24 June, 2026
Regional Roadshow: The Irish Writers Centre at West Cork Literary Festival 2026!
Throughout 2026, the Irish Writers Centre is touring the island, bringing an exciting programme of literary events from creative writing workshops, showcases, panel discussions, masterclasses and information sessions to the four provinces, serving an all-island literary community with tuition, peer support and networking opportunities for writers at every stage of their journey.
In July, our Roadshow is heading to Bantry for the West Cork Literary Festival, running from 10–17 July 2025, with an international lineup of renowned and emerging writers. The festival has been a firm fixture in Ireland’s literary scene for over 25 years! You can see the festival brochure here.
We are delighted to offer six events and a special members event and open mic showcase this year; please see details below and links to buy tickets.
Events
The Sentence and the Self: John Banville and Victoria Kennefick in conversation
Time & date: Sunday 12 July, 3pm
Venue: Maritime Hotel Bantry
“In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there,” John Banville. Swimming out into a conversational ocean of literary and legacy, novelist John Banville and poet Victoria Kennefick come together on behalf of the Irish Writer Centre to explore the poetics of prose, passions, and the impossibility of doing anything else other than writing.
Time & date: Monday 13 July, 3pm
Venue: Maritime Hotel Bantry
Anxiety, it could be said, is the curse of our age. It adopts many guises and germinates from many seeds planted by childhood hurts, illness, loss, relationships, ageing and technology to name but a few. How do we, as poets, grapple with these myriad anxieties, face them, channel them and craft them into poems that are in real service to our readers. Join us for this immersive, generative workshop where we will focus, breathe and truly bear witness to the full spectrum of what it means to be human and make poems that will confront, soothe and dispel the crippling spectre of unacknowledged fear. Feel the fear and do it all anyway!
Irish Writers Centre Info Session with Damien B. Donnelly
Time & date: Tuesday 14 July, 3pm
Venue: Maritime Hotel Bantry
Join us for an informal exploration of the Irish Writer Centre, the country’s national resource centre for writers at all stages of their careers. Head of Programming, Damien B. Donnelly, himself a published writer, podcaster and Editor in Chief of The Storms journal, will take you through the annual IWC offering from its 150 academy of course, online and in-person, its residencies, bursaries, regional roadshows, both the National Mentoring and Evolution programmes and the international Debut Novel Competition.
Beyond the Rainbow with Andrew Cunning, Adiba Jaigirdar, Katherine O’Donnell and Damien B. Donnelly
Time & date: Wednesday 15 July, 3pm
Venue: Maritime Hotel Bantry
In this Irish Writers Centre part panel discussion / part reading, we explore new writing from the LQBTQAI+ community who’ve broken down the boundaries of binary and finding form in the fluidity of who we are. Featuring the Irish Writers Centre International Debut Novel Competition 2025 winner Andrew Cunning, professor, activist and author of Slant, Katherine O’Donnell, and Bangladeshi/Irish writer Adiba Jaigirdar. Chaired by Damien B. Donnelly.
The Word on the Street with Julie Goo, Holly Hughes, Tim O’Driscoll and Catherine Ronan
Time & date: Wednesday 15 July, 8pm
Venue: Ma Murphys
With its fusions in rap, jazz, poetry and performance, and its engagement with all that is pressing, political and repressed, this year’s Irish Writers Centre Spoken Word showcase features bilingual poet and writer Julie Goo, poet, performer and essayist Holly Hughes, Cork-based writer Tim O’Driscoll and West Cork poet and performer, Catherine Ronan.
An Irish Writers Centre Zine Workshop
Time & date: Thursday 16 July, 3-5pm
Venue: Maritime Hotel Bantry
During this 2.5 hour session participants will make a zine from start to finish on their own special interest, or a project of theirs that is in progress. Participants will learn two zine folding techniques and will then choose one to fill with their interest. We invite each participant to bring their own research material, writing, etc. We will supply materials, as well as a printer in the space so participants can print anything they want to include.
About the Participants
John Banville is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and book reviewer. He worked in journalism for many years, and was literary editor at The Irish Times from 1988 to 2000. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, the Guardian, New Statesman and other journals. His latest novel is Venetian Vespers. His works include The Book of Evidence, The Sea, and The Infinities. Among the awards he has received are the Man Booker Prize, the Austrian State Prize for Literature, the Kafka Prize, Irish PEN Award and the Prince of Asturias Award. He has written a number of crime novels, including Snow, and, most recently, The Drowned. He was born in Wexford, and lives in Dublin.
