Northern Soul Roadshow Writers 2024

Meet this year's awardees

Congratulations to the 20 writers selected by the Irish Writers Centre for this year’s Northern Soul Roadshow programme. The programme is made possible again this year thanks to Arts Council for Northern Ireland Lottery funding.

This writing community promises to be like a mini festival on Saturday mornings. The six NSR zooms in February and March will be a lively mix of guest authors, their readings and Q&A, and the NSR writers will generate new work inspired by the sessions. The end of programme celebration is a live reading event for NSR writers to showcase their new work at the Linenhall in Belfast, with special guest author, Anna Burns.

I can’t wait to meet the new NSR writers for 2024, and also chat to our guest authors from the North. Here are the awardees as published in the Irish Writers Centre newsletter today:

The 20 Northern Soul Roadshow 2024 awardees are:

A. Joseph Black is from Carnlough and lives in Andersonstown. Over forty of his short stories and flash fictions have appeared in literary journals and print anthologies. His work has featured in The Irish Times and on BBC Radio Ulster, and he has twice been runner-up in the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award.

Tess Davidson is an award-winning audio producer and writer, spanning broadcast journalism, long-form narrative documentaries and arts features. As an emerging writer, she was selected for the Stinging Fly Summer School and as a finalist in the Soho Theatre Writers Lab in 2023.

Teri Donaghy lives in North County Dublin but hails from the North of Ireland. Teri holds a PhD in chemistry from DCU and runs her own consultancy business. Teri’s interest in creative writing resumed in 2011. She has attended IWC and other courses and is currently working on her first novel.

Cian Dunne is currently studying the MA Translation at Queen’s University Belfast, having previously studied English Literature and Russian at Trinity College Dublin. He was formerly Editor-In-Chief of Trinity JoLT, and is the current translations editor for The Apiary. He attended the Belfast Book Festival as an Irish Writers Centre Young Writer Delegate in 2023.

Darcey Dugan’s poetry has appeared in journals such as The Rialto, Abridged, The HU, The Waxed Lemon, Púca, and The Stony Thursday Book. She was selected as a young writer delegate for The West Cork Literary Festival 2022 and her writing is archived in UCD’s Irish Poetry Reading Archive.

Damien B. Donnelly’s poetry & short stories have appeared in numerous journals. The author of two pamphlets, a micro-collection and a full collection published by Hedgehog Press, his second collection arrives with Turas Press this spring. He’s the host of Eat the Storms podcast and editor of The Storms journal.

Heather Fleming lives in South Down. Published poems in ‘Compass’, The Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing Anthology, ‘In My Own Words, What If?’ An Anthology of New Poetry. Her writing was accepted by the Royal Society of Literature, Bonnie Greer workshop. Her stories aired on BBC Radio Ulster, ‘Telltales’.

Anita Gracey has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Washing Windows – Irish Women Write Poetry (one, too & 111), Abridged, The Honest Ulsterman, Poetry NI, The Poets’ Republic, Fly on the Wall, Blue Nib, Culture and The Poetry Jukebox. Shortlisted for several competitions, most recently Skylight 47 Mentoring Programme 2023.

Sarah Little is an emerging writer from Fermanagh. She is currently working on a YA fiction novel The Painted Lives, which encompasses themes of identity, art and obsession. Her book was selected for development on Penguin’s WriteNow editorial programme. Sarah has an honours degree in Art History and Creative Writing.

Aileen Malone, northside Dubliner, wrote after her daughter’s death when painting failed to describe the complexities of her life. A recipient of the Arts Council Agility Award 2022 and Irish Writers Centre Mentor/Member Duo programme in 2022. Aileen juggles writing with life drawing, painting and earning a crust.

Paddy McCurdie is a County Armagh writer, poet, aspiring novelist and screenwriter. Paddy has attended a diverse range of writing workshops in recent years and is part of a local writing group in his hometown of Portadown. He was the recipient of a Community Arts Partnership Good Relations Award in 2023 for writing haiku.

Rory Milhench grew up in Belfast and later undertook a Ph.D. in History at Trinity College Dublin. His fiction has been published in A New Ulster, Books Ireland Magazine, The Madrigal Press’ An Áitiúil Anthology and the University of Ulster’s New Worlds, New Voices: A Books Beyond NI Anthology. He now lives in County Cork.

Louise McKeever is a writer and researcher.  She was selected as a playwright for HFH Productions “Sex Play”, an Arts Council England project translating women and non-binary people’s experience of relationships and sex to theatre. She has published poetry in Lesbian Art Journal and is currently leading a Northern Ireland Arts Council/National Lottery-supported stage play exploring LGBTQIA+ experiences in Northern Ireland.

Marty Mckenna is an independent Irish poet, born in Tyrone, now living and writing in Belfast. Marty has poems published widely in both online and print journals. He won the Matrix prize in 2017. He is publishing poems that will inform his third chapbook, ‘sleeve notes’ (February 2024, Button Press). Marty is a neurodivergent poet.

Conal McManus hails from Belfast. His fiction has a penchant for metamorphoses, narcotics and dreams. With a bachelor’s in English with Creative Writing from Queen’s University, he is currently finishing his MA in Creative Writing. Having been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. he is working on his first short-story collection.

Kyle Mulholland is a journalist and writer based in Dundalk, Louth who mainly works in genre fiction. He’s a two-time recipient of the Irish Arts Council’s Agility award, a successful participant in O’Brien’s Press’ Pitch Perfect competition, and was awarded a place on the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme 2023.

Theresa Ryder was a recipient of the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award. Publications include: The 32: Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices, Same Page Anthology, The Waxed Lemon, Antigone Journal, and The Irish Times. She is currently working on a memoir supported by a literature bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Marianna Patané is Irish Italian and spent her early childhood in Sicily before moving, with her family, back to her mum’s hometown of Belfast. She recently completed a Creative Writing Undergraduate at Oxford University, has published poetry and short fiction, and is working on her debut novel.

Beckie Stew is a Northern Irish poet, spoken word artist and literature graduate. Her work has previously appeared in print in the USA, Australia, UK and Ireland. Bringing her poems on stage since 2019, she has taken part in open mics, slams and festivals, winning PoetrySlam in Barcelona in 2022.

Remco van Straten‘s work is rooted in the northern Dutch coast of his childhood, and in the history and lore of Northern Ireland – his home for the past decades. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies, and he is currently working on his first novel.

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