County Tipperary Arts Office selects writer for national mentoring programme

Local writer, Katrina Dybzynska, has been selected by the Irish Writers Centre to receive professional literary mentoring over the next eight months from an acclaimed Irish writer of her choice.

After a national call out, 37 writers have been selected from nearly three hundred applicants.  County Tipperary Arts Office along with The Source Arts Centre funds the literary mentorships with the Arts Council of Ireland to guarantee that the best applicant from the county would be selected. Their support will ensure that the chosen mentees receive this potentially life-changing support free of charge. It is also an investment in the long-term literary reputation of the region.

The mentoring process involves four 90-minute meetings between the selected mentee and their chosen professional writer. 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.

The Irish Writers Centre’s mission is to support a vibrant and diverse community of writers of all types and talents to develop their craft, capacity, and confidence to thrive as a writer in the world. The hope for the National Mentoring Programme is that the chosen mentees will go on to write the next great works of literature with the support and sustenance of their chosen mentor. It’s a form of peer-to-peer teaching that is increasingly popular in literature, formalising the process whereby successful writers pass on their craft and experience to the next generation of writers across the island.

Running since 2017, the programme now has numerous published authors among its alumni, including Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe, Fiona Scarlett, and Victoria Kennefick to name just a few.

Katrina Dybzynska is a nomadic writer that found her literary home in Ireland. She likes to think that she addresses climate justice and migration but in fact, she mostly writes about her dog. Proud campervan owner that enjoys the most writing from the edges, usually of the Irish cliffs. She has just released a poetry pamphlet, which navigates the power, resistance, and compliance dynamics, Secret of the Dictator’s Wife.