Under Thirty project for young Irish writers

Under Thirty, a new and unique non-profit project designed to nurture and showcase young Irish fiction at home and aboard, is seeking submissions from young writers under the age of 30. The project provides writers with access to a panel of experienced writers, literary scholars, editors, and publishers, who work entirely voluntarily to review submissions and provide feedback and encouragement to the country's aspiring writers.

The project aims to help writers to develop their skills, and make their formative first steps into the literary world. Through a blind peer-review process, the most promising submissions are selected for publication in a bi-annual journal, and all entries are given back their manuscripts with suggestions and advice from the panel. In this way, writers can be assured that their work speaks for itself, and the panel of reviewers have the freedom to truly feed back into the development of new writers, and provide them with the constructive criticism and motivation to go even further with their work.

The project creator, Dr. Stephen Doherty, a twenty-eight-year-old psychologist and writer, explained how it "has received fantastic support from many networks around the country and abroad. Schools, universities, writing groups, libraries, broadcasters, and politicians, all want to invest in the up-and-coming generation of our writers - one of our country's unique and notable values, that shines through boom and bust."

Dr. Doherty continued, "The project uses its homepage and social media channels to provide information of funding opportunities in the arts, connect writers of all experiences with one another through events and online fora, and to add to our growing pool of freely available resources for new writers."

Under Thirty has a team of over fifty, and it's growing: Markus Ahonen, Celeste Augé, Dr. Richard Barlow, Turtle Bunbury, Dr. Dermot Burns, Tom Carroll, Yvonne Cassidy, Dr. Philip Coleman, June Considine, Eoghan Corry, Dr. David Coughlan, Paddy Cummins, Theo Dorgan, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Dr. Michael Farry, Michael Freeman, Craig Gibson, Jack Harte, Gerry Hanberry, Dr. Derek Hand, Caroline Healy, Jean-Philippe Imbert, Phelim Kavanagh, Prof. Margaret Kelleher, Dr. Patricia Kennon, Brian Kirk, Dr. Brigitte Le Juez, Rozz Lewis, John MacKenna, Manchán Magan, Jessica Maybury, Dr. Áine McGillicuddy, Monica McInerney, Michéle Milan, David Mohan, Sinéad Moriarty, Dr. Christina Morin, Alan Nolan, Tim O'Brien, Billy O'Callaghan, Dr. Eithne O'Connell, Dr. Maureen O'Connor, Vanessa O'Loughlin, Paul Perry, Louise Phillips, Prof. Ian Campbell Ross, Valerie Sirr, Dr. Olga Springer, Sarah Webb, Prof. Jenny Williams.

Bursting with fresh talent, new stories, and infectious potential, the inaugural journal will be published in December as a soft-bound book and e-book at a special event at Dublin City University. Sponsored by the Centre for Next Generation Localisation - a Science Foundation Ireland funded national research centre exploring areas of language, translation, and technology - this event on the campus of Ireland's university of enterprise and innovation will host a mix of our newly published and established writers, literary scholars, and some special guests. From the contributions published in the journal, an award will be given each year to one outstanding new writer in the form of a scholarship/writing retreat so that they can truly focus on making their first publication a successful one.

The deadline for submissions for the first issue is November 7th, 2012. For more information about the project, and to make a submission: visit www.under-30.org