Author Archives for IWC_admin

Introducing our XBorders: Refuge Patricipants

January 16, 2020 3:02 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

This spring, we are delighted to welcome the return of the cross-border initiative XBorders. Now in its fourth year, XBorders will centre around the theme of Refuge, and participants will have the opportunity to explore this theme through a series of guided workshops.  This year’s participants have all been selected from previous years. They are: Michelle Gallen, Therese Kieran, Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, Dominique Cleary, Peter McNamara, Cliona O’Connell, Sue Divin, Adam Trodd, Niamh Donnellan, Jane Robinson, Cassia Gaden Gilmartin, and Pádraig Ó Meiscill. ———————————————————————————————————– Therese Kieran lives in Belfast. Her work has featured in magazines and anthologies, including: The Honest Ulsterman, The Valley Press, Poetry NI, The Blue Nib, Four X Four, Washing Windows? Tales of the Forest, Coast to Coast to Coast. She was short-listed for the North West Words Poetry 2019 competition. Sue Divin is a Derry based writer but, hailing originally from Armagh, can’t quite classify herself a ‘Derry Girl.’ Peace worker,... Read Moreread more.

Announcing the Novel Fair 2020 Finalists

December 17, 2019 11:31 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

  Announcing the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2020 Finalists  We are delighted to announce that twelve aspiring novelists have been selected from over 200 participants to take part in Novel Fair 2020 on Friday 14th February. Novel Fair is an annual Irish Writers Centre initiative which allows unpublished writers to pitch their novels directly to top agents and publishers in a series of one-to-one meetings. Now in its ninth year, Novel Fair has resulted in almost twenty success stories, giving aspiring writers the chance to kick-start their literary career. Last year alone, five of the twelve finalists secured publishing deals. Previous Novel Fair winners also include Catriona Lally, who was recently awarded the prestigious Lannan Literary Prize for Fiction, worth $100,000. This year’s winners have been named as: Margaret Ryan, Lisa Frank, Miki Lentin, Angela Keogh, Alison Wells, Catherine Joyce, Laura... Read Moreread more.

Announcing Ciara Ní É as an Irish Writers Centre Ambassador

December 13, 2019 3:33 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce Ciara Ní É as a new Irish Writers Centre Ambassador! Dubliner Ciara Ní É is the founder of REIC, a monthly bilingual spoken word and open mic night that features poetry, music, storytelling and rap. She has performed her work in Ireland and internationally. She has been published in a variety of journals including Icarus and Comhar, and in 2018 she released a series of 4 poetry videos in partnership with the Irish Writers Centre. Ciara’s commissions include UNESCO’s Dublin City of Literature video 2015, and a poem for Seó Beo Pheil na mBan on TG4, which received more than 300,000 views online. We’re fortunate to have exceptional Ambassadors in Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Anne Enright, Mike McCormack, John Banville, Marian Keyes, Joseph O’Connor and now, Ciara Ní É. IWC Ambassadors are all key figures in Irish literature selected across a range of disciplines and we... Read Moreread more.

A Week in Florence

November 1, 2019 11:36 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

by Eamonn Lynskey    Thanks to the generosity of the Irish Writers Centre I was able to partake of a week-long residency in Florence as the guest of St Mark’s English Church in early October 2019. During the week, I gave an evening reading of my work and held a workshop some days later in which I showed how one of my poems progressed from the status of being a vague idea to being a published piece in The Irish Times. I was very taken by the enthusiastic reaction of the participants on both occasions. Narrow thoroughfares Apart from these duties, my days were filled with wandering around this beautiful city and exploring its famous piazze and intriguing narrow streets. The church of Santa Maria Novella was as beautiful as I remembered from twenty-five years ago when I first spent a few days here (and when... Read Moreread more.

Announcing the 2019 DBF Young Writer Delegates

October 9, 2019 2:28 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce our Dublin Book Festival Young Writer Delegates!   Darragh Ambrose, Eva Griffin, Kevin O’hÉanna and Andrew Maguire will all be heading to Dublin Book Festival as Irish Writers Centre delegates. Now in its second year, the IWC Young Writer Delegates Programme gives young writers an opportunity to immerse themselves in a literature festival, soak up the atmosphere and to contribute to it as active participants.  During this period, they will be supported by spoken word poet Ciara Ní É who will act as a mentor, encouraging the delegates to reflect on the festival share their views online. You can keep up with the Young Writer Delegates on the Irish Writers Centre and Dublin Book Festival’s social media.   Darragh Ambrose Darragh Ambrose is from Dublin. A graduate of psychology, he was recently fired from the Crumlin Village Missile Defence Programme (CVMDP) for a breach of... Read Moreread more.

