Jack Harte Bursary 2025

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Jack Harte Bursary. We are offering a professional fiction writer one-week fully resourced residency to take place at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (TGC) in 2025 (by arrangement with the TGC). Created and funded by the IWC in partnership with the TGC, this award is named in honour of Jack Harte, founder of the Irish Writers Centre, in celebration and acknowledgement of his contribution to Irish literature.

In keeping with Goal 1 of the Irish Writers Centre’s 2022-2026 Strategy, this programme will support professional writers to advance their craft and career with confidence and resilience.

About the residency

The selected writer will spend one-week at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre which is situated in the quiet countryside in County Monaghan. The residency includes access to the glorious grounds and gardens of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, the Annaghmakerrig library and a communal drawing room, which is used for collaborations, readings and talks. The accommodation will be equipped with a writing desk and lamp and all meals will be catered.

For information about the facilities on offer, please visit Tyrone Guthrie Centre’s website: https://www.tyroneguthrie.ie/facilities.

Morning-on-Annaghmakerrig-Lake. The Tyrone Guthrie Centre

“The Tyrone Guthrie Centre has consistently offered me the supremely practical gifts of time and space, teamed with a tranquil, beautiful, and nurturing environment. As a result, some of my best and most sustained writing, both fiction and non-fiction, has originated in this miraculous place.”

– Neil Hegarty, 2019 Jack Harte Bursary recipient. 

Eligibility

This is an open call for fiction writers, over 18 years of age, resident on the island of Ireland with:

• A proven track record and at least one book of fiction or collection of short stories published by a recognisable publisher. Acceptable forms of fiction include: prose, novel, short stories, screenplays and stageplays. On this occasion, poetry is not included.
• A professional membership* of the Irish Writers Centre.
• Writers of both English and Irish language are welcome to apply.

This residency is open to professional members of the Irish Writers Centre in the first instance, as part of the suite of development opportunities that we wish to provide professional writers under Goal 1 of our 2022-2026 strategy. To become a professional member, please see the Professional Member section of our website.

We are taking steps to promote equality of opportunity for all those living in Ireland, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, civil or family status, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller Community, as well as socio-economic background. We particularly welcome applicants from backgrounds typically underrepresented in the arts in Ireland to apply: Minority Ethnic, Black or Person of Colour, D/deaf, neurodiverse or disabled, LGBTQIA+, Member of the Travelling Community, Roma and Unwaged / Low-Income.

If you have benefitted from this bursary in the past three years (2022, 2023, 2024), then you are ineligible from applying this time.

Selection process

Applications will be reviewed by a selection panel made up of IWC team members and a panel of independent professional writer(s) for eligibility, expression of intent, and the range and quality of writing samples provided.

Selection will be made respecting the priority groupings described in the ‘Who Can Apply’ section above.

The recipient of the bursary will be publicly announced at a celebration event (TBC) at the Irish Writers Centre.

How to apply

If you are interested in applying please email the following to projects@irishwriterscentre.ie with the subject heading ‘Jack Harte Bursary’:

1. A cover letter including your personal details and statement of artistic intent, clearly and concisely outlining the project you would like to focus on during your time at Tyrone Guthrie Centre
2. An updated Curriculum Vitae (max. two A4 pages) including publications with ISBNs.
3. Clearly labelled samples of your work. We are looking for three short samples from different works (up to 400 words each), plus a sample from the work-in-progress that you propose to focus on during the residency (Max 3 pages).
4. Any relevant information on your proposed project such as written excerpts, photos, research information, etc.

Note: Please compile all relevant documentation into a single Word doc or PDF attachment. (Incorrect collation may result in ineligibility.)

If you have not received an acknowledgement email within three working days, please get in contact with us by email (projects@irishwriterscentre.ie) or phone: (+353) 1 872 1302).

Application Deadline

Wednesday 18 October 2023 at Midnight.

No late applications will be considered. Please note, we will acknowledge your application by return email.

If you have not received an acknowledgement email within three working days, please get in contact with us by email (projects@irishwriterscentre.ie) or phone: (+353) 1 872 1302).

Past recipients include

2024: Sue Divin

2023: Louise Phillips

2022: Micheál Ó Conghaile

2020: Jan Carson

2019: Neil Hegarty

2018: Henrietta McKervey

2017: Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

2016: Liz Nugent

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.