Ruth GILLIGAN, in writing residency

On this occasion, two events will punctuate the residency:

>> Conference Writing in a Time of Crisis (Écrire en temps de crise) – Tuesday, March 24 – 14:00 > 15:30 (Live Arts Lab, MaCI). Free admission.

At a time of major global anxiety and worsening climate forecasts, what does it mean to be a writer of fiction today? Can - and should - contemporary novels attempt to face up to these challenges? Or are other forms better suited to reckon with the urgency of the moment? Through a mixture of personal reflection and textual analysis - from Beckett's Happy Days to Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven - this talk will interrogate the role of art-making during difficult times in the hope of reaching an optimistic conclusion...

>> Creative Writing Workshop Re-telling Old Texts - from Shakespeare to Super Mario! (Réécrire d'anciens textes, de Shakespeare à Super Mario !) – Thursday, March 26 – 9:00 > 12:00 (Room 209, MaCI). On registration.

This three-hour writing workshop will explore the possibilities and politics of drawing on old material to tell new stories. Why the recent boom in Greek myth retellings? What do we gain from rewriting a familiar fairy tale from a new point of view? Just as in music, why do we gravitate towards cover versions instead of totally fresh ideas - or is there such a thing as a totally fresh idea anyway? Through a mixture of theory, examples and writing exercises, this workshop will explore these thorny questions and allow participants to attempt some re-tellings of their own...