Author Archives for IWC_admin

Opportunities & Competitions: January 2023

January 3, 2023 4:43 pm Published by IWC_admin 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

January 3, 2023 3:34 pm Published by IWC_admin 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.

Novel Fair 2023: Runners-Up & Highly Commended

December 21, 2022 11:30 am Published by IWC_admin 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 IWC_admin 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.

Lacuna & Jack Harte Bursary Awardees 2022

December 8, 2022 10:55 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Jack Harte and Lacuna Bursary 2022. The awards were presented by Jack Harte and Dr Eimear O’Connor, Director of The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, at our Members’ Christmas Party on Wednesday 7th December. You can read more about the winning writers and awards below. Lacuna Bursary 2022 The Lacuna Bursary is a new bursary specifically designed to support an emerging writer from an underrepresented group to develop their writing. It is created and funded by the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in partnership with the Irish Writers Centre. The awardee will be presented with a one-week fully resourced Writer-in-Residence Bursary to take place in 2023 by arrangement with the TGC. Photo courtesy of Bloom Artist Management Mahito Indi Henderson is this year’s awardee. He is a Canadian American writer and actor based in Dublin. He is... Read Moreread more.

Opportunities & Competitions: December 2022

December 6, 2022 1:47 pm Published by IWC_admin 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 in December! Channel Magazine Deadline: 5th December 2022 Essay submissions, which will be considered for online publication as well as for our next print issue, are open year-round. We also welcome submissions of visual art, to be featured on the covers of future issues, at any time. We ask that, if your work was featured in our most recent print issue, you wait one issue before submitting again. Due to the volume of work received, we also ask that writers submit in only one prose category per issue (i.e. please feel free to send us poetry and a short story, or poetry and an essay, but... Read Moreread more.

Our Young Writer Delegates look back on Dublin Book Festival 2022

November 22, 2022 12:23 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

Earlier this month, writers, readers and book-lovers from far and wide attended the Dublin Book Festival 2022, which took place from 8-13th November in venues across the city. Among the attendees were our IWC/DBF Young Writer Delegates, Eva-Marie McNamee, Ellen Duggan, HK Ní Shioradáin, and Annie Brown. Here is what they thought of the experience. RTÉ Radio One Arena at the Hugh Lane Gallery: Review by Eva-Marie McNamee Hosted by Seán Rocks from RTÉ Arena, this event marked the opening of the Dublin Book Festival, with a range of speakers and live music taking place over the course of the evening. The celebratory feel was tangible from first entering the beautiful gallery, located right beside the Irish Writer’s Centre on Parnell Street. Seated in a marble hall, the audience were surrounded by various paintings and busts of illustrious literary figures, which... Read Moreread more.

Get Writing: Tips to Kickstart Your Practice

November 17, 2022 2:27 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

    With writing, as with most things in life, getting started is the really difficult part. Progress comes slow at first and sometimes there can be nothing worse than having to drag yourself to your desk to sit down and write. Here are some tips to help kickstart your practice and to keep you working when the going gets rough!   Make time for writing Lots of people want to write but nobody’s got the time! Right? Nope. Part of the reason nobody thinks they have the time to write is the false notion that it takes hours upon hours of trawling over your manuscript to get any useful work done. But just ask any of those famous writers who are also full time parents, or those published authors who still managed to keep up a day job. If... Read Moreread more.

Opportunities & Competitions: November 2022

November 1, 2022 2:06 pm Published by IWC_admin 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 in November! Competitions & Opportunities Cafe Writers Poetry Competition 2022 Deadline: 14th November 2022 Café Writers is a Norwich based grass-roots writers’ network supporting and showcasing work by established writers in all genres. It also encourages and champions new work by emerging writers. Cafe Writers is passionate about encouraging wider participation and excellence in literature. This competition funds their programme and allows them to pay writers properly. This year’s judge is Jennifer Wong. The Pig’s Back: Issue 3 Deadline: 15th November 2022 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... Read Moreread more.

Announcing our IWC/DBF Young Writer Delegates 2022

October 18, 2022 10:42 am Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

We’re delighted to announce our IWC/DBF Young Writer Delegate awardees, who will attend the Dublin Book Festival from 8-13th November, and work with local writer mentor Seán Hewitt. The four awardees are Ellen Duggan, HK Ní Shioradáin, Annie Brown and Eva-Marie McNamee. Now in its fifth 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 DBF social media channels. The full programme is now also available to view over on the festival website. Ellen Duggan is a third year English Literature student at University College Dublin, where she has contributed to the student-led creative writing publication, Caveat Lector, as well as to the... Read Moreread more.

Opportunities & Competitions: October 2022

October 4, 2022 3:56 pm Published by IWC_admin 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 in October! Competitions & Opportunities The Honest Ulsterman Deadline: 8th October 2022 We’re calling for poetry (up to 3 poems), prose and critical writing, suggestions for interviews etc for our October 2022 issue. Prose can be up to 5000 words. We prefer submissions to be made in Word (or similar – not PDF) format. We’d also welcome video poetry. Video submissions should have a link to Youtube etc. Please put your name and short bio in the body of your submission email otherwise it may accidentally end up in the Spam folder. There is no fee for submitting. As we are a free online magazine we... Read Moreread more.

“The time after Novel Fair was one of the most exciting periods of my life.” Interview with 2022 winner Orla Mackey

September 16, 2022 1:58 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

Novel Fair 2023 is currently open for submissions, with the deadline approaching on Friday 30 September. We discussed the competition with 2022 winner Orla Mackey for an insight into her journey. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and about your debut Mouthing? I’m a teacher and writer. I write fiction and educational texts for children. I first began writing stories and poems in 4th Class. I love listening to the rhythms of language, particularly the language of rural Ireland.  My writing is a celebration of the ordinary. In my spare time, I like to obsess over Edna O’Brien and eat chips. I dislike swimming togs. Mouthing is a darkly humorous novel that represents the voice of ordinary working-class Irish people.  It’s set between the 1960s and early 2000s. It follows the progress of twelve characters in a small village in Ireland. The title stems... Read Moreread more.

The Evolution Programme: NUIG Internship

September 12, 2022 4:26 pm Published by IWC_admin Leave your thoughts

We are delighted to announce the three Evolution writers who have been selected for the teaching internship with the School of English and Creative Arts at NUI Galway. The successful awardees are Aingeala Flannery, Alice Kinsella and Amanda Geard. Olivia Fitzsimons, author of The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray, 2022), took part in the internship last year and had this to say;  “I had such a warm welcome from staff (Dr John Kenny, Mike McCormack) and the students at NUI Galway and it was a highlight of my year.” Aingeala Flannery was born in Waterford. She’s an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer. Her writing has been published in the Bath Anthology and Harper’s Bazaar, and has been broadcast on RTÉ Radio One. Aingeala was a finalist in the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair 2018. She completed an MFA in... Read Moreread more.

Opportunities & Competitions: September 2022

September 6, 2022 4:26 pm Published by IWC_admin 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 in September! Competitions & Opportunities Red Line Festival Poetry Competition 2022 Deadline: Monday 12th September  Red Line Festival is calling on aspiring poets to submit their work for the 2022 Red Line Festival poetry competition. Now in its tenth year, the prestigious Red Line Poetry Competition attracts hundreds of entries from all across the island of Ireland annually. This year, Red Line Festival is honoured to have award-winning poet Jessica Traynor judge the competition entries. The Moth Nature Writing Prize Deadline: 15th September 2022 The Moth Nature Writing Prize aims to encourage and celebrate the art of nature writing. It is awarded annually to an unpublished... Read Moreread more.