Regional Roadshows
2025 has found the Irish Writers Centre at some of Ireland’s top literary festivals, including Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Galway), UL Creative Writing Festival (Limerick), Belfast Book Festival, and West Cork Literary Festival (Bantry) with two more exciting events upcoming – Write by the Sea (Wexford) and the Dublin Book Festival.
This year’s inaugural Regional Roadshows mark the Irish Writers Centre’s biggest foray into literary events outside of the capital, and there’s even more to come in future. To date, events have featured panel discussions with some of the country’s most exciting writers, creative writing workshops, seminars with award-winning novelists, and zine-making workshops!
Learn more about our past and future Regional Roadshows below.
Upcoming Roadshows
Write By the Sea (Wexford)
Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025
Creative writing seminar with David Butler. Free session on the craft of story writing, where Irish Writers Centre CEO Mags McLoughlin will outline invaluable support, opportunities, and resources the Irish Writers Centre has available for writers at every stage of their career.
Panel discussion: Wired Our Own Way. In conversation with Wired Our Own Way: An Anthology of Irish Autistic Voices contributor Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan are Niamh Garvey, Jennifer Poyntz, and Nuala O’Connor.
Zine Workshop with CC Darlington and Veronica Victor of Wexford Pride.
More details and booking here.
Dublin Book Festival
Wednesday 5th – Sunday 9th November 2025
Writing the Body, an Irish Writers Centre panel discussion. Joining us on Saturday, 8th November, are poet and essayist Gustav Parker Hibbet, poet Sam Furlong, and podcaster and columnist Sophie White. The three panellists will chat to poet Molly Twomey about the body and how it filters through their words.
Out on the Page, an Irish Writers Centre panel discussion. Our second panel of the festival will feature writers Anne Walsh Donnelly, Seán Hewitt, and Soula Emmanuel discussing the importance of queer visibility in writing. The event will be chaired by Neil Hegarty.
Creative writing workshop. Join the Irish Writers Centre and multi-award-winning poet Cormac Mac Gearailt for a two-hour workshop on how to write and perform spoken word poetry. This event is suitable for beginners, intermediates, and anyone looking to become more comfortable reading and performing their work in English or Irish.
Zine Workshop with Mot Collins. Our fourth and final event of the festival will be an accessible introduction to creating, storytelling, and self-expression led by facilitator Mot Collins. Materials will be provided, though participants are welcome to bring supplies.
Past Events
West Cork Literary Festival
Friday 11th – Friday 18th July 2025
Panel discussion: An Island of Many Nations. The second edition of our panel discussion included poet, scholar, and critic Catherine Gander in conversation with Indian-born author of Paddy Irish and The Inheritance Cauvery Madhavan, and Dublin-born author of Glorious Exploits Ferdia Lennon.
Zine workshop led by Cork-based visual artist, of Scottish-Catalan heritage, Annie Mar.
Creative writing seminar with award-winning writer and teacher Sarah Moore Fitzgerald from the University of Limerick. This session explored the secret doorways to the novel’s plot and structure.
Spoken Word Showcase was a free event featuring some of Cork’s most exciting spoken word artists. Including performances from Jim Crickard, Shaunna Lee Lynch, and rapper and spoken word artist Raphael Olympio.
Out on the Page panel discussion. With Chloe Michelle Howarth, author of Sunburn, poet, lecturer, and teacher at University College Cork, Liz Quirke, and poet and founding editor of Impossible Archetype, an international journal of LGBTQI+ poetry, and Mark Ward. This discussion was chaired by Head of Programming at the Irish Writers Centre, poet, podcaster, and editor Damien B. Donnelly. The panel examined LGBTQI+ visibility in literature a decade after Ireland’s landmark Marriage Equality referendum.
Belfast Book Festival
Thursday 5th – Thursday 12th June 2025
Irish Writers’ Centre Information Session led by Head of Programming Damien B. Donnelly in conversation with Andrew Cunning, Sue Divin, and Deirdre Cartmill. The three panellists shared their experiences as recipients of some of the Irish Writers Centre’s key programmes, including the National Mentoring Programme, the International Debut Novel Competition, and Evolution.
Irish Writers Centre Showcase: Young Writer Delegates & New Voices: North 2025. Shining a light on emerging talent, this special event hosted by writer and mentor Chris Wright featured readings by awardees from two programmes at the Irish Writers Centre.
Now in its eighth year, the Irish Writers Centre Young Writer Delegates Programme was created to allow writers aged 18-26 to immerse themselves in, and contribute to, a literature festival, and to experience the Irish literary landscape first-hand. The Young Writer Delegates Programme includes mentoring, free access to festival events, and a public showcase, among other things.
New Voices: North 2025 offered emerging writers the opportunity to further their practice through sustained support from mentors, including award-winning author Jan Carson and poet Stephen Sexton. The 2025 awardees were Caitlin Young, Cameron Tharmaratnam, Josh McCune, Susanna Galbraith, and John Moriarty.
University of Limerick Creative Writing Festival
Wednesday 9th – Saturday 12th April 2025
Panel discussion: An Island of Many Nations. Featuring author Afric McGlinchey, who was born in Ireland but spent her formative years in South Africa, Indian-born writer Cauvery Madhavan, Suad Aldarra, a Syrian writer based in Dublin, and Dr Tapaysa Narang, an Irish Research Council postdoctoral researcher drawing attention to lesser-known small press productions from Ireland and India in the 1960s and 70s.
The Word on the Street, spoken word showcase. With performances from a cohort of rappers, slam, and spoken word poets: Cormac Mac Gearailt, Sheila Ryder, Lauren McNamara, and Kev Kennedy.
Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Galway)
Tuesday 8th – Sunday 13th April 2025
Creative writing seminar – Writing Fiction for Beginners with writer Alan McMonagle.
Young Writer Delegates Showcase. Our selected delegates, Nina Devine, Angelia D’Souza, Summer Luyako, Surnaí Molloy, and Czacarri Muli took part in a showcase, performing work to a packed audience in the Nun’s Island Theatre. Their local writer-mentor, Alan McMonagle, was also in attendance with previous Young Writer Delegates.
