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Black and white image of the Shandon Bells in Cork

Opportunities & Competitions: April 2023

April 5, 2023 2:59 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Photo credit: The beautiful Shandon Bells and Tower in Cork City shot by our wonderful Projects Assistant Emily O’Brien in 2021. Each month we update our Competitions & Submissions page, along with our Bursaries & Funding, to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. Here are a few deadlines we wanted to highlight this April. Journals   The Pigs Back Deadline: 15th April The Pig’s Back (named for Donegal’s Muckish mountain and for the phrase ar mhuin na muice, to be in luck) is a literary prose journal that aims to bring the rest of Ireland – and in turn, the world – to the northwest. Founded by the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny, it publishes short fiction and essays.The Pig’s Back seeks submissions of previously unpublished fiction and non-fiction. They accept work from anywhere in the world... Read Moreread more.


“A lot of effort goes into making a piece of writing look effortless”: Past Novel Fair Participants Discuss What Makes a Winning Manuscript

April 3, 2023 4:07 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Last Wednesday, we were delighted to launch the 2024 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair with an online panel discussion hosted by our Programming Officer, Betty Stenson. The discussion, which gave aspiring novelists the opportunity to ask questions about the annual Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair competition and hear from past participants featured writer and 2021 winner Lauren Mackenzie, literary agent Gráinne Fox, and novelist and 2023 judge Alan McMonagle. The Novel Fair, now in its twelfth year, is a 2-day event offering debut novelists the opportunity to pitch their work to agents and publishers in the hope of securing a home for their manuscript. Novel Fair 2024 Launch Event Writers showed up in their droves, hoping to gain insight into what makes a manuscript appealing to publishers and how best to prepare their novel for submission. From over 130 participants, the... Read Moreread more.


Announcing our 2023 IWC Mentor/Member Duo Programme Participants

March 29, 2023 4:28 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

We are delighted to announce the six writers selected to participate in the 2023 IWC Mentor/Member Duo Programme, funded by Dublin City Council. The programme, now in its third year, is open to all those living in the administrative area of Dublin City Council and is especially geared towards writers from backgrounds currently underrepresented in Irish literature. The six writers selected to participate in this year’s programme are Suad Aldarra, Larissa Brigatti, Fatoumata Gandega, Mary Guiney, Maya Kulukundis and Kerry Mahony. As part of the IWC Mentor/Member Duo Programme, the selected participants will receive one year of IWC membership, as well as one 90-minute mentoring session through our One-to-One-Mentoring Programme. This will allow participants to develop their writing with the aid of a professional mentor who will provide feedback on a sample of their work.   The 2023 IWC Mentor/Member... Read Moreread more.


Announcing our 2023 IWC/Cúirt Young Writer Delegates

March 22, 2023 2:50 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce our IWC/Cúirt Young Writer Delegate awardees, who will attend Cúirt International Festival of Literature from 18 – 23 April and work with local writer mentor Alan McMonagle. The four awardees are Lucy Bleeker, Deirdre Bolger, Arianne Clarke, Gráinne Condron and Matthew O’Rourke. Now in its sixth year, the IWC Young Writer Delegates Programme gives young writers an opportunity to immerse themselves in a literature 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 Cúirt social media channels. The full programme is now also available to view over on the festival website.   The Young Writer Delegates                   Lucy Bleeker is a Galway based cross-genre writer. Her one act... Read Moreread more.


8 Writers and 10 Scientists Selected for the Writing the Earth Programme 2023

March 15, 2023 4:05 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

The Irish Writers Centre (IWC) in partnership with the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG) is delighted to announce the 8 writers and 10 scientists who will be taking part in Writing the Earth, a pilot programme for writers working with scientists. This is a fully-funded programme for eight writers interested in climate justice and geosciences. Building on the hugely popular IWC Climate Writing Group, this programme aims to take writing about our planet to the next stage. Writing the Earth brings writers and scientists together in person and online to research and write about climate and geoscience in various genres or forms. In a collaborative process of talks and workshops, the scientists will inform and guide the writers through scientific processes in plain English This will enable them to form their creative ideas around an aspect of climate... Read Moreread more.


