How To Write A Novel

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UPDATE: A waiting list is now in place.

If you would like to write a novel, rewrite a novel, finish a novel, excavate a work in progress,
lengthen a short story because it seems to be turning into a novel — or just wish to explore
how novels are written, this course may interest you.

Claire Keegan will take you through the process of making the incision in time, choosing the
point of view, structuring the narrative and taking that material through its development to
its conclusion.

Mornings will be devoted to quiet time for reading and writing. Keegan’s seminars will be
held in the afternoons. Anyone with an interest in reading, writing or editing fiction is welcome to attend.

Reading List
1984 by George Orwell (and film)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Stranger by Albert Camus (and film)

Teach Bhride
Teach Bhride, Tullow, Co. Carlow, R93W447 is a comfortable and welcoming retreat, a
five-minute walk from the bus stop, where a regular service runs to and from Dublin city
centre. All residential students will be provided with a single bedroom, most of which are
en-suite. Parking is free.

All meals and drinks are included in both fees. Breakfast is continental, and lunch and
dinner are served daily. Vegetarians, vegans, and those requiring gluten-free or lactose-free
diets will be catered for.

Except for availing of B&B, those who make non-residential bookings have the same
privileges as those who make residential bookings; you are welcome to use the classroom at
Teach Bhride early in the mornings, and stay as late as you wish in the evenings. If you have
an allergy or food restriction, please note it on your booking form and remind staff of same
when checking in.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE
Deposits are non-refundable — except in the case of the course being cancelled.
Participants are responsible for organising their own travel.
Non-residential participants are responsible for sourcing their own accommodation.
Claire will not be reading manuscripts or providing feedback, but will answer questions
participants may have about their own work.

If you would like to book a place, please email Eimear at clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

What I Learned Through Film | Wexford

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What I Learned Through Film, will take place at Whites of Wexford, Wexford Town, on 5–6 December 2026. Seminars will begin at 10am sharp and conclude at 5pm. Tea, coffee and pastries will be served mid-morning.

Claire Keegan will devote this weekend to teaching what she has learned about storytelling through film. Seminars will focus on narrative structure (beginnings, middles, endings), scenes, silences, transitions, dialogue, tone, visual storytelling, tension, drama, colour and point of view. Participants will be shown scenes and film clips which Keegan will discuss from a fiction writer’s point of view. The centrepiece will be John Huston’s film, The Dead, adapted from the story by James Joyce, which participants will be asked to read before the weekend begins. 

Claire Keegan’s works have been adapted into three feature films: The Quiet Girl, adapted from her story, Foster, was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, and became the first Irish film in history to achieve the nomination. Small Things Like These was made into a film of the same name, starring Cillian Murphy. Emily Blunt has just wrapped the adaptation of Walk the Blue Fields. And the feature adaptation of So Late in the Day will soon go into production. 

Anyone with an interest in stories and/or film is welcome to attend. Please note that this is a non-residential course. Participants are responsible for sourcing their own meals and accommodation. A completed booking form and a deposit of €550 will secure your place.

To book a place, email Eimear at clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

How Stories Are Written | Belfast

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Dates: Oct 17-18, 2026

Location: Ulster University, Belfast

Tuition non-residential €800

Over the course of the weekend, Claire will focus on how stories are written, paying particular attention to paragraph structure, which she believes is one of the most useful aspects of writing she can teach and share with her students. 

The reading list will be sent to participants in August and will include Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Garden of Eden.

Seminars will begin promptly at 10am each morning and conclude at 4pm. There will be a mid-morning break at 11.30am, with the lunch hour beginning at 1.30pm.

A booking deposit of €500 secures your place.

Anyone with an interest in reading, writing, editing or teaching fiction is most welcome to attend.

If you’d like to make a reservation on this course, please email Eimear on clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

The Summer Retreat with Claire Keegan

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Dates: July 17-25, 2026

Location: Teach Bhride, Tullow, Co. Carlow

Tuition: Residential – € 3,500, Non-residential €3,000

Participants are welcome to arrive from noon onwards on Friday July 17th. Tea and scones will be served at 3pm followed by an introductory session from 4pm – 5.30pm, in the classroom. There will then be pre-drinks and dinner will be served at 6.30pm.

