Caoilinn Hughes, award-winning Irish author of the novel Orchid and the Wasp and the poetry collection Gathering Evidence, will be giving a special master class for us on Sunday, 28 July 2019 from 17:00 – 18:30 at Boekhandel van Rossum, Beethovenstraat 32, 1077 JH Amsterdam. Reception with wine and cheese to follow.

Note: spring and summer 2019 workshop members, you can use your member’s discount code to receive 25% off—you will have received an email with your code upon registration.

In conversation with our instructor Karen Kao, Hughes will discuss how she chooses between prose and poetry, structuring a novel of ideas, the art of slow writing, the pros and cons of an unlikable female protagonist and more. We’ll also be speaking more generally about the writing and publishing process. There will be plenty of room for your questions.

Hughes holds a PhD in English Literature from Victoria University, New Zealand and a masters in 20th Century Irish Theatre and Culture from Queens University in Belfast. Her debut poetry collection, Gathering Evidence, won the 2015 Irish Times Shine/Strong Award and the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. Her debut novel, Orchid and the Wasp, was published last year by Oneworld. Anthony Doerr described Orchid and the Wasp as a “gorgeous novel told in an onrush of wit and ferocity” while the Irish Times places Hughes in the vanguard of new Irish fiction.

We hope you can join us for the class and stay afterwards to get your book(s) signed and mingle with other writers over drinks & bites. And to keep the inspiration going, we’ll send you home with an exercise based on one of Hughes’s books.

While we will be discussing both books, the focus will be on Orchid and the Wasp. To get the most out of the class we recommend you read the novel in advance. You can purchase at Boekhandel van Rossum or most major book retailers.