Opportunities & Competitions: March 2023

March 9, 2023 11:33 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Each month we update our Competitions & Submissions page, along with our Bursaries & Funding, to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. Here are a few deadlines we wanted to highlight this March!   Grants and Bursaries Fingal County Council, Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Bealtaine Festival Residency Award 2023 Deadline: 27th March 2023 Fingal Arts Office, in association with The Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Bealtaine Festival, is pleased to announce two, month-long, residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. These residences aim to celebrate and support older artists at all stages of their careers working in literature and visual arts. The Residency will include: · En Suite accommodation and full board in the Big House at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre will be provided for a professional writer on agreed selected dates from June – December and includes quiet... Read Moreread more.


NF Round Up

Novel Fair 2023 Round Up

February 22, 2023 2:05 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Friday 17 February was our first in-person Novel Fair in three years. In the room were our 12 Novel Fair winners, several of whom had travelled from the UK as well as publishers and literary agents from far and wide, including two who tuned in remotely. Our guests for the day included Blake Friedmann Agency, Bonnier Books, Curtis Brown, Epoque, Fletcher & Company, Greene & Heaton, Hachette Books, Hodder, Lilliput Press, Marianne Gunne O’Conor, Mulcahy Sweeney, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Storyline Lit Agency, The Bent Agency, The Book Bureau Literary Agency, The Feldstein Agency and The Lisa Richards Agency. The selected writers Tom O’Connell, Jennifer McMahon, Abby Connolly, Christina Carty, Cassie Smith-Christmas, Colm Maher, Fidelma Mahon, Laura Martz, Jill K Wilson, Sylvia Bluck, Geraldine Creed and Barbara Leahy met with top publishers and agents in a series of one-to-one meetings... Read Moreread more.


Northern Soul Roadshow Awardees 2023

February 15, 2023 3:13 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce the awardees of our new Northern Soul Roadshow (NSR), a programme which spotlights diverse and native writers from the North of Ireland. Delivered across a series of creative writing events and workshops curated and facilitated by Fiona O’Rourke, the programme exclusively features writers born in the North of Ireland and those who have moved there from further afield. Over the course of the 6 weeks, the awardees will benefit from a rich programme of activities, including the opportunity to hone their craft in a supportive writing community of guest readings, lively Q&A discussions, and facilitated writing exercises. In keeping with Goal 2 of our new 2022–2026 Strategy, the roadshow will enhance opportunities for people across all communities to explore and participate in creative writing. NSR is curated by writer-facilitator Fiona O’Rourke, in association with the Irish... Read Moreread more.


Feb Deadlines

Opportunities & Competitions: February 2023

February 7, 2023 3:21 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Each month we update our Competitions & Submissions page, along with our Bursaries & Funding, to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. Here are a few deadlines we wanted to highlight this February! Arts Council: Agility Award 2023 Deadline: 9th February 2023 The Agility Award aims to support individual professional freelance artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers. Arts Council: Literature Bursary Award Deadline: 9th February 2023 The objective of the English Language Literature Bursary Award is to enable professional writers and picture book artists (working mainly through the English language) to spend more time on their creative work. The award seeks to provide writers and picture book artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect, create and write. It enables writers and picture book artists to concentrate on their creative work... Read Moreread more.


NI Support Schemes 2023

NI Support Scheme Awardees 2023

January 10, 2023 2:58 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce the awardees of our Support Schemes for Northern Irish Writers, supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which offer subsidised membership and mentoring schemes for writers from or based in Northern Ireland. In keeping with Goal 2 of our new 2022–2026 Strategy, these schemes will enhance opportunities for people across all communities to explore and participate in creative writing. The awardees of the Membership Support Scheme are as follows: Professional Members Felicity McCall, Sue Divin, Ellie Rose McKee, Therese Kieran, Byddi Lee, Lynda Tavakoli, Shelly Tracey, Moyra Donaldson, Angela Graham and Juanita Rea. Associate Members Elaine Gormley, Alexandra McDonnell-Hill, Thomas Pole, Catherine Regan, Suzanne Mageee, Rosaline Callaghan, Lynne Edgar, Eilish Mulholland, Maura Martin and Edel Quinn. Our membership scheme connects our community of writers from across the island through a number of member benefits, including access... Read Moreread more.


