Rebecca O’Connor Master Class Recording

Irish writer and editor Rebecca O’Connor gave a special master class for us on 13 October 2019 at Boekhandel van Rossum in Amsterdam. You can listen to a recording of the class below, or it is also available as a podcast from the services listed and from our own feed.

The class focussed on craft in O’Connor’s novel He Is Mine and I Have No Other, which has been called “An evocative, atmospheric and thought-provoking read” (Sunday Independent), “Quite brilliant” (Irish Examiner), and “A heady dive into the vulnerability, passion and recklessness of youth” (Sydney Morning Herald).

The class also dipped into her poetry. Her collection We’ll Sing Blackbird was shortlisted for the Irish Times Shine Strong Award, and she is the recipient of a Geoffrey Dearmer Prize (Poetry Review) and a New Writing Ventures Poetry Award (chaired by Andrew Motion).

And finally, we couldn’t let her go without hearing more about her work as editor of the acclaimed literary magazine The Moth—offshoots of which include The Caterpillar (a magazine for kids), The Moth Short Story Prize and the €10,000 Moth Poetry Prize.

Some of the specific topics covered were:

• the importance of setting,
• the challenges of capturing a teenage voice,
• the charms of the epistolary novel,
• the value of a good beta reader,
• why you shouldn’t give up on that ‘drawer novel’ just yet, and
• some tips for those who’d like to see their work published in The Moth.

He Is Mine and I Have No Other was published by Canongate in 2018. You can get your copy from most major book retailers.

Copyright © 2019 Rebecca O’Connor & International Writers’ Collective

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International Writers' Collective

Rebecca O'Connor Master Class Recording

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