Fiona O'Rourke writes fiction, auto fiction, and accidental poetry. She reads at open mics and has story slammed to an audience of 180 at the Dublin Story Slam. Currently she is querying Palestine Street, Belfast stories from The Holylands, and Bullet Points, an auto fiction of life during inner wartime.
She is the co-organiser and MC for Open Mic for Gaza, a zoom fundraiser on International Women’s Day 2024, and the organiser/facilitator for eXpress Write For Gaza, a guided writing session fundraiser. All donations from these events go to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund, a charity working in Palestine.
She is the curator & facilitator for Irish Writers Centre Northern Soul Roadshow 2024 funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland. She was the facilitator & coordinator of Writing The Earth, an Irish Writers Centre and iCRAG collaboration for writers and scientists, in 2023.
Fiona is a published author from the North of Ireland with recent stories included in Shorter Stories Ireland, Dublin Story Slam, Fortnight Magazine, The Storms Journal, and Eat The Storms podcast. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee for Driving Lessons published in the Storms Journal II. Her creative nonfiction was selected by Munster Lit, and will be published in the Southword Journal in autumn 2024.
Other work has been broadcast on RTE Francis MacManus, translated in Troquel Revista de Letras, and published in literary journals including The Waxed Lemon, The Lonely Crowd, Sonder, Books Ireland Magazine, The Broken Spiral, The Fish Anthology, and more. Details here. She was a finalist in the inaugural Cairde Short Story Award judged by Louise Kennedy and Sinéad Gleeson, with a story from Palestine Street.
Her first published short story Wrong Whiskey was a prize winner at the Fish International Short Story Award. It was included on a reading list for students at Saint Mary's College, California. Fiona was invited to give these students a reading and seminar for an undergrad module they studied in Ireland.
Fiona moved to Dublin when selected by portfolio (without the qualification of a traditional degree) to study for a Masters in Philosophy in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated with a distinction in 2015.
Since then, she was a joint winner at the 2016 Irish Novel Fair with Have You Found Luke? In 2017, she won a place on the inaugural XBorders project with the Irish Writers Centre and Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and was awarded an Irish Writers Centre Cill Rialaig writer-in-residence.
Fiona has designed and facilitated creative writing courses and programmes at Trinity College Dublin Innovation Academy, libraries, festivals, in the community, and at Irish Writers Centre Dublin.
She is a member of the Irish Writers Union
A Professional Member, Facilitator and Mentor at the Irish Writers Centre
A member of Women AloudNI
A member of Dublin City Arts Office Panel
Stories and Awards
Trigger Alert at Shorter Stories Ireland
First Steps at Dublin Story Slam
This Ain’t No Party in Munster Lit Southword Journal
Bullet Points at Shorter Stories Ireland
Driving Lessons in The Storms Journal (nominated for The Pushcart Prize)
Don’t Wanna Play House in Fortnight
Boyfriends at Shorter Stories Ireland
Highgate 1956 virtualdementiahub.ie
Teamwork Books Ireland and The Waxed Lemon
extraORDINARY Women at Linenhall Library & WomenAloudNI
Reliable Family Saloon & other readings at WomenAloudNI/Irish Writers Centre International Women’s Day readathons
Party Land S/list Cairde Word Short Story
Euro 2040 The Lonely Crowd
Other People's Photos Sonder II
The Orangeman & the Yellowbelly Shaped By The Sea Anthology
What You Don't Know The Broken Spiral & Spontaneity
Selected to read with WomenXBorders on International Women’s Day 2018, and with WomenAloudNI IWD open mic in 2021.
IWC/ACNI X Borders
Have You Found Luke? winner at the Irish Novel Fair
Red translated for Troquel Revista De Letras
Trap4 Thirteen
He’s Going Nowhere RTE Francis MacManus
Wrong Whiskey The Fish Anthology
Poems with Cultivating Voices, Bangor Literary Journal, Wexford Stories
Full writing CV here
Course Designer & Facilitator
Writing The Earth Programme 2023
Northern Soul Roadshow Programme 2022 / 2023 / 2024
Fingal Libraries The Write Time Festival
Kildare Libraries Connections Through Literature Festival
Way With Words, Interview with Lucy Sweeney Byrne, IWD
Write By the Sea Festival in Co Wexford
One-to-One Mentoring
Mentor at Irish Writers Centre