UL Creative Writing Festival features stellar lineup and attracts more than a thousand visitors to campus

UL Creative Writing Festival 2025, curated by Prof Joseph O’Connor, took place from April 9th to 12th, attracting more than a thousand visitors to the campus.

The stellar lineup included Limerick-born Booker Prizewinner Paul Lynch, who received an honorary PhD during his visit, international bestsellers Marian Keyes and Liz Nugent, Irish Times chief new fiction reviewer Sarah Gilmartin, European slam poetry champion Cormac MacGerailt, poets Annemarie ni Chuireann and Rachel Coventry, and five UL Creative Writing MA alumni whose debut novels will be published this year. Pulitzer prizewinner Paul Muldoon also received a standing ovation for his powerful, extraordinary and memorable solo reading.

The Festival garnered extensive national coverage from the Irish Times, Sunday Independent, RTE Lyric FM and RTE Radio 1, and was sponsored by RTE Supporting the Arts, O'Mahony's bookshop and the Irish Writers Centre.