A Ballina-based writer has been selected as part of the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring programme.
Finola Cahill has been selected as one of 37 writers from a total of nearly 300 applicants who will receive literary mentoring over the next eight months from an acclaimed Irish writer of their choice. She is supported by the Mayo Arts Office.
Each mentor reads up to 10,000 words/180 lines of poetry of the awarded mentee’s writing in advance of all four meetings, sharing their kind and critical feedback with the mentee, face-to-face at each meeting. Mentors also provide broad professional advice, sharing the benefit of their years of experience
Finola’s poetry has previously has previously featured in publications such as the London Magazine, and internationally in Paris Lit Up. This year she was shortlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize, and her sample collection made the final shortlist for the Listowel Writers’ Week Poetry Collection Award. She has also been invited to participate in the upcoming Seamus Heaney summer school with Nick Laird.
Finola is also a musician; her band, Pembroke, has previously played in Ballina as part of Other Voices and their album, At Sea, is available to stream on all the usual platforms.
The initiative’s main funder is the Arts Council of Ireland whose support for the National Mentoring Programme increased significantly in 2022 allowing for 8 mentorships for writers regardless of their county of origin. For a fourth year in a row, the Embassy of Colombia in Ireland will support a Colombian writer to mentor an Irish writer selected from any county.