Arrive Tues. June 2 - Depart Mon. June 15
"You were born in the long summer. You've never known anything else. But now winter is truly coming." - Eddard Stark, The Game of Thrones
APPLICATION DEADLINE MARCH 10! CLICK HERE TO APPLY TODAY!
SHORT: Follow in the legendary footsteps of giants (and the lord of Winterfell), while exploring the many folk/fairy tales of the Emerald Island (Ireland, Northern Ireland) and writing a few of your own. Join Rutgers Creative Writing instructor Alex Dawson, best selling Irish fantasy author/Dr. Who scribe Dave Rudden (Knights of the Borrowed Dark, Sister Wake), half a dozen internationally known Irish authors, and eight Irish Creative Writing students for a two week fable-fueled collaboration with Dublin City University that takes you from the Book of Kells (created by Irish monks and said to be the oldest book in the world) to the Giant's Causeway, an iconic Word Heritage Site and geological wonder. Plus Winterfell, King's Road, the Iron Islands, and so much more!
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| Giant's Causeway, North Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland. |
LONGER: While in Dublin you'll stay on the oldest and most beautiful part of DCU, All Hallows Campus (350 years old and haunted!), eat breakfast in the dining hall, attend workshops/lectures on campus, visit sites of literary interest (the Book of Kells, Dublin Writing Museum, James Joyce Centre) and have dinner discussions with celebrated local authors in a variety of evocative restaurants (like the eclectic Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest and most haunted pub, and Johnnie Fox's in the foothills of mythic Wicklow Mountains).
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| Old Library, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. |
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| Johnnie Fox's, Wicklow Mountains, Ireland. |
The second week, we'll travel North to the mythic Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, where we'll be staying at the Causeway Hotel, a beautiful Old World hotel (dating back to the early 1800s) situated directly on the cliff edge and offering unrivaled, dramatic sea views. According to legend, the 40,000 interlocking basalt columns of the causeway are the remains of a raised road built across the North Channel by the Irish giant Finn MacCool, who was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner, so the two giants could meet (but it's actually the wondrous result of an ancient volcanic eruption). Northern Ireland is also home to more Seven Kingdoms sites than anywhere else in the world, earning it the title: Game of Thrones Territory. We'll be visiting such shooting locations as Castle Ward (Winterfell), Dunluce Castle, (Pyke, the ancient stronghold of House Greyjoy; also the inspiration for Cair Paravel, the royal castle in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia), Ballintoy Harbour (Lordsport Harbour, the Iron Islands), The Dark Hedges (King's Road), Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, and Cushendun Caves.
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| Dunluce Castle (aka House Greyjoy, G.O.T., and Cair Paravel, Chronicles of Narnia), County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
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| Kings Road, The Game of Thrones (Dark Hedges, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) |
ACADEMICS: While in Dublin and the Giant's Causeway, you'll attend talks/discussions by well known Irish authors and create/workshop/declaim written work inspired by your experience(s) in Ireland/Northern Ireland: the places you visit, the legends you hear, the people you meet - culminating in public reading on DCU's All Hallows Campus, attended by other students/locals and live streamed for friends and family back home. While your work may ostensibly take the form of poetry, non-fiction or fiction, we encourage you to take inspiration from the landscape and local lore (as well as the assigned reading). Try your hand at grimdark, intricate world-building, and character-driven epic fantasy.
REQUIREMENTS & GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
Participation, attendance: 100%.
You will be expected to appear in a timely manner for all excursions, group activities, meetings, and workshops, etc. In between planned events you will dedicate a substantial amount of time to your writing (as well as exploring and socializing). There is a modest amount of required reading. "Tests," such as they are, will take the shape of "pub quizzes," with the group breaking into teams, and the winning team being awarded prizes.
SEE THE WORLD. BUILD ONE, TOO.
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QUESTIONS? Write Alex Dawson at raconteurbooks@gmail.com.
And dare we suggest, TWO ADVENTURES? Consider starting the summer (May 15 - May 29) with There & Back Again: Write Fantasy in Tolkien's England.