03 September, 2024
Ten writers selected for Irish Writers Centre Evolution Programme 2024-2025
We are thrilled to announce the ten awardees for the Irish Writers Centre Evolution Programme 2024-2025: Francesca Bratton, Alicia Byrne Keane, Amy Clarkin, Patrick Holloway, Marianne Lee, Tim MacGabhann, Emma McKervey, Roisín O’Donnell, Catriona Shine and Milena Williamson.
Evolution is a six-month programme that provides support for ten published writers to advance their careers. Through providing each writer with a tailored suite of supports, this programme aims to ease the difficult journey for published writers who have one or two books under their belt and need further support at a crucial stage of their careers.
The suite of supports includes access to courses, one-to-one mentoring (creative and professional), IWC membership, monthly peer-to-peer knowledge sharing forums and an opportunity to be on a paid teaching residency with the School of English and Creative Arts at the University of Galway.
The three Evolution writers selected to take part in this year’s University of Galway teaching residency are Alicia Byrne Keane, Patrick Holloway and Milena Williamson. These writers will teach on the Creative Writing undergraduate course as part of a paid residency. This unique opportunity was co-created with IWC Ambassador Mike McCormack and Dr. John Kenny, Director of the BA in English and Creative Writing at University of Galway.
Alicia Byrne Keane, Evolution awardee and selected candidate for the teaching residency, says, “I am looking forward to the opportunity to teach creative writing to university students and to learn more about selection panel processes. The Evolution Programme offers so many exciting ways to meet a cohort of other writers, to receive mentorship and to situate yourself as a practicing artist.”
The Irish Writers Centre Evolution Programme is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the University of Galway and IWC ambassador Marian Keyes.
Evolution Programme 2024 Awardees:
Francesca Bratton is a writer based in Kildare. Her debut, Stronger than Death: Hart Crane’s Last Year in Mexico was published in 2023. She is the 2023-24 Kildare Arts Writer in Residence at Maynooth University. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist.
Alicia Byrne Keane is a poet from Dublin, with work published in The Moth, Banshee, The Stinging Fly (Featured Poet 2021-22), Boulevard, The Colorado Review and Dedalus Press’s anthology Romance Options: Love Poems for Today, among other publications. Alicia’s writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been funded by Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and The Arts Council of Ireland. In May 2023, Alicia was selected for Ireland’s National Mentoring Programme. Alicia’s debut collection Pretend Cartoon Strength was released by Broken Sleep Books in December 2023.
“I am unbelievably grateful for this opportunity to develop my practice following publication of my first poetry collection. The strands I selected were one of a tailored and thoughtfully provided suite of supports: I am looking forward to the opportunity to teach creative writing to university students and to learn more about selection panel processes. The Evolution Programme offers so many exciting ways to meet a cohort of other writers, to receive mentorship and to situate yourself as a practicing artist.”
Amy Clarkin is a writer from Dublin, Ireland. Her debut novel What Walks These Halls was published by The O’Brien Press in 2023. It was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year 2023 and Great Reads Awards 2023, and nominated for the Yoto Carnegies 2023. The sequel, Who Watches This Place, was published by The O’Brien Press in April 2024.
Patrick Holloway is a writer of fiction and poetry. His debut novel, The Language of Remembering, will be published in February 2025 by Epoque Press. He is the winner of the Bath Short Story Award, The Allingham Fiction Prize, The Flash 500 Prize and The Molly Keane Creative Writing Prize. He was a recipient of The Paul McVeigh Residency and an Arts Council Agility Award. His work appears in The Stinging Fly, Southword, The London Magazine, The Moth, The Irish Times, the Irish Independent and Carve, among others. He is an editor of the literary journal, The Four Faced Liar.
“With my debut novel, The Language of Remembering, coming out early next year, this couldn’t have happened at a better time. I’m so excited to work with the Irish Writer’s Center and my peers over the next few months and am incredibly grateful for this wonderful opportunity.”
Marianne Lee grew up in Tullamore, Co. Offaly and now lives in Dublin. She has a degree in Visual Communications from the National College of Art and Design and an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin. She works as a designer and copywriter. Her debut novel, A Quiet Tide, a fictionalised account of the life of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland’s first female botanist, was published in 2020 by New Island. A Quiet Tide was shortlisted for the 2021 Kate O’Brien Award and featured on RTÉ Radio One Book on One in spring 2022.
“The Irish Writers Centre has been hugely supportive since 2019 when I was a Novel Fair winner. Now I’m delighted to participate in the Evolution Programme and look forward to new inspiration, a new direction.”
Tim MacGabhann is an Irish writer. His first two novels, Call Him Mine and How to Be Nowhere, were published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Other fiction, non-fiction and poetry has also appeared in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, The Tangerine, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Rialto, among others. He is currently at work on a PhD with funding from CHASE at UEA. A memoir, a full poetry collection, and a short-story collection are forthcoming in 2025 and 2026.
“I’ve seen who’s done the Evolution Programme before and am sort of bowled over to be in their company. For a long time I’ve felt pretty far away from writing in Ireland so it’s nice to come in from the cold a bit.”
Emma McKervey is a poet living on the Ards Peninsula. Her debut collection was published by Doire Press, and her recent poetry collection, Highland Boundary Fault, is published by Turas Press, and was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She has been shortlisted and highly commended in the Listowel Writers Week Irish Poem of the Year, and the Seamus Heaney Prize for New Writing. Highland Boundary Fault is currently longlisted for the Poetry Book Awards.
Roisín O’Donnell‘s first novel Nesting will be published in 2025. She won the prize for Short Story of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards in 2018, and was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022. She is the author of the story collection Wild Quiet, which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award. Her short fiction has featured in The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, The Irish Times and many other places. Other stories have been selected for major anthologies such as The Long Gaze Back, and have featured on RTÉ Radio. With roots in Derry and Sheffield, she now lives in Meath with her two children.
“I’m over the moon to have been chosen for the prestigious Evolution Programme, which has an incredible roster of alumni… As I embark on the daunting task of publishing one novel and writing a second, I am looking forward to getting to know a peer group of writers who are on a similar journey. My thanks to the Irish Writer’s Centre for making this happen.”
Catriona Shine’s novel, Habitat, published by the Lilliput Press, was a Sunday Times, Irish Times and The Journal Most Anticipated Book of 2024 and was longlisted as a manuscript for the McKitterick Prize. It received positive reviews in The Irish Times, The Irish Independent, The Irish Examiner and elsewhere. She was interviewed at the Maynooth University Arts and Minds Festival, on RTÉ Radio 1 Arena and Dublin City FM. She represented Dublin UNESCO City of Literature at the Nanjing International Writers’ Residency 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Dublin Review, Southword, Aesthetica, Hemingway Shorts, Channel, Nanjing Daily and elsewhere.
“My first novel, Habitat, came out this March, and I look forward to participating in the Evolution Programme as I continue with new writing. There’s not much of a sense of artistic sequence up to the publication of a first book, so I’ll be glad of this support as I move into something new with the vague aspiration of delving deeper and going further.”
Milena Williamson is from Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. She has lived in Belfast since 2017. A recipient of the Eric Gregory Award, she has a PhD in poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. She is the author of the pamphlet Charm for Catching a Train from Green Bottle Press. In March 2024, her debut poetry collection Into the Night that Flies So Fast, which explores the life and death of Bridget Cleary, was published with Dedalus Press. The book was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust.
“I’m thrilled to be part of the Evolution Programme 2024-2025! I’m excited to connect with writers across the island of Ireland, to talk about our works in progress and to form a community. Thanks to the Irish Writers Centre for facilitating this programme!”
