Novel Fair 2025 Launch

Join us for the online launch of Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2025! Tune in to this panel discussion, chaired by IWC’s Programming Officer Betty Stenson, to learn first-hand experiences of the Novel Fair journey: from submission to selection, what happens at the Novel Fair itself, and finally, to the process of finding an agent or a publisher – and beyond.

Featuring author and past Novel Fair winner, Olivia Fitzsimons, literary agent, Conor Nagle, and 2024 Novel Fair judge, Susan Tomaselli, this session this should not be missed!

The discussion will also provide insider tips on how writers might prepare their submissions ahead of the Novel Fair deadline (30 September, 2024) and ways to catch the attention of a Novel Fair judge.

Read more about the panelists:

Olivia Fitzsimons is a writer from Northern Ireland. Her debut novel, The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (2022), was shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien and Butler Literary Awards, and was one of the Irish Examiner Books of the Year for 2022. She is a contributing editor at The Stinging Fly and commissions This So-Called Writing Life essay series.

Conor Nagle is a former commissioning editor with Gill Books and publisher at HarperCollins Ireland. In 2024, he established the Nagle Agency, a Dublin-based literary agency specialising in Irish-originated fiction, non-fiction, and children’s publishing. Over the past ten years, he has helped shape the fortunes of dozens of best-selling and award-winning titles.

Susan Tomaselli is founder and editor of gorse journal, and associated Gorse Editions. She has written for numerous publications, introduced a re-issue of Mervyn Wall’s Leaves For the Burning (Swan River Press), and has contributed to the books We’ll Never Have Paris (Repeater Books), In Context 4 – In Our Time (South Dublin County Council’s programme of public art), Hairline Crack: A Dialogue (Niamh McCann exhibition, Ludwigshafen, Germany/Paris, France) amongst others. She has participated in numerous literary festivals (West Cork Literary Festival, Cúirt, Listowel, Mountains to Sea, Hillsborough Festival of Literature & Ideas), curated Doolin Writers’ Weekend 2020, and provides consultation to arts organisations (Temple Bar Gallery + Studios Dublin, The Arts Foundation UK) and literary publishers. She was writer-in-residence at Maynooth University 2020/21, and has taught at Arvon Foundation (UK). She is currently working on a novel-in-essays, Traces.

About the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair

The IWC Novel Fair, now in its thirteenth year, is an annual competition that introduces twelve up-and-coming writers to top publishers and literary agents, giving aspiring novelists the opportunity to bypass the slush pile, pitch their ideas and place their synopsis and sample chapters directly into the hands of industry professionals.

Submissions to Novel Fair 2025 will be open throughout the month of September 2024 and will require applicants to submit a 10,000-word extract of the novel, as well as a 300 word plot synopsis. Entries are welcome from anywhere in the world. The twelve successful applicants will be informed in December – giving them a week to submit their full 50,000 word manuscripts – and will be given the opportunity to attend a day-long ‘How to Pitch Your Novel’ seminar in advance of the Fair itself, which will take place in spring 2025.

If you’d like to find out more about Novel Fair, or attend the Fair next year as a publisher or agent, please get in contact via email: novelfair@irishwriterscentre.ie.