Branching Out

By Limerick Writers Centre

This anthology serves as a creative testament to the lives of individuals as they navigated, endured, thrived, and coped during these trying times. It encapsulates their collective resilience and offers a glimpse into the human spirit's capacity for growth and renewal in the face of challenges. - Michael Lacey, Chairperson, Mid-West Regional Drugs & Alcohol Forum

• Language: English
• Publisher: Limerick Writers Centre
• Release date: Sep 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215372579

Limerick Writers Centre

Publishing has played an important part in the life of the Limerick Writers' Centre with a number of major projects completed such as 'Kemmy’s Limerick Miscellany' and 'Luaithreach Angela' – a translation of Frank McCourt’s 'Angela’s Ashes' into Irish. The centre also published an anthology on Limerick poet Michael Hartnett, titled 'I Live in Michael Hartnett', and a recent book 'The Curious Story of the Limerick' by Dr Matthew Potter tells of the connection between Limerick and the five line Limerick verse. We also played an active in Limerick City of Culture and held a series of workshops for older people, the end product was an anthology of love stories called 'The Heart of Limerick' edited by Fiona Clark Echlin, Caroline Graham and Sheila Quealey.Our long running Revival Literary Journal alas is no more due to financial considerations it ceased publishing in December 2013 after 28 issues.The Centre, through it’s imprint Revival Press, is also very active in publishing contemporary poetry, with over 50 titles published so far. The Centre is also always available to give advice to anyone who wants to self-publish.

Book preview

Branching Out

An Anthology of Poetry and Story

Editors

Fiona Clark Echlin and Jessica Brown

Copyright © this selection Limerick Writers’ Centre 2023

Copyright of individual poems and stories remains with their authors

First published in Ireland by

Limerick Writers’ Centre

c/o The Umbrella Project

78 O’Connell Street

Limerick, Ireland

www.limerickwriterscentre.com

www.facebook.com/limerickwriterscentre

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Book design: Lotte Bender

Cover Image: Lotte Bender

E-book Formatting: Máire Baragry

Managing Editor LWC: Dominic Taylor

A CIP catalogue number for this publication is available from The British Library

We acknowledge the financial support of the Mid-West Regional Drug and Alcohol Forum and The Limerick Writers’ Centre’s Community Publishing Project.

‘When you wake up, instead of checking emails on your phone, or counting your retweets, pick up a pen and scratch a few sentences into a notebook’.

- Kevin Barry, author of City of Bohane

INTRODUCTION

This anthology of poetry and stories is the brain-child of a creative writing course which took place earlier this year, attended by a diverse group of writers and potential writers who all had something important to write about and to share with their readers through a process of ‘branching out’. The written word is often born out of complex personal experiences; sometimes harrowing, sometimes joyful, but always in some way life-changing. The transition from living experiences and memory to the written word is not inevitable and is often very difficult to begin, even for seasoned writers.

‘I have something to say, but I don’t know where to start’ is a common block to anyone holding a pen over a blank sheet of paper or their fingers hovering over a keyboard and faced with an empty screen. Our purpose as facilitators was to release the beast.

This urge to write was further encouraged by giving participants a springboard and a safe platform from which to launch themselves. This launching pad took the form of a series of ‘prompts’ and attention to an appropriate genre. It’s not a question of simplifying experience, but rather exploring it through carefully chosen words and the structural application of those words, as well as finding a voice through looking at everyday items from a different perspective. This is, of course, the power of imagery, something we all recognize through reading and employ naturally from a very early age. The way forward lies in the power of effective communication.

From talking and listening, from observation and touch, we concentrated on minimalist genres: short stories and very short stories (ten-word stories), flash fiction, list poems, poems from five random words, and haiku. Prompts also took the form of concrete objects (such as an apple), and the place of objects within personal interactions. We also explored more abstract concepts such as colour and the power of symbolism. We investigated positive and negative forces within simple settings, and focused