Two New Bloggers Hop Onboard

Say hello to Charlene Putney and Lynne Nolan who join our list of contributors.

Charlene Putney is a Dublin-based writer. She’s currently focusing on a speculative fiction novel along with creating experimental games, running fun events and lecturing on digital marketing. Find her at www.alphachar.com and on Twitter.

Lynne Nolan is a Dublin-based journalist, writing mostly about business and technology. An avid reader and film fanatic, she hopes that combining both interests will result in some interesting blog posts for the festival.

Another Blogger on Board.

A warm welcome to Aoife Flood as she joins our ever growing ranks. Aoife holds a degree in Cultural Studies and an MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama. It was while studying her masters that a deep interest in Irish literature truly gripped her. Her reading interests gravitate towards contemporary and modern Irish literature, particularly novels and biographies. She studied for a time in Germany and has a love of German culture, language and literature, and indeed is presently learning German as a second language. One of her great passions is football and she counts herself as a huge Liverpool FC fan!

And our list of bloggers keeps on growing.

Our newest contributor is Pat Upton. A native of Inner City Dublin, Pat studied philosophy and translation before publishing his first book, City Portraits: 100 Portraits of Everyday Life in Dublin, in 2013 (available on Kindle and in Books Upstairs/The Winding Stair). In addition Pat has written a book about cafe life in the Walter Mitty Cafe in Dawson Street, Dublin as well as his latest ongoing project ‘Stolen Bicycle Sorties’, a series of fifty walks around Dublin in the company of fifty different poets, past and present.

He has just finished reading ‘Sky Above, Great Wind’, a study of the Japanese Zen poet Ryokan, and is half-way through Raymond Queneau’s novel Zazie dans le métro.

  

You can check out his blog or  his new Facebook page, Dublin City Portraits.

Introducing our newest contributor

 Say hello to our newest contibutor Nuala Ní Chonchúir. Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala now lives in East Galway. Her fourth short story collection Mother America was published by New Island in 2012. A chapbook of flash Of Dublin and Other Fictions was published in the US in late 2013 by Tower Press and Nuala’s second novel The Closet of Savage Mementos appeared spring 2014 from New Island. Penguin USA and Penguin Canada will publish Nuala’s third novel in 2015. She has been lit blogging since 2007, you can also visit her website or find her on Facebook.

Another voice joins our blog

Please welcome Paula McGrath as a new contributor to our blog. Paula is an MFA student at UCD, where she’s working on a novel-in-stories, No One’s From Chicago. She recently signed with Ger Nichol of The Book Bureau, and her novel, Michaelangelos, is on submission. She has published short fiction and reviews in Mslexia, ROPES Galway, Necessary Fiction, Eclectica, gorse.ie and others. She teaches undergraduate creative writing at UCD, and for Big Smoke Writing Factory’s online courses. You can read her blog here.

Say hello to another two new bloggers

We are thrilled that G.J. Schear and Grainne Lynch have joined our merry little band of bloggers.

G.J. Schear’s first job was in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre selling ice cream. She also worked for the Dublin Theatre Festival and once, memorably, was chased around the office by the late and much-missed actor Donal Donnelly. Born in Dublin Ms Schear has at one time or another lived in London, Jerusalem, and the US before returning to Ireland in 2003. She currently lives in Kells.

First published at the age of 16 she has since had several short stories and non-fiction articles appear in print. Her short story writing credits include ‘Resurrection Charlie’ – Hayden’s Ferry Review, ‘home Truth’ – Broadkill Review and ‘Daffodils in an Irish Garden’ – River Poets Journal Anthology. In 2012 her first novel Shakespeare’s Tree was a winner at the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair. She has just completed her second novel, a thriller called A Biased Judgement. You can find G.J. Schear online at her blog: http://rycardus.wordpress.com/ or on twitter.

Gráinne is an avid reader and an eternal student. She studied Computer Programming before doing a BA in Modern Drama Studies and went back to college again to do an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies in NUIG. She likes to tell people she has a Masters in reading plays and pretending to be a tree. Her favourite writers tend to be female – Caitlin Moran, Mary Welsey, Ali Smith, Marian Keyes, Kate Atkinson – but she also devours anything by Terry Prachett and still misses Douglas Adams. She blogs about theatre at gronya.com

If you are interested in contributing to our blog please email Ciaran at ciaran@dublinwritersfestival.com.

Another new blogger joins the ranks

David Rafferty recently graduated from DIT, earning a 2.1 honours degree in Business and Management. He writes about film on his blog 500 Word Write-Up: The Latest Film Reviews. At present he is a marketing executive and is also working on his first novel, Timewalkers. You can find David on twitter and LinkedIn.

Say hello to our newest contributor

The latest addition to our little family of bloggers is Lia Mills. Lia writes novels, short stories, essays, memoir and the odd blog. Her first novel, Another Alice (1996), was nominated for the Irish Times Irish fiction prize and her second novel Nothing Simple (2005) was shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year at the inaugural Irish Book Awards. Her 2007 book In Your Face, a memoir of her diagnosis of and treatment for oral cancer, was named as a favourite book of the year by several commentators. Her third novel is called Fallen and is due out this June from Penguin Ireland. You can find more about Lia on her website or check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.

If you are interested in contributing to our blog please email Ciaran at ciaran@dublinwritersfestival.com

Let us introduce you…

We’re delighted to introduce you to Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair who will be contributing to the DWF blog.  Rioghnach is a freelance TV writer and screenwriter, director and script editor living in Dublin. She’s written and directed several short films, has previously worked in Development for Blinder Films and occasionally contributes to RTE’s FAIR CITY. She’s a book, movie, TV and music fiend and can often be found on twitter, scoffing macarons or injuring herself running.

If you are interested in contributing to our blog please email Ciaran on ciaran@dublinwritersfestival.com.

Introducing our first Blogger for 2014

We are delighted to have Dave Rudden on board with us as our first new blogger of 2014. Dave is a twenty-six year old writer currently living in Dublin. He recently completed a Masters in Creative Writing from University College Dublin and is represented by Darley Anderson Literary Agency. He regularly performs as part of Dublin’s spoken word scene and his first YA novel The Borrowed Dark will be published by Puffin in Spring 2016. To hear more from Dave you can find him on twitter.

If you are interested in contributing to our blog please email Ciaran on ciaran@dublinwritersfestival.com.