The Arts Council has a long-standing partnership with a number of Irish universities offering Writer-in-Residence/Fellowship positions to provide university students of Creative Writing MA and MFA programmes with an opportunity to work with and learn from a professional author of distinction, and to enable writers to develop their work while in a position of relative financial stability.

The Arts Council is pleased to announce the following Writer-in-Residence/Fellowship appointments for 2021. 

Richie Conroy has been appointed Irish-language Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University.  The Irish-language Writer-in-Residence will be based in Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge on the DCU All Hallows Campus.

Richie Conry is a writer of short stories, a novelist and a scriptwriter. He has produced film and television scripts such as Two by Two: Overboard, Malory Towers, agus Fran: Assistant Manager. Richie’s first novel, Dialann Emily Porter: An Jailtacht, was published by LeabhairCOMHAR in 2018 and the second book in the series, Dialann Emily Porter: thíos seal, thuas seal, was one of the prizewinners in this year’s Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition. His short stories have been published in the collection, Saibhreas (Mentor Press), and in the literary magazines, Feasta and Comhar.

Twitter: @richieconroy Instagram: @traonach

Niamh Campbell has been appointed as Writer in Residence at University College Dublin.

Niamh Campbell's debut novel This Happy was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in June 2020, and she won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Competition for Love Many in July 2020. She is also the author of Sacred Weather, a monograph on the writer John McGahern (Cork UP, 2019), and a former Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow at Maynooth University. Her short work can be found the Dublin Review, gorse, Granta, The Stinging Fly, Five Dials, Banshee, and Tangerine. She is based in Dublin.

The NUI Galway Writer in Residence position will be held by Tanya Farrelly.

Tanya Farrelly is the author of three books: a short fiction collection When Black Dogs Sing (Arlen House), which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and named winner of the Kate O’ Brien Award 2017, and two novels: The Girl Behind the Lens and When Your Eyes Close (Harper Collins), both Amazon bestsellers. She holds a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Bangor University, Wales, and teaches at numerous institutions, including the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, and the People’s College. She is also the founder and director of Bray Literary Festival. Her second short story collection Nobody Needs to Know is forthcoming from Arlen House in 2021, and she is currently working on a historical fiction novel.

Caoilinn Hughes has been appointed as Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.

Caoilinn Hughes' most recent novel, The Wild Laughter was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards' Novel of the Year and the RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners' Choice Award. Her first novel, Orchid & the Wasp (2018), won the Collyer Bristow Prize 2019 and was shortlisted for the Hearst Big Book Awards, the Butler Literary Award and was longlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and the International DUBLIN Literary Award. Her poetry collection, Gathering Evidence (Carcanet 2014), won the Irish Times Strong/Shine Award. Her short fiction has been awarded the Moth Short Story Prize 2018, an O.Henry Prize in 2019 and the An Post Book Awards writing.ie Story of the Year 2020.

The University of Limerick Creative Writing Fellowship will be held by Kit de Waal

Kit de Waal is an award-winning writer whose novels place ordinary people at the centre of the story. Her debut novel, My Name is Leon (2016), was the winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2017 and is being adapted for the BBC. Before beginning writing professionally, Kit worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law and has also sat on adoption panels and advised Social Services on the care of foster children. Kit’s second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for The Women’s Prize. Her first YA novel, Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal Award. In 2019 she crowdfunded Common People an anthology of working class memoir by new and established writers. She has won numerous awards for her short stories and flash fiction and has written for performance for BBC Radio 4, The Old Vic, The Abbey Theatre, and co-wrote The Third Day for SKY/HBO. Her latest book, a collection of short stories called Supporting Cast was published in 2020.

Eimear Ryan has been appointed as Writer in Residence at University College Cork. The Writer in Residence will be situated in the School of English in University College Cork, with the opportunity to engage with the wider campus.

Eimear Ryan's debut novel, Holding Her Breath, will be published by Penguin Sandycove in June. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Winter Papers, The Dublin Review and The Stinging Fly. She is a co-founder of the literary journal Banshee and its publishing imprint, Banshee Press. From Co. Tipperary, Eimear now lives in Cork city.

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