Victoria Kennefick announced as Cork County Council Writer in Residence

Cork County Council are excited to announce the appointment of award-winning poet, Victoria Kennefick to the position of writer in residence for a ten-month period beginning this December. The writer in residence collaborates with communities in the county, improving access to literature and creative writing workshops.

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Frank O’Flynn, said,

We are delighted to be collaborating with a writer of Victoria’s calibre. Her experience and enthusiasm for writing in all its forms will lend itself to a very successful residency. This is a fantastic opportunity for aspiring writers and readers in the county to engage with a published writer. With this residency, we aim to promote creative writing and reading contemporary literature in the community. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of this residency.

A key aspect of the Writer in Residence programme is the use of local library branches as centres of creative writing. During her residency Victoria will work with five branches in the county, Bandon, Carrigaline, Cobh, Kanturk, and Mitchelstown. Victoria has proposed an exciting programme of engagement with writers' groups, community groups, young people, as well as online engagement.

Victoria brings a wealth of experience in teaching and creative writing facilitation to the role. She was the UCD/Arts Council of Ireland Writer-in-Residence 2023 and Poet-in-Residence at the Yeats Society Sligo 2022-2024.

Victoria says, “I am delighted, as a Cork woman, to be returning to my native county to collaborate with writers, students, and readers in developing and enriching their relationship and engagement with literature. Cork County Council has provided me with many opportunities as an emerging writer in the past. It is an honour to pay this support back in this way and I am looking forward to meeting and collaborating with writers all over the county.”

Her debut poetry collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, New England Review, PN Review, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. Her second collection is Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, February 2024) and is available for pre-order now. She is currently working on her first novel.

The residency is managed by Cork County Council Library and Arts Service. This position is supported by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and Creative Ireland.