Local Kilkenny writers selected for National Mentoring Programme

Local Kilkenny writers, Orla Mackey and Brendan Casey have been selected by the Irish Writers Centre to receive professional literary mentoring over the next eight months from an acclaimed Irish writer of their choice.

After a national call out, 37 writers have been selected from nearly three hundred applicants.

County Kilkenny Arts Office funds the literary mentorships along with the Arts Council of Ireland to guarantee that the best applicant from the county would be selected. Their support will ensure that the chosen mentees receive this potentially life-changing support free of charge. It is also an investment in the long-term literary reputation of the region.

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The mentoring process involves four 90 minute meetings between the selected mentee and their chosen professional writer. Each mentor reads up to 10,000 words / 180 lines of poetry of the awarded mentee’s writing in advance of all four meetings, sharing their kind and critical feedback with the mentee, face-to-face at each meeting. Mentors also provide broad professional advice, sharing the benefit of their years of experience.

The Irish Writers Centre’s mission is to support a vibrant and diverse community of writers of all types and talents to develop their craft, capacity and confidence to thrive as a writer in the world. The hope for the National Mentoring Programme is that the chosen mentees will go on to write the next great works of literature with the support and sustenance of their chosen mentor. It’s a form of peer to peer teaching that is increasingly popular in literature, formalising the process whereby successful writers pass on their craft and experience to the next generation of writers across the island.

Orla Mackey is a teacher and writer. She writes fiction and educational texts for children. She recently completed her first novel. She has a keen ear for the rhythms of language, particularly the language of rural Ireland. She celebrates the ordinary and has a uniquely wry voice that shines through in her debut novel. Orla has a B.A in English Literature from Trinity College, Dublin and is a winner of Novel Fair 2022.  Her debut novel, Mouthing is being published by Penguin U.K and is due for release in 2024.

Brendan Casey is an Irish/Australian writer. He has an MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin and is a recipient of an Artlinks Emerging Artist Award and an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary. His poetry explores the intersection between visual art and language and has been published in The Stinging Fly. His novel in progress was longlisted for the 2020 Deborah Rogers Foundation Award and will be published by John Murray Originals in June 2023.  He lives in Inistioge.

 Running since 2017, the programme now has numerous published authors among its alumni, including Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Fiona Scarlett, and Victoria Kennefick to name just a few.