Creative Writing Festival

Event 1: The UL Creative Writing Team reading their work

Emily Cullen is the Meskell Poet in Residence at UL Creative Writing. She has published three poetry collections to date, most recently, Conditional Perfect with Doire Press in 2019.

Eoin Devereux’s poetry has been published by many journals including The Honest Ulsterman, Storms and The Stony Thursday Book. ‘Pravda’ was shortlisted for a New Irish Writing Award in 2024. 

Sarah Moore has won the London Magazine short story award. Her acclaimed novels include A Strange Kind of Brave, The Shark and the Scar and All the Money in the World

Joseph O’Connor is founding director of the UL Creative Writing Festival. Award-winning and internationally bestselling novelist (Star of the Sea, My Father’s House, The Ghosts of Rome) he is Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing.

Donal Ryan’s 2024 novel Heart, Be at Peace won the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award and is shortlisted for the Costa. The Spinning Heart has become an Irish classic.

Admission: FREE but booking is required

Event 2: Marian Keyes in conversation with Joseph O’Connor

Marian Keyes is a phenomenon. The multi-million copy, internationally bestselling author of some of the most widely loved genre-defying novels of the past thirty years – such as Rachel’s Holiday, Anybody Out There and Grown Ups – has millions of fans around the world.

Admission: 20 euros/16 euros concessions. Book at https://www.uch.ie/show/day-2-marian-keyes-and-joseph-oconnor-ul-creative-writing-festival-2025/

5.30pm – 6pm

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 3: Kerry Neville

Kerry is the author of two collections of stories, Necessary Lies and Remember to Forget Me. Her memoir, Momma May Be Mad, is forthcoming in October 2025. She teaches at Georgia State College, USA

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 4: Sarah Gilmartin and Paul Lynch

Sarah Gilmartin is an Irish writer and arts journalist from Limerick. Her novels Dinner Party: A Tragedy (2021) and Service (2023) were widely acclaimed. Sarah is the current writer-in-residence at Dublin City University. 

Limerick-born Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize for his novel Prophet Song. Previous novels include Grace, The Black Snow and Red Sky in the Morning. Paul was among the first three writers to give a group reading at UL when our Creative Writing programme commenced in 2014

11am – 12pm

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 5: An Island of Many Nations. Presented by the Irish Writers Centre

Afric McGlinchey is Irish-born, but spent her formative years in Southern Africa. The author of The Lucky Star of Hidden Things, Ghost of the Fisher Cat and Tied to the Wind, a memoir about her African/Irish childhood.

Indian born Cauvery Madhavan moved to Ireland 38 years ago. Her books are Paddy Indian, The Uncoupling, The Tainted and The Inheritance, an evocation of landscape, history and the human spirit.

Suad Aldarra, a Syrian writer based in Dublin, was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2024. Her memoir, I Don’t Want to Talk About Home, was shortlisted for An Post Irish Book Awards.

Dr Tapasya Narang is the Irish Research Council postdoctoral researcher supported by the National Library of Ireland. Her scholarship draws attention to lesser-known small press productions from Ireland and India from the 1960s and 70s.

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 6: Poetry Live/The Living World, presented by Emily Cullen

Annemarie Ní Churreáin is the 2025 Arts Council / UCD Writer in Residence. Her books include Bloodroot, The Poison Glen and Ghostgirl. She is the poetry editor at The Stinging Fly.

Born in South Africa, Nandi Jola is a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre. She published her debut poetry collection, Home is Neither Here Nor There, in 2022.

Ciaran O’Rourke’s debut collection, The Buried Breath was highly commended by the Forward Foundation for Poetry in 2019. His second collection, Phantom Gang, was longlisted for the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize.

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 7: The Alumni Readings

UL Creative Writing MA graduate Sharon Guard’s work has been published in literary journals, won the Molly Keane prize and been shortlisted for the RTÉ short story competition. Assembling Ailish is her first novel.

Noelle Lynskey MA (UL Creative Writing) was Strokestown’s Poet Laureate in 2021. Widely published, her collection Featherweight from Arlen House will be launched in 2025. 

Gráinne O’Brien is a writer and bookseller living in Limerick. Her first picture book, A Limerick Fairytale, debuted as a bestseller. Solo is her first novel for teenagers. 

Neil Tully is a writer from the west of Ireland. His debut novel, The Visit, will be published in 2026. He holds an MA Creative Writing from UL.

Patrick Kelly was the second student to join the UL Creative Writing MA degree when it began in 2014 and brought much to the inaugural class with his warmth, wisdom and kindness. On 23^rd October 2023 Patrick passed away following an illness. We are delighted to have members of Patrick’s family with us to read from his acclaimed 2022 debut novel A Hard Place.

June O’Sullivan lives in Co. Kerry. A recent graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at UL, her debut novel, The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife, was published in January 2025.

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 8: The Word on the Street, presented by the Irish Writers Centre

Limerick writer Lauren McNamara has performed at Glastonbury and Electric Picnic. Her debut poetry collection is Quarter Life Crisis. She is a two-time Munster slam champion.

Cormac Mac Gearailt is a multi-award-winning bilingual spoken word poet, the current All-Ireland Poetry Slam Champion, and the UNESCO Cities of Literature Slamovision Champion.

Sheila Ryder was a winner at the Cúirt International festival and an All-Ireland Poetry Slam finalist. She’s a regular on The Word Stage at Electric Picnic and founding member of Rising Tide events.

Kev Kennedy is a poet, rapper, and spoken word artist, winner of the Fingal Poetry slam 2024 and finalist in The All-Ireland poetry slam.

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 9

Paul Muldoon was in February 2024 elected a Saoi of Ausdana, Ireland’s highest literary honour. A Pulitzer prize-winner and longtime Poetry Editor of the New Yorker, Paul joins us for an unmissable solo reading tonight.

Irish World Academy, UL

Event 10

Liz Nugent is an internationally bestselling and widely translated author whose works include the psychological suspense novels Lying In Wait (2016), Skin Deep (2018), Our Little Cruelties (2020) and Strange Sally Diamond (2023). Liz is published in 40 languages.