like to extend the warmest of Irish welcomes to the students in the MFA in creative writing programme who will visit us this June. I can confidently promise you the best Irish residency yet. Over the course of the twelve or so days you will be with us, you will work with some of the most renowned of the current generation of Irish writers, editors and publishers. A number of those teaching in this year’s residency will be familiar to returning students, but we have also brought in some new faces. As ever, our criteria for selecting mentors and guest speakers has been two-fold: we sought first-rate authors who know how to teach. In organizing this year’s residency with Ellie, it has been a real thrill to see how the reputation of the MFA programme has spread here in Ireland. Irish people are very proud of their literary heritage, and Irish writers - at least those of the calibre we have invited to work with you - can be wary of involving themselves in new literary ventures. (Creative writing classes, we can say, require good faith and courage on the part of teachers as well as students.) However, the word has got out that the Pittsburgh MFA is ‘the genuine article’ as we say here. Most of the authors I contacted about the upcoming residency already knew of the programme and were keen to take part. That endorsement is a real testament to the calibre of student accepted on to this MFA programme: it is established here that this course is first and foremost about helping talented and committed individuals achieve their potential as writers.

A few words to those of you coming to your first residency in Ireland: Carlow College is one of Ireland’s oldest third-level educational institutions. It is situated in a quiet and secluded campus in the centre of the medium-size rural town from which it takes its name. (Carlow is about an hour-and-a-half south of Dublin airport by car.) The students in the MFA programme reside in Lennon House during the residency, which is on-campus and adjacent to the lecture buildings. You can breakfast and lunch in the College Cafeteria (or in the many hostelries in the town centre), and will be able to avail of the library and computer facilities in our newly opened P.J. Brophy Memorial Library. Aside from the workshops, seminars and readings, the residency programme this year also includes an introductory lecture on Irish history and literature, to help put things in context for you. On the 16th of the month we’ll travel to Dublin city to enjoy the Bloomsday festivities there and to learn a thing or two about literary Dublin (home to G.B. Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett as well as James Joyce). The following day, Fr Kevin O’Neill, President of Carlow College, offers to bring you on a tour of some of the beautiful and historic locations of County Carlow. You will also have the opportunity to read your work, and to socialize, with some creative writing students from Carlow; and the first week of the residency coincides with Éigse, one of Ireland’s most popular Summer Arts Festivals. So, there will be plenty to do when you feel like a break from your writing.

Looking forward to seeing you all here.

— James Heaney
     Academic Director of Humanities at Carlow College