TWENTY-THREE fourth-year students of Scoil Chaitríona in Glasnevin, Dublin, last night celebrated the publication of Lost in Transition, an anthology of short stories written under the stewardship of authors Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright through the Fighting Words Creative Writing Centre.
“We’re just in awe at the fact weve written a book,” 16-year-old Bríd Ní Chomáin said yesterday.
“I really feel that I’ve grown as a writer.”
Doyle, who is a former teacher, said it had been a great pleasure to be involved in the process the second book to be published by a transition year class through the centre, which he and Seán Love set up in 2007 to encourage creative writing among people of all ages.
“These kids have gone through the whole experience of first draft, second draft, third draft, rejecting their own work, making it better . . . It’s a small story in each case but it’s a huge step. Some of the work is just extraordinary.
“I don’t know quite how you’d measure success but at the moment the whole thing feels like a success.”
Anne Enright, who wrote the book’s introduction, also mentored the teenagers. “I just found it very exciting to see how they were looking for a form for this very emotional need they have to express themselves and say something,” she said.
“You could really see how they came on from session to session, the leaps they made were quantum.”
English teacher Trish De Bhál said that the teenagers would take a huge amount from this experience.
“I think some of them now have realised they are going to continue writing and I genuinely think there are some amazing writers in there … they have the ability to say something really challenging.”