Sligo Arts Service is a partner in the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme.
This annual initiative provides emerging and mid-career writers on the island of Ireland with sustained professional guidance. Through a series of meetings with a chosen professional writer, the programme offers feedback on work, professional advice, and support for craft development, with the goal of helping writers advance their careers.
Supported by the Arts Council Ireland and local arts offices, the programme is free to participants and open to writers in genres like fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s /young adult fiction, and poetry.
Applications for 2027 will open via Submittable on in December 2026.
The opportunity is available to writers of:
- Fiction
- Creative non-fiction
- Children’s / Young Adult fiction
- Poetry
Writers from all thirty-two counties are eligible to apply. Selected mentees get the opportunity to choose the writer they work with from the Irish Writer’s Centre’s growing panel of experienced, professional writers (subject to availability).
Each mentorship consists of three meetings with an experienced writer over a period of approximately 6–8 months. The mentor reads up to 10,000 words / 180 lines of poetry in advance and will give creative feedback at each meeting. They may also provide professional information and advice.
Eligibility:
Writers aged 18+ living on the island of Ireland. It supports emerging writers with a proven commitment to their craft, as well as those with one or two published books seeking guidance on new work, and established writers exploring a new genre.
This opportunity is specifically for:
- Emerging writers who can demonstrate a commitment to writing e.g. creative writing training or courses undertaken, journal publications, awards or notable mentions, or other recognisable achievements.
- Writers who have published one or two books and who feel they could benefit from further professional guidance and feedback on their work-in-progress.
- Writers with 3+ book publications who have begun writing in a form in which they have yet to publish a book
Mentee opportunities are open to writers over the age of 18 who are resident on the island of Ireland. The Irish Writers Centre encourages applications from writers whose backgrounds are typically underrepresented in Irish literature. We particularly invite applications from Black, POC (person of colour), Traveller, Roma, LGBTQIA+, disabled and working class writers.
Applicants should neither be in full-time education at the time of application, nor planning to undertake a full-time education course at the same time as their mentorship .
If you have received mentoring through this particular mentoring programme within the last three years, you are ineligible to apply.
Applications for mentees will only be accepted through Submittable. Only one submission per applicant is allowed.
Application Process:
Applications are managed for this national programme by The Irish Writers Centre and NOT Sligo Arts Service. Information on this scheme can be found here: https://irishwriterscentre.ie/national-mentoring-programme/
Enquiries on the scheme should be directed to Damien B. Donnelly at nmp@irishwriterscentre.ie