Teen Week is an annual celebration of literacy and reading related events for Secondary School students in Clare. This year’s programme includes visits by two teenage writers to Ennis and Ennistymon libraries.

Young adult author Aislinn O'Loughlin will read to a school audience from her new hilarious supernatural adventure Big Bad Me, published by Little Island in 2022. In her events she aims to pull back the curtain on how to create truly believable YA characters in a world populated by supernatural beings and talk about why the supernatural continues to capture the imaginations of YA readers everywhere.

Award winning writer Helena Close will explore the concept of ‘Story’ in her workshops for Senior Cycle, Secondary School students. With Helena’s expert guidance classes attending will look at the history of storytelling, the elements of story including character, plot, conflict, genre etc. Students will explore their own creativity through writing during her hands-on workshops and will be given the opportunity to share their writing at the end of the workshop.

Helena Close has written two teenage novels; The Gone Book (Little Island, 2020) and Things I Know (Little Island 2022), both of which were nominated for the Carnegie Medal. The Gone Book was also shortlisted for the An Post YA Novel of the Year, won a White Raven International Award, was chosen for inclusion in EmpathyLab UK's 2021 selection, and shortlisted for LAI Awards 2021.

Image source: Ouda images

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.