Kerry Writers Showcase
Three compelling Kerry writers discuss what being ‘a writer’ means to them. Poet and playwright Clodagh Healy, essayist, poet and memoirist Sean Carlson, and critic, essayist and fiction writer Emma Flynn will share extracts from their latest works and discuss with Kerry Writer in Residence Emer Fallon what writing means to them. Finding inspiration, dealing with rejection, and how to keep writing, will be just some of the topics under discussion at this panel event, with the final fifteen minutes opened to the floor. Questions from those starting out on their writing journey are particularly welcome.
Clodagh Healy holds an MFA from Trinity College Dublin, where she was awarded the Patricia Leggett Scholarship for Playwriting. Her poetry has appeared in publications that include a Dedalus Press anthology and The Storms Journal, and her play Fermenting was selected for a dramatic reading at The New Theatre New Writing Week 2026. She was recently awarded a residency at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee.
Seán Carlson is working on a family memoir of migration. His writing has appeared in AGNI, Crannóg, New Irish Writing, The Irish Times, New England Review, RTÉ Radio 1, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Seán received a 2024 Elizabeth Kostova Foundation poetry fellowship in Bulgaria.
Emma Flynn is a writer and visual artist from Kerry. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have been published by The Irish Times, Banshee, The Stinging Fly, Architecture Ireland, RTÉ and others. She is currently completing a BA in Fine Art at MTU Crawford, Cork.
Emer Fallon is a poet and fiction writer who was awarded the role of Kerry Writer in Residence in 2024. She’s keen to discuss not only what prompts a person to embark on a writing life but also what sustains them.
Listen to three award-winning Kerry writers read from their work and share their views on their writing lives, from the slog of submitting to the highs of acceptance. Emerging and aspiring writers are encouraged to come along, pose their own questions and gain an insight into what ‘being a writer’ might mean to them.
Location
An Díseart, V92 VW74