Writers Selected for Irish Writers Centre's National Mentoring Programme 2025

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Local writers, Kinda Al Fityani, Jack Kennedy and Oda O'Carroll have been chosen for the Irish Writers Centre’s prestigious National Mentoring Programme 2025, following an exceptional response to this year’s nationwide callout, which attracted 354 applicants. Each selected writer will receive one-to-one mentoring from an established writer, offering invaluable creative and professional guidance over the coming months.

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and Dublin City Libraries funds the mentorships to guarantee that the chosen awardees receives this potentially career-changing support free of charge. The 2025 programme is co-funded by a remarkable collective of county arts offices, libraries, arts centres, and other cultural bodies across Ireland, ensuring that local talent from diverse counties is identified and nurtured.

Born and raised in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, Kinda Al Fityani is a citizen of Ireland, Jordan, and the USA. She holds a doctorate in Communication from the University of California — San Diego. Having left academia and the tech sector, Kinda is currently working on a collection of personal essays. These provide insight into the marginal spaces she inhabits such as straddling the hearing and deaf worlds, being a non-practicing Muslim, and not truly belonging in any country. She resides in Dublin with her husband. They imagine someday visiting her parents’ birthplaces of Jaffa and Jerusalem in a liberated Palestine.

[Sponsored by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature]

Jack Kennedy grew up in County Kerry, lives in Dublin and works as a biochemist in a hospital laboratory. He is the winner of the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition 2024 and is due to be published in Southward in 2025. He has been published in the Storms and New Irish Writing.

Instagram Handle: @jackkennedywriter

[Sponsored by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature]

Hailing from sleepy Roscommon, Oda moved to the bright lights of Dublin to study Communications in the 1980s. Subsequent editorial work in television involved scriptwriting and writing voiceover but her first love is fiction writing. She worked for over twenty years as a travel writer for Lonely Planet publications and co-authored guides to Ireland, Dublin, France, Corsica, Britain, Europe on a Shoestring and the Caribbean. She also writes copy for several creative agencies and has written articles for BBC, The Guardian, The Irish Times and Cara magazine. She is currently writing a follow up to her debut children's (MG) novel, Escape From Ward Eight, published in 2022.

Instagram Handle: @odafortune

[Sponsored by Dublin City Libraries]

Now in its eighth year, the National Mentoring Programme (NMP) has become one of the most significant supports for emerging and mid-career writers across Ireland. Run by the Irish Writers Centre – the country’s leading organisation for writer development – the initiative plays a crucial role in shaping Ireland’s literary landscape by nurturing talent at pivotal stages in a writer’s journey.

Since its founding in 1991, the Irish Writers Centre’s mission has been to support the life of the writer – those whose ideas and words illuminate and influence the culture around us.

The impact of the National Mentoring Programme is evident in the success of its alumni, many of whom have gone on to be published and celebrated widely. Past mentees include Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Fíona Scarlett, Will Keohane and Victoria Kennefick – all of whom are now recognised names in Irish writing.

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