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.

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.

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.