Welcome to the Creative Community Sessions !
Join us for talks by six of the most talented emerging writers in the business! The event will be hosted by author Jennifer McMahon.
This event features the following writers and talks:
John O'Donnell - speaking about: Getting stuck, and getting unstuck.
John O’Donnell’s work has been published and broadcast widely. Awards include the Irish National Poetry Prize, New Irish Writing Awards for Poetry and Fiction, and the RTE Francis McManus Short Story Award. He has published five poetry collections. His first short story collection Almost the Same Blue (Doire Press) was a Sunday Independent ‘Book of the Year’. Rainbow Baby, an RTE radio play, won a New York Festivals Radio Award. His documentary about the 1979 Fastnet disaster, Back To The Rock, was broadcast on RTE’s Doc On One. An Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair winner in 2024, his debut novel Second Skin is forthcoming, as is a new short story collection.
Mike Murray - speaking about: How to drag being an emerging writer out for forty years.
Novel Fair Winner 2022 with work published in Envoi, The Honest Ulsterman, The Cabinet of Heed and Here Comes Everyone. Winner or placed in competitions run by IHG, Curtis Brown; Exeter Literary Festival, Parracombe Prize, Fish Memoir and Writing East Midlands. Emerging writer living in South West England, but London/Irish born.
Sylvia Leatham - speaking about: Running Up That Hill – editing your novel with the reader in mind.
Sylvia Leatham is a debut author from Dublin. She is represented by Laura Bennett of the Liverpool Literary Agency. She recently signed a two-book deal with digital-first publisher Storm Publishing. Her first book, a near-future romantic comedy, is due out in 2025. Her first novel was shortlisted for The Letter Review and the Watson Little x Indie Novella novel prize in 2023. It was longlisted for the Mslexia novel prize in 2024. The first chapter was also shortlisted in the Retreat West First Chapter competition. She has also co-written a romantic comedy screenplay with her husband, the emerging screenwriter Joe Griffin.
Sean McNicholl - speaking about: Carving time to write out of a busy schedule.
Seán McNicholl is an Irish GP who enjoys writing short stories in a variety of genres. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Net (BOTN) award 2024. He has been published in Beyond Words, Raw Lit, 34th Parallel, Belfast Review and Intrepidus Ink, among others. For more: www.seanmcnicholl.com
June O'Sullivan - speaking about: Getting an agent and publisher as a historical fiction writer
June O’Sullivan lives on an island in Co. Kerry. Her writing has appeared in the The Ogham Stone Journal, The York Literary Review, Seaside Gothic, The Storms Journal, The Waxed Lemon and Sonder. She is a student of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. She is represented by Francesca Riccardi of the Kate Nash Literary Agency. Her debut novel “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife” will be published by Poolbeg in early 2025.
Jennifer McMahon- speaking about the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair & Working with an agent. Jennifer is also the host for this event.
Jennifer McMahon is the overall winner of the 2024 All-Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Award (Public), a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year (2023), the Bridport Short Story Prize and many other notable awards, and has been nominated for Best Of The Net 2024. She was a second-place winner of the Oxford Prize (winter 2023). Jennifer's work appears in Crannog, HOWL, The Galway Review, Irish Independent (New Irish Writing), Oxford Prize Anthology (2022 and 2023), Fractured Lit, Heimat Review (issues 2 and 6), Empyrean, Books Ireland Magazine, Loft Books (issues IV and V), the Retreat West 'Swan Song' Anthology, the Cowboy Jamboree 'Motel' Anthology, and in many other places. She is the co-Editor-In-Chief, along with author Laura Cooney, of Frazzled Lit, a new and fresh online literary journal.