Andrew Cunning was born on the north coast and now lives in North Belfast. He has a PhD in Literature and Theology and has taught in various universities on the island. In 2017 Andrew travelled to Iowa City to meet and interview the American novelist Marilynne Robinson, the subject of his PhD thesis. In 2021 he published Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary with Bloomsbury. Inspired by the experience of meeting his literary hero, Clara and Christina is his first novel. Andrew now works in an all-ability boys secondary school, teaching English and literacy.
Damien B. Donnelly is Head of Programming at the Irish Writers Centre, having spent 25 years in Paris, London and Amsterdam working in the fashion industry. He’s the author of 2 poetry pamphlets, a micro collection and 2 full collections, the last of which was Back from Away, Turas Press, 2024. He’s a recipient of multiple Agility Awards and Artists Support Schemes. He’s the host & producer of Eat the Storms poetry podcast and EIC of The Storms journal. His work appears in various journals and anthologies.
Julie Goo is a bilingual poet and writer from Cork City. Her writing has been published widely and her debut poetry collection DÁNA was published by Coiscéim in 2021 under the name Julie Field. Selected poems have been translated into English, German, and Italian, and have been chosen by Poetry Ireland as part of the Guth na hÉigse competition across secondary schools. Goo is Irish Language guest editor for HOWL New Irish Writing 26, and her debut novel is due to be released by Mercier Press in 2027.
Holly Hughes is a writer, poet, and performer from Clonakilty. Her debut solo show, I Want to Speak to Your Manager, performed to sold-out audiences at Dublin Fringe Festival in 2025. She was selected for the 2026 Box of Tricks playwriting programme, run by the Abbey Theatre. The Irish Independent named her a rising star to watch this year. Holly represented Ireland at the 2025 Poetry Slam World Cup, winning third place. She was a runner-up in the 2024 All-Ireland Poetry Slam, a State Finalist in the 2023 Australian Poetry Slam and has been published in Westerly, Washing Windows V, and The Stony Thursday Book. She is completing a Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.
Adiba Jaigirdar is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Henna Wars and Hani & Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating. A Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher, she has an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Kent, England and a BA in English and History from UCD, Ireland. All of her writing is aided by tea, and a healthy dose of Janelle Monáe and Hayley Kiyoko. When not writing, she is probably ranting about the ills of colonialism, playing video games, or expanding her overflowing lipstick collection.
Annie Mar is a Cork-based visual artist with a focus on painting, drawing, and animation. As a person of mixed heritage who grew up in Ireland, her work uses personal narrative, figuration, and colour to play out themes of identity and relationship; to ourselves, each other, and the land. Her work is sustained through visual diaries and zines, where she actively documents her processes through drawing and writing. Her arts practice is supported by a BA in History of Art and Philosophy (UCC) and diplomas in Textiles (Crawford Art College) and Illustration (Cork College of FET). Annie is a producer at Cork Zine Fest, annually creating space for the Irish DIY community in Cork City.
Katherine O’Donnell was born in Cork and spent her childhood on the naval base at Haulbowline island, attending a two-teacher school. She studied at University College Cork and later Boston College on a Fulbright Scholarship. She worked briefly as a journalist in RTÉ. Katherine is now Professor of the History of Ideas at UCD’s School of Philosophy. She has been an activist for many years, involved in, most notably, the Justice for Magdalenes Campaign and, more generally, with justice issues and the LGBTQ+ community. Katherine practices Buddhism and acupuncture and splits her time between Dublin, Cork and her converted camper van. Slant is her debut novel.
Tim O’Driscoll is a Cork poet and writer. He holds an Honours degree in English Literature from University College Cork. Performing spoken word pieces at Listowel Writers’ Week and O Bhéal’s Winter Warmer festival, Tim developed his craft and was a finalist in the Munster poetry slam in Waterford, going on to the All-Ireland Poetry Slam in 2026 in Bangor Co. Down. Tim regularly takes part at storytelling and spoken word events with Seanchoiche around Ireland, including the WanderWild festival and Beyond the Pale, as well as London’s iconic Spitnights.
Catherine Ronan is an Irish, award-winning poet who has been writing poetry since childhood. She is deputy poetry editor for Swerve Magazine and curates the Lit Lounge. Her chapbooks, Alchemy and Synchrodestiny were highly commended in the International Fool for Poetry Competition. Her poetry collection, Elemental Skin, was published by Revival Press and nominated by them for the Heaney, Pigott and Forward Poetry Prizes.
Victoria Kennefick’s debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Book Award, Derek Walcott Prize and the Butler Literary Prize. Her second collection, Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, 2024) was a Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2024 and won the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award 2025. She was the 2025 Arts Council of Ireland/Trinity College Dublin Writer Fellow.
