Mr Shaun McCarthy - BA (London), MA (Exeter), PGCE (Exeter)
Overview
Telephone: +44(0)29 208 76282
Fax: N/A
Extension: 76282
Location: Room 0.58, Bute Building
Wednesdays and Thursdays only
Shaun McCarthy is a playwright for stage and radio, a poet and educational resources writer. He will be conducting tutorials in Bute Building room 0.58 on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
He will be available to look at examples of any student’s work, pointing out areas where improvements could be made and exploring these cooperatively with the student. The Royal Literary Fund Fellowships were established to improve the standard of English in universities. Fellows work one-to-one with staff and students.
Shaun has taught various courses in writing for performance at Oxford and Bristol universities and has various other educational commissions as a visiting writer to schools and colleges in the UK and Europe.
Using the service
Students are requested to submit pieces of work by email before the tutorial.
At the tutorial, Shaun and his visitor will scrutinise structure, progression of argument, research, style, tone and register as well as grammar, syntax and punctuation.
Between them they will find ways to improve these where possible, polish them where necessary, and praise them where desirable. The object is to make it easy for the writer to communicate with his or her readers in a lucid style in which complexity is never swamped by complication.
Tutorials will last up to forty-five minutes, and should be booked in advance using the form outside the door of Room 0.58. Students are welcome to return for as many sessions as both parties consider useful.
What the Royal Literary Fellow does not offer
This is not a proofreading service or a rewrite office. Nor is it an ESL service – though students for whom English is a second language may find it useful in addressing style, register, structure, organization and the management of research. If in doubt, make an appointment, and we will see if we can help.
The terms of the Fellowship specifically bar Fellows from offering analysis of creative writing. Our remit is to assist with academic writing only.
Where to find Shaun McCarthy
After entering Bute Building via the main entrance, turn right and proceed down the stairs. Follow the corridor to the left and take the first left doorway shown below, you will see a stair - Shaun's office is at the top.
Personal Website
Publications
Plays for Stage
A Christmas Carol, Smoke and Mirrors - Bike Shed Theatre, 2011-2
Circus Britannica – Bike Shed Theatre and Theatre 503, 2011
Beanfield – Bike Shed Theatre and Tobacco Factory, 2010
Collider and No Blind Faith - Ustinov Studio, Bath Theatre Royal and Katie Read Company, 2010, 2009.
Safe – Grit Productions, 2008
London Isn’t Venice, Mutiny Theatre, 2007
Honest: untouchable, See His Face, A Frail Light in the Desert, all Bristol Old Vic, 2002, 2001, 2000
Driving to Midnight, Monkey jacket Theatre and Brighton Festival 2000
Forthcoming
Palm Island, Theatre West, Bristol in autumn 2012
Plays for Radio
Fireworks, Saturday Playhouse Radio 4, 1998, as Friday Play199
Classic Serial, JM Synge The Aran Islands BBC Radio 4 1996
Poetry Collections
Places, Hippopotamus Press 1973
The Banned Man, Hippopotamus Press 1984
After-Image, Spacex Literature, (Exeter) 1992
A Cry from the Blue, University of Salzburg Press 1994
Shaun’s many educational resources titles include study guides to the plays of Arthur Miller, Tom Stoppard, the poems of Seamus Heaney, and to many Shakespeare plays for different publishers. (The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, Henry V, As You Like It, etc.)
He has written biographies of several contemporary writers including Willy Russell, JK Rowling and Michael Morpurgo and historical biographies of James Cook and Sir Walter Raleigh.
Biography
Shaun read philosophy at University College London and Exeter University. He has combined thirty years of creative practice as a playwright and poet with a dozen writer in residence posts: at festivals, in colleges, schools, theatres, prisons, bail hostels and hospitals.
He has written over twenty educational resources titles: study guides to drama, creative writing textbooks and contemporary and historical biographies. He directs student and youth theatre productions and is a theatre assessor Arts Council England. His playing of gypsy music on the piano accordion is improving.