The Disaster School: writing your way out of crisis

What if disaster could unlock your most powerful writing?

The Disaster School opens its digital doors on August 4th for a one-week online journey into the creative heart of crisis.

Bringing together award-winning writers, thinkers and coaches from Ireland, Palestine, Ukraine and beyond, this series of workshops is not about spectacle, but survival, and the stories that rise from it.

Some of our instructors – like Mazen Maarouf (Palestine/ Iceland) and Nikita Grigorov (Ukraine) – come from regions currently experiencing war.

Who Will Remain by Kasim Ali: A sociological message delivered through truly propulsive writing

Remember When by Fiona Phillips: An unflinching first-person account of the slide into Alzheimer’s

Everything and the Kitchen Sink by Simon Matthews: A survey of entertainment in pre-Beatles Britain

Yet the Disaster School doesn’t only focus on geopolitical disaster. It asks: what does disaster look like inside the self? In the stories we fear to write?

Having worked in mental health and forensic settings for over a decade, I’ve seen how creative blocks often stem from fear – not just of failure, but from the reality of our own material. As a writing coach, I’ve built this school to help writers face those fears with craft, care and collaboration.

Violence and unkindness begin in small, unconscious acts – where imagination fails. The Disaster School invites us to also reflect on that through language, experiment and shared inquiry. Our faculty embodies this approach – each member coming with extraordinary insight, humour and generosity.

[ In pictures: Breaking barriers through artOpens in new window ]

What to expect

A week of live online sessions via Zoom (1-2 hours daily)
A global line-up of acclaimed writers, coaches, psychotherapists and legal experts
A unique blend of creative writing, reflective practice, psychosocial insight and live readings
Grounding techniques such as guided meditation and micro-coaching for the writing life

Whether you are a writer, teacher, healer or curious human being – this space is for anyone drawn to storytelling as a way of making sense of upheaval.

The line-up

Monday

Sarah Byrne (Ireland): Writing as Disaster and The False Self
Nikita Grigorov (Ukraine): Losing one’s home and language – and what comes next

Tuesday

Prof Douglas Cubie (Scotland): Disaster in law and refugee rights
Mazen Maarouf (Palestine/Iceland): Creative reading and writing in times of war

Wednesday

Rana Jalali (Iran/ Berlin): Leadership, resilience and the body under pressure
Closed mic session featuring four Irish and international writers

Thursday

Eileen Acheson (Ireland): Coping strategies through Alfred Adler
Gunnhild Øyehaug (Norway): The Disaster of Everyday Life in short fiction

Friday

Sinéad Morrissey (Ireland): ‘Endings and ‘Overness’: The Poetry of Visual Art’
Nick Makoha (UK/ Uganda): Ekphrasis and Revision: The New Carthaginian

The Disaster School is a radical act of reflection in an era where we are expected to go faster every day. 50 per cent of all ticket income will be donated to The Irish Red Cross for humanitarian relief in Gaza and Ukraine; this is to directly honour that meaningful creative practice must also engage with meaningful action.

How to join

Dates: August 4–8, 2025
Where: Online via Zoom
Time: 1–2 live sessions daily (recordings available)
Who: Writers (of all levels), artists, educators, therapists, and anyone drawn to creative reflection
Register at: sarahbyrnewrite.com/disaster-school/

The Disaster School is a creative experiment, undertaken on behalf of everyone involved, but I believe it is a worthwhile effort to deeply reflect on disaster, chaos, and violence – however small – that is growing where we are. It invites us to explore internal and external blockages and how they may lead to misunderstandings, highlighting how our creativity is essential for clarity, collaboration, and connection.

Brene Brown said that “unused creativity is not benign; it metastasises and turns into grief, rage, judgment, sorrow, shame”.

The Disaster School serves as a space to nurture and develop that creative impulse; to discover what can be made from grief, rage, and shame by utilising the best resources we have as human beings. The Disaster School is a space to meet those raw states with courage and craft – and discover what can be built from the rubble.

Sarah Byrne is a writer and musician from Cork. sarahbyrnewrite.com