Manuscript Feedback
Available timeslots:
Thursday 14th 11.00am / 11.30am / 12.00pm
Friday 15th 11.00am / 11.30am / 12.00pm
Saturday 16th 11.00am / 11.30am
The cost per session is €60 for a maximum of 10 poems on a maximum of 10 pages (double-spaced 11pt) which includes time spent on them beforehand. Manuscripts must be sent at least two weeks in advance of the festival. Limited to 8 individual half-hour appointments. Meetings will take place in person at the Munster Literature Centre, 84 Douglas Street.
Are there poems in your latest manuscript that are proving bothersome? Perhaps you feel an ending isn’t quite working? Or the beginning isn’t leading the reader in? Does the title add or subtract? Could the rhythm be a bit clunky? Is the theme being diminished by clichés or too much imagery or mixed metaphors? If you feel a fresh pair of eyes might help you untangle the knots of a poem and bring clarity to your thinking, then this workshop might be for you. David will scrutinise your work and present his findings to you face to face in a highly focused half-hour session. Rhythm and meter, line endings, how to start or finish a poem, whether to add a killer adjective or subtract a lame one – David will give you sympathetic, insightful and honest feedback. Whether you’re a veteran of the verse world or just setting out on your poetic journey, this is a chance to discuss your poems with an experienced practitioner of the poetic craft.
David McLoghlin has sequenced and edited poems and collections for many poets, including a National Poetry Series winner. He excels at developmental editing and teaches poetry and memoir workshops with The Irish Writers Centre, The National Mentoring Programme, Cork Libraries, Poets House, and Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools programme. A recent winner of the Waterford Poetry Prize and a recipient of a 2025 Arts Council Literature Bursary, David is the author of three collections with Salmon Poetry, most recently Crash Centre (2024), shortlisted for the 2025 Pigott Poetry Prize, a book of the year on the Books for Breakfast podcast (“Each poem feels like a shard of broken glass, sharp, reflective, impossible to ignore…” ) and described as “a work unquestionably triumphant with poetic victories” by Thomas McCarthy.
Workshops
The cost is €250 for all four masterclasses or €75 individually. Priority will be given to those who book all four and have at least two poem publication credits. Each participant will have the opportunity to have one of their poems for each masterclass (of up to thirty lines) discussed in a small group where each person’s work will receive much individual attention. Poems must be sent at least two weeks in advance of the festival. Masterclasses will take place in person at the Munster Literature Centre, 84 Douglas Street.
Gerard Smyth Masterclass9.30am to 12.30pm, Wednesday 13th May
Gerard Smyth is a poet and journalist. The Turn for Ithaca (Dedalus Press) is his eleventh collection. His poetry has been published widely since the late 1960s. Other books from Dedalus include The Sundays of Eternity (2020) and The Fullness of Time: New and Selected Poems (2010). He was the 2012 recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award from the University of St Thomas in Minnesota and is co-editor, with Pat Boran, of If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (Dedalus Press) which was Dublin’s One City One Book in 2014. He is a member of Aosdána.
Audrey Molloy Masterclass9.30am to 12.30pm, Thursday 14th May
Audrey Molloy grew up in Ireland and has lived in Sydney since 1998. Her debut collection The Important Things (The Gallery Press, 2021) received the Anne Elder Award and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize. Her third collection Fallen is published by both The Gallery Press and Pitt Street Poetry. Audrey has an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Manchester Metropolitan University. She has been shortlisted for major awards including the Montreal, Peter Porter, Bridport and Moth poetry prizes. She is co-editor of The Marrow International Poetry.
Dean Browne Masterclass9.30am to 12.30pm, Friday 15th May
Dean Browne is an award-winning poet from Co. Tipperary, Ireland. His debut collection After Party is published by Picador and is a Poetry Society Recommendation. Browne received the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2021, and his pamphlet, Kitchens at Night, won the Poetry Business International Pamphlet Competition; it is published by Smith|Doorstop (2022). His poems are widely published internationally, in outlets such as New York Review of Books, Columbia Review, London Magazine, Poetry Review, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, PN Review, Poetry Magazine (Chicago).
Annemarie Ní Churreáin Masterclass9.30am to 12.30pm, Saturday 16th May
Annemarie Ní Churreáin comes from the Donegal Gaeltacht. Her third poetry collection, Hymn to All the Restless Girls, published by The Gallery Press (2025), appears in The Irish Times Best Poetry of 2025 and among the RTÉ Culture Best Irish Books of the Year. She is a recipient of the Arts Council’s Next Generation Artist Award, the Markievicz Award and the Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship. Ní Churreáin is a recent Writer in Residence at The Hawthornden Foundation, New York. She is the poetry editor at The Stinging Fly.
Booking
To book your place please email info(at)munsterlit(dot)ie or phone +353(0)21 4322396. Payment will be accepted by cheque/postal order (made payable to the Munster Literature Centre), by credit card via PayPal (link provided on registration), or cash (payable in person at The Munster Literature Centre, Frank O'Connor House, 84 Douglas Street, Cork).
Additional Information
If you have limited mobility, please let us know in advance so we can arrange to make the experience as pleasant as possible for you. Every effort will be made to make sure that the programme proceeds as advertised but the Munster Literature Centre accepts no responsibility for changes made due to circumstances beyond our control—refunds will be given only if a workshop is cancelled. As workshops sell out, notification of such will be posted on this page.