We thank our artists

Tanya Farrelly is the Arts Council/NUI Galway Writer in Residence for 2021. A festival director and author, she has published short fiction with Arlen House (her latest collection, Nobody Needs to Know, is due from them soon). She has also written the novels The Girl Behind the Lens and When Your Eyes Close, thrillers that give us new ways to see familiar Irish settings and themes.

Read Tanya’s piece here.

Elaine Feeney is a poet and novelist. She teaches Creative Writing here at NUI Galway and in St Jarlath’s College in Tuam. She was also centrally involved in the Tuam Oral History project. Her debut novel As You Were has just been published to great acclaim. The novel has already won the Kate O’Brien Award 2021, and has been shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize for authors first published in their 40s.

Read Elaine’s piece here.

Deirdre Sullivan is a graduate of the university and is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers for children and young adults. Her book Savage Her Reply has just been named the Children’s Books Ireland ‘book of the year’  – and her first collection of stories for adults, I Want to Know that I Will Be Okay, has just been published.

Read Deirdre’s piece here.

In their different ways, these are three genuinely inspirational writers, breaking down the boundaries that seek to limit how books are written and what their subjects should be. Some readers will already know these authors’ works well; others will be encountering them for the first time. Either way, we hope you enjoy the opportunity to savour their new stories.