Description
Saturday 13 September 2025, 2–4pm
A little before love is an informal in-person reading and writing workshop with artist, writer and PhD candidate Lucie McLaughlin. The workshop operates in conversation with the current exhibition by McGibbon O’Lynn Love is blindly reaching out rhizoids and anchoring them to a rock.
Connecting devices from McGibbon O’Lynn’s work such as fiction and world-building to the exhibition’s themes of dating and ‘liaisons with the garden,’ in the workshop we will discuss ideas of gardens and parks as sites for thinking about our relationship to romantic entanglement, selfhood and the places in which we find ourselves. We will explore a close reading of Claire-Louise Bennett’s short story ‘A Little Before Seven’ from her book Pond where an unnamed narrator is struck by a ‘generally comical but profoundly concerning’ revelation about her feelings toward the opposite sex, taking us along to her garden to think things through. We will talk about the sensations of reading, and our relationship to the things that are ‘beyond, beneath and before’ language, with a few prompts and exercises to practice our own writing.
This in-person workshop will take place in CCA, 10-12 Artillery Street, Derry~Londonderry, BT48 6RG. No previous writing experience is needed and it is suitable for those aged 18 and over. Book your free place via this page. This is a paperless ticket, a member of the team will be in contact shortly after booking.