Mornings will be kept quiet for writing, reading and study. Claire’s lectures will be held each afternoon from 2pm to 5pm, except on Tuesday July 21st, when participants will be given an afternoon off, to relax.

On the morning of Saturday, July 25th, there will be a Q&A with Claire, followed by lunch and departure.

Teach Bhride is a comfortable and welcoming retreat, a five-minute walk from the bus stop, where a regular service runs to and from Dublin City Centre. All residential participants will be provided with a single bedroom, most of which are en-suite. Parking is free.

All meals and drinks are included in the residential fee. Breakfast is continental, and lunch and dinner are served daily. Vegetarians, vegans, and those requiring gluten-free or lactose-free diets will be catered for. Participants are responsible for organising their own travel.

The residential fee which includes all meals, drinks, tuition and accommodation is €3,500. The non-residential fee includes everything except accommodation is €3,000. A booking deposit of €1,200 secures your place. The balance is due before the course begins on July 17th.

Anyone with an interest in reading, writing, editing or teaching fiction is most welcome to attend.

If you’d like to make a reservation on this course, please email Eimear on clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

ABOUT CLAIRE KEEGAN

Claire Keegan’s works of fiction are critically acclaimed international bestsellers, translated into 35 languages.

Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields received the Edge Hill Prize. Foster earned the Davy Byrnes Award.

Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, winning the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year.

So Late in the Day, first published in The New Yorker, was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Keegan was named Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland in 2022 and Author of the Year in Ireland for 2023.

In 2024 she was presented with the Markievicz Award from the Arts Council, and the Siegfried Lenz Award in Hamburg.

This year, Irish Times readers chose Small Things Like These as their Book of the Century, and The Sunday Times critics chose it as Irish Novel of the Century.

The Short Story with Claire Keegan

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Dates: June 23-28, 2026

Location: Teach Bhride, Tullow, Co. Carlow

Tuition: Residential – € 2,500, Non-residential €2,500

Claire will lecture daily on the short story and the reading list will be taken from The Oxford Book of Short Stories, edited by V.S. Pritchett. She will also discuss essays that will be forwarded to participants in advance of the course, and will show scenes from films for discussion.

Participants are welcome to arrive from midday onwards on the 23rd and depart on the 28th after lunch. Mornings will be devoted to quiet writing and reading time. Seminars are held daily after lunch from 2pm to 5pm. 

Anyone with an interest in reading, writing, editing or teaching fiction is most welcome to attend. The reading list will be forwarded in May.

Participants are responsible for organising their own travel.

To secure a place, participants complete and sign a booking form and send a €1,000 deposit. No audio or visual recording is permitted.

If you’d like to make a reservation on this course, please email Eimear on clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

ABOUT CLAIRE KEEGAN

Claire Keegan’s works of fiction are critically acclaimed international bestsellers, translated into 35 languages.

Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields received the Edge Hill Prize. Foster earned the Davy Byrnes Award.

Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, winning the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year.

So Late in the Day, first published in The New Yorker, was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Keegan was named Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland in 2022 and Author of the Year in Ireland for 2023.

In 2024 she was presented with the Markievicz Award from the Arts Council, and the Siegfried Lenz Award in Hamburg.

This year, Irish Times readers chose Small Things Like These as their Book of the Century, and The Sunday Times critics chose it as Irish Novel of the Century.

How Fiction Works: Three-day masterclass in Iceland

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Dates: May 18-20, 2026. Time: 10am-4pm

Location: Edda building, Reykjavík, Iceland

Tuition: € 3,000

This course will focus on the structure and differences between the short story, the novella and the novel. Keegan will discuss character, dialogue, point of view, tension, drama, loss, syntax and paragraph structure.

Lectures will run between 10am and 4pm each day, with an hour-long break for lunch.

