Roddy Doyle’s much anticipated creative writing centre. Fighting Words, has gone online prior to its opening in Dublin in January. Taking its inspiration from David Eggers’ 826 Valencia, the centre pairs volunteer professional writers with local children. It doesn’t mention the fact explicitly, but the subtext here is that one-on-one mentoring can help revive a deprived quarter of a city.
Doyle’s centre is the first European member of the Once Upon a School movement that has swept across the deprived cities of America. It is beautifully inspiring stuff. For more on this see Eggers’ (very funny) speech at Ted Conference earlier this year.
Tags: culture, david eggers, education, fighting words, literature, once upon a school, regeneration, roddy doyle
December 3, 2008 at 10:42 pm
eggers is a true don, ahwosg is a must read for every parent
January 2, 2009 at 4:42 pm
[...] Their Creative Writing? Through some emails with Eli Horowitz, editor of McSweeney’s, found out about Fighting Words, the Irish answer to 826. I’ve been a bit obsessed with 826 today – [...]