National Mentoring Programme 2017
Words Ireland initiated a total of eleven literature mentoring relationships in 2017, six of which are offered in partnership with the Arts Offices of Leitrim, Limerick, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow, and the Arts Office and Libraries of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
Words Ireland sought expressions of interest from experienced and established writer-mentors working in the areas of adult fiction, children’s/YA fiction and/or poetry to undertake the mentoring of writers of promise who are working in the same forms.
Mentor opportunities were open to writers of any age, race, gender, sex, nationality who are resident in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Mentors will be paid a fixed fee outlined below.
Applicant Mentors should have:
- three or more books published in any of the above mentioned genres.
- significant experience teaching or mentoring creative writing.
Applicant Mentors would ideally have:
- a qualification in creative writing and/or in teaching creative writing.
- an understanding of the literature / publishing sector.
- been mentored in the past themselves by an established writer.
The deadline for this was Monday 10 July 2017.
Munster Literature Centre Mentorships
Supported by Words Ireland the Munster Literature Centre are offering two mentorships, one in poetry with Matthew Sweeney and a fiction mentorship with Marie Helene-Bertino, the 2017 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow. Deadline 31 May 2017
Stinging Fly Summer Fiction Workshops
Organised by The Stinging Fly in association with the Irish Writers Centre
Supported by Words Ireland
Our week-long fiction workshops with Sean O’Reilly return for a second year.
These are intensive daytime workshops designed for writers of short stories and/or the novel.
Up to ten writers are offered a place on each workshop based on work they’ve submitted by the application deadline, which was Thursday, May 5th.
During the workshops, each writer’s work will be up for in-depth discussion twice. All the work will have been shared and closely read in advance. Also included are three sessions on aspects of narrative prose by guest speakers, including the editors of The Stinging Fly.
Week One: June 27th – July 1st 2016
Week Two: July 11th – July 15th 2016
Times: Monday to Friday, 10.15am-4.30pm
Venue: Irish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1
Canada Showcase with CBI & Literature Ireland
Children’s Books Ireland (CBI) and Literature Ireland, working with the Irish Embassy in Ottawa and Words Ireland, will send a showcase of four Irish children’s writers and illustrators to three Canadian literature festivals.
Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Oisín McGann, Dave Rudden and Deirdre Sullivan will appeared at three festivals:
Frye Festival, Moncton , New Brunswick: http://www.frye.ca/
Blue Metropolis, Montréal, Québec: http://bluemetropolis.org/
Ottawa International Writers Festival, Ottawa, Ontario: http://www.writersfestival.org
Wicklow Literature Mentorship Scheme 2016
Produced by Children’s Books Ireland, Irish Writers Centre and Poetry Ireland. Developed by WORDS Ireland for and in partnership with Wicklow County Council Arts Office.
WORDS Ireland is offered two further mentorship opportunities to Wicklow writers who are seeking to engage with a mentor over a period of six months from May 2016. This scheme is open to writers in any fiction genre: young adult and children’s books, short stories, playwriting, screenwriting, novels or poetry. The mentorships will focus on manuscript development in the main, but may include other aspects in the professional development of the writer. A similar scheme was run successfully in 2015.
The deadline for this scheme was Friday 29 April 2016.
This year’s fiction mentee is Adrienne Michel-Long with Nicole Mary Kelby taking up the role of mentor.
Nicole Mary Kelby
Adrienne Michel-Long
This year’s poetry mentee is Eithne Hand with Grace Wells as mentor.
Grace Wells
Eithne Hand
Munster Poetry Mentorship – September 2015.
Applications were invited from Munster-resident poets (with at least one collection published and no more than two) who would like to be mentored by James Harpur while working towards their next collection. The successful candidate will meet the mentor for six sessions. The first five two-hour sessions will be devoted to assessing batches of poems building towards your next book. The sixth session will be devoted to the overall shape of your manuscript. Mentoring sessions can take place at the Munster Literature Centre or at a location mutually agreeable to the Mentor & Mentee.
The first mentoring meeting was arranged for October 2015. Five further meetings will occur at approximately two-monthly intervals with the last session taking place in September 2016
To enter, poet’s were required to submit a PDF or word document consisting of 10 poems from their manuscript in progress, a literary cv and a note outlining how they believed they could benefit from this opportunity to Patrick Cotter, Artistic Director, The Munster Literature Centre at munsterlit@eircom.net.
Stinging Fly fiction workshop with Sean O’Reilly – June 2015
Organised by The Stinging Fly in association with the Irish Writers Centre and Words Ireland
This is an intensive week-long daytime workshop designed for writers of short stories and/or the novel. It will be led by Sean O’Reilly.
Up to ten writers will be offered a place based on work they’ve submitted by the application deadline, which was Thursday, April 23rd. During the workshop, each writer’s work will be up for in-depth discussion twice. All the work will have been shared and closely read in advance. Also included in the structure of the course are three sessions on aspects of narrative prose by guest speakers, including the editors of The Stinging Fly.
Dates: June 22nd – June 26th 2015
Times: Monday to Friday, 10.15am-4.30pm
Venue: Irish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1
Cost: €325 (or €300 for IWC members)
Wicklow Mentorship for Writers – May 2015
Produced by Children’s Books Ireland, Irish Writers Centre and Poetry Ireland
Developed by Words Ireland for and in partnership with Wicklow County Council Arts Office
Words Ireland and Wicklow County Council offered five mentorship opportunities to Wicklow writers who were seeking to engage with a mentor over a period of six months from May 2015. This scheme is open to writers in any fiction genre: young adult and children’s books, short stories, playwriting, screenwriting, novels or poetry. The mentorships will focus on Manuscript Development in the main, but may include other aspects in the professional development of the writer.
Who is eligible to apply?
To be eligible for the scheme the applicant must have been born in or be resident in County Wicklow for the last two consecutive years. The applicant will have with a track record in a professional capacity, such as having poems or short stories published in recognised journals or magazines (print or online), or a book of fiction, or a collection of poetry or short stories published by a recognised publisher.
2016 Participants:
Mentees
Caroline Bracken
Emer Fallon
Philip St. John
Sinead O’Loughlin
Justin McCarthy
Mentors
Evelyn Conlon
Michael J Farrell
Michelle Read
Grace Wells