Opportunities & Competitions: January 2023

January 3, 2023 4:43 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Each month we update our Competitions & Submissions page, along with our Bursaries & Funding, to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. Here are a few deadlines we wanted to highlight this January! WriteNow Deadline: 6th January 2023 WriteNow is Penguin’s award-winning programme to seek out, nurture and publish new writers from communities under-represented on the nation’s bookshelves. The programme is designed to give participating writers the tools, information, and access needed to navigate the publishing industry and launch their career as a successful author. CCI Artist Residency Programme Deadline: 12th January 2023 Our annual residency programme offers great opportunities for artists of all disciplines to tap into the resources of Paris and the CCI, as well as being an important means of showcasing Ireland’s dynamic contemporary culture on an international stage. Since 2015, we have partnered... Read Moreread more.


ACNI Course Bursary Awardees 2023

ACNI Course Bursary Awardees 2023

January 3, 2023 3:34 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce the 40 beginner and emerging Northern Irish writers selected to receive Course Bursaries, as part of a new programme funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The successful writers are: Ann Connors, Jacqueline McKay, Nadia Cusack, Marie Clare Friar, Alexandra McDonnell-Hill, Anna Delargy, Jimmy Kerr, Gary McKeever, Conor McPhillips, Ide Simpson, Siúbán O’Hare, Beth McClenahan, Ashling Lindsay, Paula Fusco, Joanne Burns, Alec Gourley, Fay Watson, Catherine Regan, Anne Gallagher, Deirdre McAliskey, Aaron Hickland, Lauren Kerr, Niall O’Siadhail, Nan Fee, Rosaline Callaghan, John Aherne, Rory Milhench, Catherine Higgins-Moore, Lynne Edgar, Eilish Mulholland, Bernie McQuillan, Darlene Corry, Susanna Galbraith, Edel Quinn, Heather Brown, Alison O’Neill, Charlene O’Donnell, Sylvia Wilson, Tony Black, and Mary McClean. These bursaries will enable participants to develop skills through funded places at Irish Writers Centre creative writing courses, and open up access to... Read Moreread more.


Image of a writer pitching her work to a publisher across a table

Novel Fair 2023: Runners-Up & Highly Commended

December 21, 2022 11:30 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Last week we announced the twelve emerging writers selected for Novel Fair 2023, as selected by the judging panel Alan McMonagle, Mary Watson and Conor Kostick. Of the three hundred entries to the Fair, they additionally selected twelve runners-up and twelve highly commended as follows. These writers will receive a short critique of their work from one of the judges. Judge Conor Kostick observed: “The diversity of voices, the skill of the authors, and the fascinating characters of these novels made reading the entries a real pleasure. I’m just sorry we have to limit the numbers for the day’s event, because far more than the final selection were above the threshold to be published. I hope those who didn’t make the cut will not lose heart and will send their manuscripts to publishers and agents far and wide.” Runners-Up A... Read Moreread more.


12 Emerging Writers Selected as the Winners of Novel Fair 2023

December 14, 2022 10:41 am Published by Leave your thoughts

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce that 12 emerging writers have been selected from over 300 entrants to take part in Novel Fair 2023 on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 February 2023. This marks the 11th year of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, an initiative which allows unpublished writers the opportunity to break through to the Irish, UK & international publishing world. Our 12 Novel Fair winners will pitch their work to top publishers and agents in a series of one-to-one meetings. In 2023, the Novel Fair will take place over 2 days, in-person at 19 Parnell Square on Friday 17 February and remotely on Saturday 18 February, thus allowing publishers, agents and finalists to participate from around the globe. Sincere congratulations to the 12 winners who were chosen from over 300 manuscript entries which came from... Read Moreread more.