Creative writing students hone skills in Northern Ireland

When his turn came, Anthony Guerra-Flores’ knees began to shake. He had performed at many poetry slams before but never one of this magnitude.

Leaning against the podium on stage, Guerra-Flores steadied himself and settled into the flow of his art. The Carolina junior shared three poignant poems that explored his Salvadorian roots, vulnerable poems that touched on family, love, violence and pain.

To this crowd at the Belfast Book Festival in Northern Ireland, Guerra-Flores’ words resonated. He placed fourth in the June poetry slam — a literary contest that included talented poets from across the world.

“It was awesome getting people to connect in that way,” Guerra-Flores said. “And getting people to go up to me and be like, ‘That poem really struck me,’ even though you’re not from El Salvador, or you haven’t had the same parents as me, or you haven’t had a similar experience to me.

“In a way, the writing sort of bridges all those gaps.”

Creative writing served as a cultural bridge for 30 Carolina students in Belfast this summer, Guerra-Flores among them. In partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, the creative writing program in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences offered two inaugural summer courses in Belfast — one focused on fiction and the other on nonfiction “life writing.”

During the three-week courses, held at Queen’s University’s Seamus Heaney Center, students spent their mornings studying predominately Irish literature and composing their own written works. In the afternoons, they’d explore the Northern Ireland countryside, go on food tours and visit landmarks like Giant’s Causeway. Students also led writing workshops with Belfast schoolchildren through local charity Fighting Words.

Carolina professors Michael Gutierrez and Julia Ridley Smith taught the summer courses and planned the program to coincide with the Belfast Book Festival in early June, giving students a robust experience.

“We really wanted the students to experience the literary community in Belfast,” Ridley Smith said, “because I think it’s sort of parallel to the really strong literary community that we have at Carolina and in the creative writing program.”

Gutierrez, who has previously taught similar courses in Galway, said studying abroad gives students a chance to go outside their comfort zone, inspiring creativity. The disorientation of going somewhere new can create a spark.

“Especially for writing, that feeling of being unmoored is so important,” Gutierrez said. “The best prose writing sits in ambiguity; it sits in the sense of being unsure about what is right and wrong or what is true and not true. It’s trying to make the reader reconsider how they view the world. And as a writer, you have to be in a place where you’re constantly considering what it means to be in this world.”

The summer courses were especially useful for students who seek careers in writing, like Guerra-Flores, whose poetry has been published by the literary magazine West Trade Review. “Being in Belfast, being in a place where no one looks like you, and just seeing everything was amazing. It brought a lot of inspiration,” Guerra-Flores said.

But the experience in Belfast also proved just as invigorating for students who don’t necessarily plan for literary careers, like Morehead-Cain scholar Julia Ballou, who majors in political science and public policy and has a passion for human rights and social policy work.

“I think even if you don’t want to be a writer and you never picked up a pen again, you’re invariably going to write in your everyday life,” Ballou said. “And the way that you present yourself on paper, the way that you’re able to talk about yourself, will take you far in life, no matter what field you’re working in.”