Anyone with an interest in reading, writing, editing or teaching fiction is most welcome to attend. The texts are yet to be chosen, but the reading list will be forwarded in March/early April. 

Please note the fee covers tuition only. Participants are responsible for organising their own travel and accommodation.

To secure a place, participants complete and sign a booking form and send a €1,000 deposit. No audio or visual recording is permitted.

If you’d like to make a reservation on this course, please email Eimear on clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

ABOUT CLAIRE KEEGAN

Claire Keegan’s works of fiction are critically acclaimed international bestsellers, translated into 35 languages.

Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields received the Edge Hill Prize. Foster earned the Davy Byrnes Award.

Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, winning the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year.

So Late in the Day, first published in The New Yorker, was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Keegan was named Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland in 2022 and Author of the Year in Ireland for 2023.

In 2024 she was presented with the Markievicz Award from the Arts Council, and the Siegfried Lenz Award in Hamburg.

This year, Irish Times readers chose Small Things Like These as their Book of the Century, and The Sunday Times critics chose it as Irish Novel of the Century.

The Emerging Self

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Teach Bhride Holistic Centre, Tullow, Co Carlow, Ireland

Tuition fees: Residential € 2,600 Non-Residential € 2,100

Professor Mary McCay will travel to Tullow to teach The Emerging Self – the same course she taught award-winning short story writer and novelist Claire Keegan at Loyola University in New Orleans almost 40 years ago.

Mary will lecture on eight texts including Sula by Toni Morrison, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, and the film version of My Beautiful Laundrette by Hanif Kureishi.

“No matter our age, we should always be questioning if our attitudes have become ingrained; we should never stop examining the society we live in, never fail to ask ourselves who we are and what we stand for. The books I taught to Claire’s class still ask us what we believe and what is central to our sense of who we are. It is a self that should always be emerging.” Mary McCay

The course will begin on the afternoon of August 24 with an introductory lecture. For the next four days, all participants will write, read or study in the mornings. Tea, coffee & scones will be served at 11am, with lunch at 12.45pm. Mary will then lecture daily on the texts from 2pm-5pm, with a short coffee break in the middle of the session. Pre-dinner drinks will be served in the living room at 5.30pm, followed by dinner at 6:30pm.

On the final day, August 29, Mary will lecture from 9am until 1pm, with a coffee break at 11am. The course will finish at 1pm.

The residential fee includes all meals, drinks, tuition and accommodation. Some non-residential places will also be made available which include everything except B&B. Participants are welcome to arrive from noon onwards on August 24. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, diabetic and lactose-free diets will be catered for.

Buses run daily between Dublin City Centre and Tullow. Parking is free.

If you’d like to make a reservation on this course, please email Claire Simpson on clairekeeganfiction@gmail.com

2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellowship Awarded to Claire Keegan

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Trinity College Dublin and Pembroke College Cambridge are delighted to announce that Claire Keegan is the 2021 Briena Staunton Visiting Fellow. The fellowship has been generously endowed by Clinical Professor in Radiology James Meaney in memory of his aunt, Briena Staunton. Following an agreement between the two colleges, a leading international writer, nominated alternately by Trinity and Pembroke, will spend a month writing and supporting students in Dublin or Cambridge. This year Trinity nominated Claire Keegan, an international award-winning short-story writer, who will spend March 2021 in Cambridge.

Claire is an Irish writer whose stories have been published in English by Faber & Faber, have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, Best American Stories, won numerous awards – and are translated into 17 languages.  She is internationally renowned as a teacher of creative writing. 

Claire’s debut collection of stories, Antarctica, was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. The Observer called these stories: ‘Among the finest recently written in English’. It was also awarded the William Trevor Prize, judged by William Trevor. 

In 2007, her second collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to huge critical acclaim and went on to win The Edge Hill Prize for the strongest collection published in The British Isles. The prize was adjudicated by Hilary Mantel. 

Foster (2010) won The Davy Byrnes Award, then the world’s richest prize for a story. It was judged by Richard Ford: “Keegan is a rarity-someone I will always want to read’.”