An Introduction to Short Story  Writing with Jamie Guiney

From Friday 20 September to Friday 26 October award winning local writer Jamie Guiney facilitated an introduction to short story writing course at Lurgan Library.  Over the course of 6 weeks Jamie  provided budding creative writers with the necessary skills to write their very own short stories, covering everything from ideas, plotting, character development to use of metaphor, avoiding clichés, editing and publishing. All of the participants produced a short story at the end of the course which in Jamie’s words all contained ‘touches of genius’. A writing group is to be established in the library as a result of the course. Our thanks to Jamie for facilitating a fantastic course.

About Jamie Guiney:

Jamie Guiney is a literary fiction writer from Lurgan. His short story collection ‘The Wooden Hill’ (published by Epoque Press) was shortlisted under Best Short Story Collection, in the 2019 Saboteur Awards. Jamie’s short stories have been published internationally and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. He has also been nominated four times for  The Pushcart Prize, long-listed for Irish Short Story of the Year in the 2021 An Post Book Awards, and short-listed for the Best in Rural Writing Contest 2023. His first novel, ‘The Lightening’ will be published in 2026.

Jamie is a graduate of the Faber & Faber Writing Academy and his work has been backed by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through several Individual Artist Awards, including ACES 2022/2023. He favours the short story genre, believing it to be the closest written prose to the traditional art of storytelling. For more information: www.jamieguiney.com