The Art of Writing for a Living

Can you make a living as a writer? How do you make a living as a writer?

From novels to newspapers, residencies, festivals and literary magazines, writers and editors discuss the hows, the whys, and the realities of making a living in the world of books. Inaugural IPUT Writer in Residence Naoise Dolan, author and Irish Times Books Editor Martin Doyle and novelist and Stinging Fly editor Lisa McInerney in conversation with journalist Gemma Tipton.

The Art of Writing for a Living is part of the Writing Dublin at Wilton Park series at Mary Lavin Place, D02 FX04, the first public space in Ireland to be named after a woman writer.

Presented in partnership with IPUT Real Estate.

Naoise Dolan is the inaugural IPUT Writer in Residence at Wilton Park. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features. Her debut novel Exciting Times was published by W&N in 2020, and became a Sunday Times bestseller. The Happy Couple was published in 2023, and her third novel is due in 2027.

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times, which he joined in 2007, and formerly Editor of The Irish Post in London. He is author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place (Merrion Press, 2023) and a forthcoming book, provisionally entitled Conversations with Irish Writers, 1991-2025 (The Lilliput Press, 2026).

Lisa McInerney is the author of three novels: The Glorious Heresies, The Blood Miracles and The Rules of Revelation. She has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the RSL Encore Award and the Premio Edoardo Kihlgren for European literature. She is published in 12 languages. In 2022, she was appointed editor of The Stinging Fly.

Gemma Tipton is a writer and critic of contemporary art and culture, writing for The Irish Times. She also contributes to art publications, panel discussions, lectures, radio and television programmes in Ireland and internationally. She has worked as an independent curator of exhibitions, and has been Director of the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and the Kinsale Arts Festival. Other projects include The Poetry Project and Festival in a Van.

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