David McLoghlin is a writer of memoir and creative nonfiction and a poet. He has mentored in memoir and creative nonfiction for The National Mentoring Programme and taught memoir workshops extensively for The Irish Writers Centre, The Center For Fiction, Hudson Valley Writers Center and The Shipman Agency. He also facilitates life writing workshops via Cork County Council and Cork Libraries, as well as independently via Zoom. His third book, Crash Centre, was shortlisted for the 2025 Pigott Prize in association with Listowel Writers’ Week. He has received fellowships from The Sewanee Writers Conference and New York University, where he was an MFA candidate, and a major Arts Council Literature Bursary for a memoir project. His essays have been commissioned for Poetry Foundation's website, and published in New Hibernia Review, University of Michigan Press (forthcoming) and anthologised in Others Will Enter the Gates: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences, and Writing in America (Black Lawrence Press, 2015) and Distant Summers: Remembering Philip Casey (Arlen House, 2024). An immersive essay about playing, as a novice, a golf course designed by his grandfather, Eddie Hackett, “the father of Irish golf design” is forthcoming from Golfer's Journal in the USA. He is at work on a memoir and a fourth collection of poetry. www.davidmcloghlin.com 

1) Eligible mentorship candidates must be currently residing in Munster.

2) The mentorship would most benefit but is not exclusively available to someone who has some publication history already.

3) Candidates may apply to a maximum of two mentors, but no successful candidate can receive more than one mentorship.

4) Successful candidates must prove their Munster residency state and subscribe to the journal Southword before mentorships can begin.

5) Mentees must declare their capacity to access the mentorships by meeting the mentor in Cork at a place and time of mutual convenience, or by video link.

6) Mentees will be expected to supply a short report at the end of their mentorship.

7) applicants must supply, (through Submittable) in one document, a short text explaining why they need the mentorship, a bio note listing any previous literary activity (publications, readings, workshops attended etc.), and a five page sample of their memoir writing. 

8) Mentorships will consist of four face-to-face, two-hour sessions between October – December. 

9)This year past recipients of mentorships with the Munster Literature Centre may apply again.

Afric McGlinchey is an Irish poet and reviewer with strong African connections, as she spent her childhood and early adulthood in Southern Africa. Selected by Poetry Ireland Review as one of The Rising Generation (2016), her other honours include a Hennessy poetry award, Poets Meet Politics award, Northern Liberties prize (USA), and Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations. She has been the recipient of several bursaries from the Cork County Council and was Writer in Residence at the Uillinn Arts Centre in 2016. Since 2005, Afric has been facilitating creative writing and poetry workshops. She is a reviewer for the Dublin Review of Books and other journals, and works as a consulting book editor for The Inkwell Group. Her début poetry collection, The lucky star of hidden things, was published by Salmon Poetry, followed by Ghost of the Fisher Cat in 2016. Both collections have been well-received, translated into Italian and re-published by L’Arcolaio. A surrealist chapbook, Invisible Insane, was published by SurVision in 2019. She was awarded a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Tied to the Wind, an auto-fictional prose poetry collection, published by from Broken Sleep Books. www.africmcglinchey.com

   1) Eligible mentorship candidates must be currently residing in Munster.

2) Poets must have at least two journal publication credits.

3) Candidates may apply to a maximum of two mentors, but no successful candidate can receive more than one mentorship.

4) Successful candidates must prove their Munster residency state and subscribe to the journal Southword before mentorships can begin.

5) Mentees must declare their capacity to access the mentorships by meeting the mentor in Cork at a place and time of mutual convenience.

6) Mentees will be expected to supply a short report at the end of their mentorship.

7) Poet applicants must supply, (through Submittable) in one document, a short text explaining why they need the mentorship, a bio note listing any previous poetry activity (publications, readings, workshops attended etc.), and five of their best poems. 

8) Mentorships will consist of four face-to-face, two-hour sessions between October – November. Assignments may be given to work on between sessions.

9) This year previous mentees with the Munster Literature Centre may also apply again.

Billy O’Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and is the author of four short story collections: In Exile (2008, Mercier Press), In Too Deep (2009, Mercier Press), The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (2013, New Island Books, winner of a 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award and selected as Cork’s One City, One Book for 2017), and The Boatman (2020, Jonathan Cape and Harper (U.S.A.), as well as the novels The Dead House (2017, Brandon/O’Brien Press and 2018, Arcade/Skyhorse (USA) and My Coney Island Baby, (2019, Jonathan Cape and Harper (U.S.A.). His latest novel, Life Sentences, was published by Jonathan Cape in January 2021. Billy is the winner of a Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for the short story, and twice a recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Bursary Award for Literature. Among numerous other honours, his story, The Boatman, was a finalist for the 2016 Costa Short Story Award.

 1) Eligible mentorship candidates must be currently residing in Munster.

2) Fiction writers must have had at least one short story or two flash fiction publication credits.

3) Candidates may apply to a maximum of two mentors, but no successful candidate can receive more than one mentorship.

4) Successful candidates must prove their Munster residency state and subscribe to the journal Southword before mentorships can begin.

5) Mentees must declare their capacity to access the mentorships by meeting the mentor in Cork at a place and time of mutual convenience.

6) Mentees will be expected to supply a short report at the end of their mentorship.

7) Fiction applicants must supply, through Submittable, a short text explaining why they need the mentorship, a bio note listing previous fiction activity (publications, readings, workshops attended etc.) and a sample text of your work, maximum 1500 words. 

8) Mentorships will consist of four face-to-face, two-hour sessions between October – November. Assignments may be given to work on between sessions.

9) This year previous recipients of a mentorship with the Munster Literature Centre may apply again.

Patrick Cotter has published several chapbooks and four full collections of poetry, most recently, Sonic White Poise (2021) and Quality Control at the Miracle Factory (2025) both with the Dedalus Press. He has edited many poetry journals, including guest-edited in 2015 a special issue of POETRY on young Irish poets. His poems have appeared in the Financial Times, London Review of Books, POETRY, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Review, the Stinging Fly and many other places. He has been curating poetry events since 1985 and has been a contributor and a subject of many poetry podcasts, including for the Poetry Foundation and RTE.

1) Eligible mentorship candidates must be currently residing in Munster.

2) Poets must have at least two journal publication credits.

3) Candidates may apply to a maximum of two mentors, but no successful candidate can receive more than one mentorship.

4) Successful candidates must prove their Munster residency state and subscribe to the journal Southword before mentorships can begin.

5) Mentees must declare their capacity to access the mentorships by meeting the mentor in Cork at a place and time of mutual convenience.

6) Mentees will be expected to supply a short report at the end of their mentorship.

7) Poet applicants must supply, (through Submittable) in one document, a short text explaining why they need the mentorship, a bio note listing any previous poetry activity (publications, readings, workshops attended etc.), and five of their best poems. 

8) Mentorships will consist of four face-to-face, two-hour sessions between October – November. Assignments may be given to work on between sessions.

9) This year previous mentees with the Munster Literature Centre may also apply again.