06 June, 2025

Announcing our 2025 Young Writer Delegates at Belfast Book Festival

We’re delighted to announce the four Irish Writers Centre Young Writer Delegates who will attend and contribute to Belfast Book Festival from 5-12 June. The delegates will be mentored by local writer Chris Wright and perform readings at a festival showcase in The Crescent on Sunday 8 June 2025 at 3:00pm (pay what you can). The four awardees are Joshua Beatty, Beth Healy, Nicole Lee and Sean Rowan.

Now in its seventh year, the Young Writer Delegates Programme gives young writers an opportunity to immerse themselves in a literary festival and to contribute to it as active participants. You can keep up with the Young Writer Delegates on their Instagram page, and through the Irish Writers Centre and Belfast social media channels. The programme is in partnership with Belfast Book Festival and Crescent Arts Centre. The Irish Writers Centre is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

The full Belfast Book Festival line-up is available to view on the festival website.

Meet the Delegates:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joshua Beatty is from the Wirral and lives in Belfast. He received an MA in Poetry from Queen’s University, Belfast. He most recently edited The Apiary, a student-led literary magazine at Queen’s. His poems are featured in The Ogham Stone and elsewhere, and his criticism is featured in The Apiary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth Healy is a writer from Tyrone currently completing her MA in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre. She writes prose and creative nonfiction (and dabbles in the odd bit of poetry from time to time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole Lee Jiaqi is a Malaysian-Chinese writer and aspiring director pursuing an MA in English (Creative Writing) at Queen’s University Belfast. Her play’s recent success, ‘Dear Diary, What is Home?’ was broadcasted on That’s TV. With several short stories and poems published, she aims to go further with her creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Rowan is a poet from Derry, influenced by Heaney, Kavanagh, Longley, and Mary Oliver. His work, published in Ropes and A New Ulster, explores place, youth identity, and the importance of mythology in Irish history and its evolving future. He is writing his first poetry collection.