Mayo Arts Service

Writer in Residence

Mayo County Council Arts Service writer in residence programme has included writers such as Dermot Healy, Michael Gorman, Val Mulkearns, Richard Murphy, Neill Donnelly, Ré O’Laighlais, Máire Holmes, Paddy Bushe, John Breen, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Biddy Jenkinson, Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde, Manchán Magan, Diarmuid de Faoite and John F. Deane. Mayo Arts Service has provided Bi-lingual residencies where a writer worked in the Gaeltacht areas of the county.

In more recent years Mayo Arts Service has run Write Now, a professional development event for writers. This event provided Mayo Writers with the opportunity of 20-minute speed dating type mentoring slots with Poet Geraldine Mitchell, Playwright Mick Donnellan, Screenwriter Pierce Ryan, Short Story Writer Geraldine Mills, Publisher Mariel Deegan (New Island Books) and Novelist Mia Gallagher.

The event culminated with an open mic. Write Now 2017 saw presentations with professional writers; Elizabeth Reapy (fiction writer), Tom Hall (screenwriter) and Eva O’Connor (playwright) followed by an opportunity to avail of one on one mentoring.