Announcing the Jack Harte and Guthrie Bursary Awardees 2025

We are delighted to announce that Shauna Gilligan and Liam Maguire are the winners of the Jack Harte Bursary 2025 (Gilligan) and Guthrie Bursary 2025 (Maguire). These awards were presented by Jack Harte, Founder of the Irish Writers Centre and Anna Walsh, Director of The Tyrone Guthrie Centre last night at our annual Christmas Party on Friday 6 December.

Created in partnership with the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the bursaries will provide the awardees each with a one-week stay at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (County Monaghan) in order to develop their writing practice. Read more about the winning writers below.

Jack Harte Bursary 2025

Shauna Gilligan is the winner of the Jack Harte Bursary 2025!

Shauna Gilligan

Shauna Gilligan is a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre who facilitates creative writing in community and prison settings. Her prose has been widely published and she has received numerous awards for writing including the Cecil Day Lewis Literary Bursary for Literature (2015) and a Creative Ireland Grant (2021). Recently awarded a Brigid 1500 Grant (Kildare Co. Co.), she co-edited the anthology of writing and visual art, Fire: Brigid and The Sacred Feminine (Arlen House: Dublin, 2024). She is represented by Charlotte Seymour at Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency, London.

“Receiving The Jack Harte Bursary gifts me much needed creative space and prolonged time away from the obligations and distractions of my everyday life. Spending a week in the nurturing environs of Annaghmakerrig will allow me to immerse myself – uninterrupted! – in the world of the novel I am working on. I am truly grateful to the Irish Writers Centre, founded by Jack Harte, and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre for awarding me this incredible opportunity.” – Shauna Gillgian

Each year, the Jack Harte Bursary is awarded to a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre. The award is named in honour of Jack Harte, Founder of the Irish Writers Centre, in celebration and acknowledgement of his continuing contribution to Irish literature. Previous awardees include Sue Divin, Louise Phillips, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Jan Carson, Neil Hegarty, Henrietta McKervey, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Liz Nugent.

Guthrie Bursary 2025

Liam Maguire is the winner of the Guthrie Bursary 2025!

Liam Maguire is a writer from Louth. His work has appeared in The Four Faced Liar, The Honest Ulsterman, HOWL, Púca Magazine, Aimsir and The Madrigal. In 2024, he was selected for the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme. He is currently working on his first novel.

“The Irish Writers Centre and The Tyrone Guthrie Centre have given me something I do not take for granted – the chance to spend a week focused on my first novel. I am so grateful to have been chosen and this opportunity.” – Liam Maguire

Liam Maguire is the inaugural recipient of the Guthrie Bursary. Presented in partnership with the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and the Irish Writers Centre, this bursary is for an emerging writer between the ages of 18-26 years and who is from a background typically underrepresented in Irish literature.

About the Tyrone Guthrie Centre

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a cross-border organisation that offers time away, space to work, and opportunities for collaboration and networking for artists that facilitates the development of their practice across all art forms.

Annaghmakerrig House is situated in the quiet countryside of County Monaghan, and together with our self-catering cottages, our studios and performance spaces, as well as our lake and our forests, gardens, and fields, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a place where creativity flourishes amid the many pressures and distractions of contemporary life. Providing a quiet environment that esteems, supports, and develops our artists is what we do, but we aim to do it more holistically by creating audiences for our artists where appropriate, and by creating partnerships with organisations such as The Irish Writers Centre for the benefit of artists from all communities on the island of Ireland.