FREE LITERARY EVENT - Talks by six brilliant emerging writers

Welcome to the Creative Community Sessions !

Join us for talks by six of the most talented emerging writers in the business! The event will be hosted on Zoom by Irish author Jennifer McMahon.

This event features the following writers and talks:

Laura McDonagh - Truth, memory, fact and fiction in narrative non-fiction.

Laura McDonagh is an award-winning second-generation Irish writer from the North East of England. She writes about grief, social class and cultural identity.
Laura's memoir 'Commonplace' - about growing up in an Irish family in Britain, her search for somewhere to belong, and the surprising discovery that grief can be a catalyst for a more creative, uninhibited life - is currently on submission.
Alongside writing, Laura runs Projecting Grief, a portraiture and storytelling project exploring the relationship between loss, creativity and healing, with photographer Jo Ritchie.

Mark Burrow - How to be an UNsuccessful writer.

Mark Burrow has published a novella, Coo, which is about an alcoholic turning into a pigeon (Alien Buddha Press). His stories have appeared in titles that include Frazzled Lit, AEOS Magazine, Punk Noir Press, Underbelly Press, Hunger (Urban Pigs Press), and Slut Vomit II (Outcast Press). He lives in Brighton in the UK.

Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos - The importance & vital role of the writing community

Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos is a Breton writer, teacher, mother, nature & music lover, foodie, dreamer. She grew up in the French Alps, studied in Wales, and lived in Manchester for a few years, until she settled in Athens, Greece, in 2000.

After a 17-year hiatus, she returned to writing in 2022. Her words can be found in Epistemic Literary, BULL, The Hooghly Review, Revolution John, Roi Fainéant Press, Spare Parts Lit, JAKE, among others. She is a contributor to Poverty House, co-founder of The Pride Roars, and the EIC of Raw Lit.

Her debut historical novel Laundry Day was selected as a Runner-up at the Irish Novel Fair 2024 and she is a 2025 Pushcart Prize nominee.

Kate Durrant - The joy of the journey

Editor of two regional publications in Ireland, Kate is a regular contributor to A Word in Edgeways, RTE Radio One, Pause for Thought BBC Radio Two, and a columnist for the Farmers Journal.

Her fiction has been published in Irish Country Magazine, Irish Examiner, Sunday Independent, Books Ireland, Holly Bough, From the Well (West Cork Literary Festival) 2023, Literature Today, Hammond House Anthology 2022/3/4, A Page from my Life, Stories from the Heart of Ireland, Spellbinder literary magazine and many other anthologies and literary magazines.

Shortlisted in Howl Irish Writing 2023, Anthology International short story 2022 and 2023, Hammond House International prize 2021, 2023 and 2024, her poetry has been placed in Fingal Poetry Prize 2024, Poets meet Painters 2024, Write by the Sea 2023, Poems for Patience 2023, Hammond House International literary prize 2023.

Awarded the 2024 fiction mentorship from Munster Literary Centre, she co-hosts the Natter podcast with author Michelle McDonagh.

Byddi Lee - Embracing creative freedom

Byddi Lee is the author of Rejuvenation, a speculative fiction trilogy, first published by Castrum Press in 2020, and has published flash fiction, short stories and her novel, March to November (Independently Published, 2014). She co-founded and manages Flash Fiction Armagh, shortlisted as Best Regular Spoken Word Night in the Saboteur Awards, and co-edited The Bramley - An Anthology of Flash Fiction Armagh, Volumes 1 and 2. Byddi also writes for stage and screen and is a member of BBC Writersroom Voices 23. She is an Arts Council Northern Ireland supported writer, and holds professional membership at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin, and the Society of Authors, UK.

For more information, visit www.ByddiLee.com.

Róisín Ní Neachtain - On beginning badly, the perils of social media and finding your way again

Róisín Ní Neachtain is a writer living in Kildare, Ireland. Her third collection is forthcoming with Broken Sleep Books She has been published by Abridged, Firmament (Sublunary Editions), The Honest Ulsterman and with Poetry Jukebox at IMMA where her poem on gender violence during the Irish Civil War featured as part of the Poetry as Commemoration project. Her work was awarded the Dennis O'Driscoll Literary Bursary Award, second place at the Red Line and been shortlisted in a number of competitions. Róisín was also awarded a mentorship with the IWC National Mentoring Programme to work with Enda Wyley and is a professional member of the Irish Writers Centre.

Host or Publisher Creative Community Sessions