Special Offer on Membership

October 3, 2019 12:00 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

  Good news! We have a special offer on our Membership. Our Membership runs for the calendar year from January to December, with all Membership ending on the 31 December. However, in order to give people who wish to join in 2019 the full benefits of IWC Membership, we are offering a special rate. If you sign up to become a Member before the end of 2019, you will pay a special offer price of €60 which will extend your Membership until December 2020. Being a Member of the Irish Writers Centre gives you full use of our beautiful Georgian building on Parnell Square, along with heaps of other benefits. For more on how you can avail of this offer, visit our Membership page.  read more.

Novel Fair 2016 Finalist, Artist and Writer, Eoin Lane on his Forthcoming Debut Novel: BEYOND THE HORIZON

September 5, 2019 9:37 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

“She points the lens of the camera.  He turns his head slightly.  The light catches his brow and his silver, white hair.  She snaps.  He is lit like a Vermeer.” A novel about light and love and loss and one man’s determination to fulfill his life’s ambition. “And when she died,” he says “the bed began to blossom with violets.  And every Spring to this day, scented violets grow all around San Gimignano.”  One man.  The Sea.  One painting. I once heard Maeve Binchy tell how people sometimes came up to her and said “Sure, I could have written that” and her reply in typical, Binchy, trademark fashion was to simply say “well yes but you didn’t.”  I love that story and it illustrates how important it is to take pride in your work, even if you haven’t been published.... Read Moreread more.

Autumn Flash Sale Until Friday 30 September at 5 pm!

August 29, 2019 11:28 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

  We are so excited about our Autumn Programme that we are giving 10% off a selection of courses happening in the first week. Use the code AUTUMNFLASH to receive your discount for the following courses: http://bit.ly/2MKit4jhttp://bit.ly/2NCmR53http://bit.ly/346k0Hohttp://bit.ly/2ZmTnPHhttp://bit.ly/2Zo0VSnhttp://bit.ly/2Zxs7t0read more.

How to Make Mistakes and Miraculously Still get Published by Sue Divin

August 22, 2019 4:28 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

  Sue Divin, IWC Novel Fair 2019 Finalist. I made every mistake possible writing my novel – but it worked. If you already have a Masters in Creative Writing and the money to pay for expensive literary consultancy manuscript reviews then please stop reading now. If you’re scared to admit you’re a writer, wonder what possessed you to start writing a novel in the first place and still haven’t a clue what ‘literary fiction’ is, then this is for you. And yes. You should consider entering the IWC Novel Fair 2020. I’m an agented writer and Guard Your Heart, my YA début will be published in Spring 2021. There’s a sentence I never imagined writing. One night in summer 2016, I got an idea for a story, switched off the TV and started to write. I work full-time. Apply none... Read Moreread more.

Neil Sharpson on his Novel Fair Experience

August 18, 2019 8:09 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

This year, I was fortunate enough to finally get signed by a literary agent, the redoubtable Jennie Goloboy of the Donald Maas Literary Agency for my novel The Caspian Sea, (a Cold War spy thriller set two hundred years in the future, think what John Le Carré might write after a night doing absinthe with Philip K. Dick). And earlier this year I had the absolute privilege of being one of 12 novelists chosen for Novel Fair. So it’s been a good year. And given that, I thought it might be a good idea to sit down and write a step by step guide detailing how I finally was able to land an agent for the benefit of other aspiring writers beginning their journey. Right about the point I got to “Step #736, send submission letter to 150 agents, get... Read Moreread more.

NOVEL FAIR NEWS

August 14, 2019 2:00 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

“I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.” – wrote Sylvia Plath. How many aspiring writers have sent off their manuscript with a heart full of hope only to face rejection once again? Indeed our own Maeve Binchy once wrote that before she became successful, she could paper her living room walls with all of the rejection letters she had received. Imagine then if budding novelists had a unique opportunity to bypass the dreaded manuscript slush pile, to pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of venerated publishers and agents? This is precisely what happens at the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair! Described by The Irish Times as a ‘Dragon’s Den for writers’, this year’s Novel Fair is open for submissions until Friday 27 of September.  We’ve had superb feedback from the twelve winners of Novel Fair... Read Moreread more.

Introducing our Marian Keyes Young Writer Award Summer 2019 winners

July 24, 2019 10:28 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

Say hello to Mia Colleran and Rose Keating, who have been awarded the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award Summer 2019! The award, kindly sponsored by IWC Ambassador Marian Keyes, encourages and supports young writers in the development of their artistic practice.   Mia has fulfilled her childhood dream to work in a bookshop and can be found pottering around the Poetry section in Dubray. When she’s not working, she is reviewing books for The Irish Times or trying to – kindly – force people to read books that she believes are wonderful. She writes non-fiction and prose poetry. Rose is a undergraduate studying at UCC on a Quercus creative writingscholarship. She has been published in Banshee journal, Southword journaland Hot Press magazine. She works as a columnist for the Waterford News andStar.read more.