Deadline: 2 March 2024
The National Mentoring Programme is an opportunity for selected writers across the island of Ireland to receive sustained creative and professional mentoring from an acclaimed Irish writer of their choosing.
About Program
- The opportunity is available to writers who practice in the following genres/forms:
- Fiction
- Creative non-fiction
- Children’s/YA fiction
- Poetry
- Writers from all thirty-two counties are eligible to apply. Selected mentees get the opportunity to choose the writer they work with from the growing panel of experienced, professional writers (subject to availability).
- Each mentorship consists of four meetings with an experienced writer over a period of approximately 6–8 months. The mentor reads up to 10,000 words/180 lines of poetry in advance, and will give creative feedback and advice at each meeting. They may also provide professional information and advice.
Eligibility Criteria
- This opportunity is specifically for:
- Emerging writers who can demonstrate a commitment to writing e.g. creative writing training or courses undertaken, journal publications, awards or notable mentions, or other recognisable achievements.
- Writers who have published one or two books and who feel they could benefit from further professional guidance and feedback on their work-in-progress.
- Writers with 3+ book publications who have begun writing in a form in which they have yet to publish a book.
- Mentee opportunities are open to writers over the age of 18 who are resident on the island of Ireland. All mentees will avail of the relationship for free.
- Applicants should neither be in full-time education at the time of application, nor planning to undertake a full-time education course at the same time as their mentorship will be underway.
- If you have received literature mentoring through this particular mentoring programme within the last three years, you are ineligible to apply.
- Applications for mentees will only be accepted through Submittable. Only one submission per applicant is allowed.
- The Irish Writers Centre actively encourages applications from writers from backgrounds currently underrepresented in Irish literature.
For more information, visit Irish Writers Centre.
