The Stinging Fly: Free online advice and information sessions for writers
Following on from the ‘Getting Started’ information sessions we organised last year, these next events are about keeping going, and will look at different ways writers sustain themselves as they develop their writing practice over time.
Creative coach, Anne Tannam, will lead each session and will be joined by a panel of writers who will share their own experiences.
We expect that the two sessions will cover some of the same territory, so simply choose the event date and time that suits your own schedule. A waiting list will operate once we’ve reached full capacity for each session.
Follow the link to book your place
Tuesday 10 May: 7pm to 8.30pm
Anne Tannam with Danny Denton, Sue Divin and Yan Ge
Saturday 14 May: 10.30am to 12pm
Anne Tannam with Olivia Fitzsimons, Neil Hegarty and Lia Mills
All are welcome. We particularly welcome those from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in Irish literature and publishing.
The Stinging Fly is funded by The Arts Council. We have been working since 1997 to seek out, nurture, publish and promote the very best new writers and new writing. For more information on what we do, visit stingingfly.org.
Anne Tannam is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) who helps writers to design and sustain flourishing writing practices. She regularly runs workshops and clinics online and across the country. For more on Anne’s coaching, visit www.creativecoaching.ie. Anne has published three poetry collections. The latest Twenty-six Letters of a New Alphabet (Salmon Poetry) was published in July 2021. For more on Anne’s poetry, visit www.annetannampoetry.ie.
Danny Denton is a writer from Cork. His novels to date are The Earlie King & The Kid In Yellow and All Along The Echo. He lectures on writing at University College Cork and is a contributing editor to The Stinging Fly.
Sue Divin is a Derry-based writer, with Armagh roots. As a peace worker, her writing often touches on diversity, reconciliation, borders and the legacy of the Troubles. She has two YA/Crossover novels (Macmillan), Truth Be Told and Carnegie short-listed Guard Your Heart, which won the Great Reads Award (Ireland).
Yan Ge is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English. The English translation of her novel Strange Beasts of China was a New York Times Notable Book of 2021. Her English language debut short story collection Elsewhere is coming out via Faber (UK) and Scribner (US) in 2023. She lives in Norwich with her husband and son.
Olivia Fitzsimons is from Northern Ireland and now lives in Wicklow but never lost her accent. She studied History at Trinity College Dublin and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop is her first novel with John Murray and was an Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Winner in 2020. She is a recipient of a CCI Paris/Literature Ireland artists residency for 2022/23 and Literature Bursaries from Arts Council Ireland and Northern Ireland Arts Council.
Neil Hegarty’s novels include The Jewel, published in 2019; and Inch Levels, which was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year award in 2017. Other titles include Frost: That Was the Life That Was, a biography of David Frost; and The Story of Ireland, which accompanies a BBC-RTE television history of Ireland.
Lia Mills writes fiction, literary essays and memoir. Her novel, Fallen, was the Dublin/Belfast Two Cities One Book selection in 2016. A new edition of her first novel, Another Alice, was recently published as part of the Arlen Classic Literature series. Lia is the current Chair of Irish PEN.