A Sense of Place: Debut Novelist Showcase – Neil Tully, Barbara Leahy, Jessamine O’Connor in partnership with The Irish Writer’s Centre, Saturday 10th October, 2:00pm, Heritage Centre, Kickham Street, Nenagh E45 X588, Free admittance, but booking advised. NB not wheelchair accessible.
Chaired by arts journalist and writer Aoife Barry
“Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else” — Eudora Welty
Putting their mark, not only on the literary landscape of 2026, but also putting their mark on a particular place, three debut novelists talk about the importance of location and setting as a character in this Irish Writers Centre panel discussion that brings us to Dublin, Wexford and Amsterdam.
• Neil Tully is a writer from the west of Ireland. His debut novel, The Visit, was published in March 2026. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick and lives in Cork with his wife.
• Jessamine O’Connor lives in a train station on the Sligo Roscommon border. Her debut novel Somewhere was published in May by Lilliput Press. Her poetry collection Silver Spoon is published by Salmon Poetry. Awards include 2025’s Poems for Patience, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Travel Award, and the Drumshambo Written Word film competition. She hosts a monthly open-mic night and teaches English as a new language.
• Barbara Leahy is from Cork. Her writing has won numerous awards, including the Dromineer Flash Fiction Prize back in 2017. Her stories have appeared in the Bridport Prize Anthology, the Bristol Prize Anthology, and been broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. She was a winner of the Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair competition in 2023. Rembrandt’s Promise is her first novel.