‘It is a joy to be hidden, a disaster not to be found.’ – Donald Winnicott
THE DISASTER SCHOOL
Annual mini-report for our patrons, supporters and community members
| The Disaster School is a place to sit with the aftermath. We offer online writing courses, seminars and communities for writers living or working with complex trauma, and for anyone making art from loss. Our programmes explore how crises, personal or global, shape creative expression, memory, survival and meaning-making, both in the moment and long after. Every programme is not-for-profit, and patrons’ support keeps places free or subsidised for those who need them. |
The Disaster Summer School 2025
- Our first Summer School took place online in August 2025, and was attended by 61 scholars and writers from across the globe.
- The faculty was made up of artists, academics and practitioners from England, France, Germany, Iran, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Norway, Palestine, Scotland, Uganda and Ukraine.
- Half of all ticket sales went to the Irish Red Cross in support of their relief work in Palestine and Ukraine, raising €1,125.
- The remaining proceeds were used to pay and support our faculty.
How your support carried us into 2026
From Autumn 2025, all of my programmes came under the newly registered Disaster School. Between October and December 2025 I raised €10,000 from patrons and events, to pay guest tutors, fund scholarships and keep each programme running.
Much of this came from events, including two rounds of Morning Edges, which welcomed over 100 writers.
Where the €10,000 went
| What it supported | Amount | In a little more detail |
| Scholarships for writers | €4,000+ | Free and subsidised places were offered to 40 writers, at a cost of just over €4,000. |
| Guest tutor fees | €3,000 | I hired nine guest tutors in 2026, supporting independent artists, writers and practitioners. |
| New Orleans disaster justice work | €2,471 | Research and volunteer work at in New Orleans, and the beginning of my volunteer teaching in the community. |
| Running costs | €529 | Mailchimp and Zoom Premium fees. |
| Total | €10,000 | Raised from patrons and events, Oct–Dec 2025. |
| The Disaster School is entirely not-for-profit, built on hundreds of volunteer hours. Alongside it, I work full-time as a writer, poet and musician. |
Programmes in late 2025-2026
Everything that ran under The Disaster School from Winter 2025-Autumn 2026
| Morning Edges: Disaster School Fundraiser A daily online practice programme in support of disaster justice work in New Orleans. Guests: Nick Laird and Kevin Barry |
| The Volume of Violence: The Power of Gentleness A ten-week writing masterclass on violence in society and literature. Guests: Gwen Adshead and Matthew Dickman. |
| Morning Edges Water: A daily online practice programme focused on water and water justice. Guests: Vasiliki Albedo, Lucy Holme, Kathleen Jamie, Yvette Monahan & Ariel Saramandi. |
| Poetry as Stewardship: A six-week online poetry course about slowing down: reading great poems, writing our own, and spending time together in an international creative community. Guest: Dean Browne. |
| Must You Live in the Real World?: A playful, experimental short story summer series of unconventional stories, prompts and short creative tasks, with proceeds supporting writing programmes for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women in Louisiana. |
| The Southern Gothic: An eight-week reading, writing and conversation series on the Southern Gothic and its influence on contemporary African American literature, from Flannery O’Connor and Faulkner to Jesmyn Ward and Jericho Brown. Guest: Maurice Carlos Ruffin. |
| Rage Against the Machine: A five-week course on turning anger, from everyday irritations to larger injustices, into writing that holds a reader, drawing on Baldwin, Lorde, Darwish, Kincaid and more. |
New Orleans: The beginning of the work
Part of this year’s funds went towards my research interviewing community members and stakeholders in disaster justice and prison education. I had to pause this work early due to a family bereavement. The plan is to return to New Orleans in 2027 to continue the work.
Details on how to support The Disaster School 2027 can be found below.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for further details.
Thank you for being part of The Disaster School
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Ways to Support
PayPal: info@thewellreview.com (Note this address will be retired in January 2027 and replaced by info@thedisasterschool.com)
Bank Transfer:
Sarah Byrne t/a The Disaster School
IBAN: IE93IPBS99071663003181
