22 October,
Workshop /
John Patrick McHugh: Character & Characterisations Fiction Writing Workshop
Thursday, 22 October 2026, 6:30pm
Galway Arts Centre / €65
Book TicketsAutumn Workshops presented by Galway Arts Centre and Cúirt International Festival of Literature
What exactly makes up a fully realised character in fiction? How do you create a fictional character that feels real? In this workshop, we will examine these very questions through looking at character in relation to scene, relationships, dialogue, and setting. Through discussion and in-class exercises, participants will learn how to deepen their characters, how to better explore their characters once they are on the page, and how to use setting more effectively as a means to enhance characterisation. It will a welcoming, discursive, fun, and practical two-hour workshop.
John Patrick McHugh is from Galway. His work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine, Tolka and Granta and been broadcast on BBC Radio3. He is the Fiction Editor of Banshee. He is the author of a collection of short stories, Pure Gold (4th Estate, 2021), and a novel, Fun and Games (4th Estate, 2025), which was shortlisted for Irish Book of the Year 2025, selected as an Observer Best Debut Novel, and chosen as a Book of the Year in The Irish Times, Vogue, The iPaper and the Observer.
