Dear festival friends,
We regret that our 5th annual Write by the Sea festival which was due to take place from September 25th-27th 2020 has been rescheduled due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Write by the Sea is distinctive in that it offers an opportunity for writers, facilitators, artists and festival goers to share performances, ideas and experiences in close contact, supported by a welcoming village volunteer force. However, the health, safety and well-being of everyone involved, as well as full compliance with Government guidelines must take priority over everything else at this difficult time.
And now for the good news… Write by the Sea 2020/21 will take place from September 24th-26th 2021. Our 2020 national and international writers will be there to celebrate an exciting programme of interviews, experiential workshops, readings and talks with you. Save the dates in your diary now and come and enjoy drama, crime writing, short stories, storytelling, poetry, memoir writing, writing graphic novels and much, much more. We look forward to seeing you next year in Kilmore Quay, and in the meantime…
Writing Competition Prize fund of €1,000
… our Writing Competition is attracting record entries this year and we are offering our biggest prize fund ever. There has never been a better time to sit down and write your heart out. Two category winners will be presented with a cash prize of €250 and the overall winner will receive the top cash prize of €500. All three winners will receive a beautiful hand-crafted WBTS 2020 Writing Competition trophy and all three winning pieces will be published on the Write By The Sea website. The competition is open for submissions now – see our competitions page for further details on how to enter.
Write By the Sea Literary Festival 2019 took place from September 27th to 29th 2019 in Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford, Ireland. We invite you to browse our programme and find out more about the writers who made up this rich and varied programme. We are currently working on our rescheduled programme. Details will be posted here as soon as they are available. In the meantime, make sure to save the date for our next festival: 24th-26th September 2021.
We hope you can find all the information you need about the festival and the picturesque village of Kilmore Quay, where we are based, here on our website. Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
WRITERS
Among those who joined us in 2019 were poets Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan, authors Dermot Bolger and Mike McCormack, Sports-writer Vincent Hogan and from Georgia Southern University, Dr. Amanda Konkle and Prof. Bill Dawers
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ROOM TO WRITE
Linked to our Write By The Sea festival, Room to Write takes place in the Stella Maris Centre, Kilmore Quay on the second Saturday of every month.
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VENUE
In the heart of Kilmore Quay, the Stella Maris Centre hosts the annual Write By the Sea Literary Festival and monthly Room to Write meeting. Kilmore Quay is a picturesque fishing village just 25 minutes by car from Wexford town.
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ACCOMMODATION
Only twenty-five minutes from Rosslare Europort & Wexford town, this corner of South County Wexford is a tranquil getaway with plenty of local B&Bs and self-catering options for you to choose from.
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Write Stuff is a podcast in which Chris Fitzgerald interviews prominent writers about all things writing. We were delighted to welcome Chris to Write By the Sea in 2018 where he recorded a number of interviews with participants that are now available to listen to on the Headstuff website.
“Write By The Sea is a literary festival set in the intimate fishing village of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford. It offers a platform for established and emerging authors to explore and explain the process of writing for keen readers and would-be writers.
The programme for Write By The Sea includes a generous mix of talks, readings, interviews and workshops. Overlooking the picturesque Saltee Islands, the inspirational setting of Kilmore Quay is also an appropriate location in which to celebrate the international achievements of Irish authors and to encourage new writing across all genres.
Our 2019 line up of distinguished authors and presenters included Sara Baume, Dermot Bolger, Kevin Doyle, Catherine Dunne, Theo Dorgan, Ruth Fitzmaurice, Sinead Gleeson, Lisa Harding and Paula Meehan. In previous years we have had the pleasure of welcoming travel writers Dervla Murphy and Geoff Hill, authors Donal Ryan, John Banville, Jennifer Johnston, Kit de Waal, Cath Staincliffe, Rob Doyle, Cat Hogan and Peter Murphy; Marcus Connaughton, Rick O’Shea, Jackie Hayden and Tom Mooney; singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy; poets Thomas McCarthy, Jim Maguire and Joe Neal; playwright Billy Roche and award-winning children’s author Sarah Webb.
Write By The Sea workshops have included wide ranging tops such as: Breaking Into Crime Writing; The Essentials of Character Writing; Oral Storytelling; Getting Started in Writing; Approaching Publishers; Marketing your Book via the Internet; Writing Poetry; Writing for the Stage, tv and Radio, and Journalism (freelance, sports, music and general topics). Write By The Sea has become the place to be on the last weekend of September every year and is now a key event in the Autumn literary calendar.
Write By The Sea is kindly supported by our sponsors listed below.