The Arts Council supports high quality writing in English and in Irish and includes:
- poetry,
- fiction,
- literary criticism,
- creative non-fiction,
- children's literature,
- illustrated picture books,
- and graphic novels.
We also support other types of artistic writing (i.e critical writing about the arts) but this is dealt with by the relevant artforms. For example, critical writing about dance is the responsibility of the Dance team and critical writing about visual arts is the responsibility of the Visual Arts team.
Playwriting and theatre making is the responsibility of the Theatre team.
The Arts Council’s remit does not extend to areas outside of those listed above, such as screenwriting, journalism, history, religious writing, professional, instructional and academic writing.
You may be eligible to apply for a Literature Bursary Award, Next Generation Artists Award or the Agility Award.
The Literature Bursary Award provides mid-career and established writers with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and write, by releasing them from financial commitments. In other words, writers can apply for bursaries that free them from the costs of mortgages, rent, childcare or other living expenses; or to allow them to take a break from their regular work in order to concentrate on a literary project.
Please note the literature bursary is not intended to cover costs associated with publishing or self-publishing.
You can apply for one of the following amounts: €10,000, €15000 and €20,000
The Agility Award is open to artists at all stages of their career to: develop their practice; develop their work; develop their skills but for writers and illustrators who are at the emerging stage of their career, and may have a more limited publishing track record, the Agility Award may be for you.
You can apply for between €1,500 and €5,000.
The Next Generation Artists Award:
The purpose of the Next Generation Artists Award is to support a group of promising artists across all disciplines at an early but pivotal stage in their career. Recipients will receive €25,000 and will also take part in a collective week-long residential programme in spring 2023.
Joint applications and interdisciplinary applications are welcomed.
For further information on all of the above, please visit our available funding page here.
The Arts Council does not prioritise support for self-publication, but instead offers funding assistance to numerous literary publishers and journals across the country. We do this to ensure that Arts Council funding goes towards works which will be published, distributed and marketed to the highest standards.
The Arts Council supports a number of literary publishers and journals and you can download a list of them here: Publisher & Journal List 2022.pdf . This list is by no means exhaustive, however, and you should also consult literature resource organisations for further advice, including contacts for literary agents.
You should also consider consulting the Writers and Artists Yearbook, which should be available at your local library.
No. You can apply to Culture Ireland, the national body for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide. You can find out more about Culture Ireland and funding opportunities here: http://www.cultureireland.ie/funding
You could consider applying for the Arts Grants Funding.
Arts Grant Funding awards funding to organisations and individuals to carry out a series of activities, including the production of high quality literary books and publications, and their promotion and dissemination to a wide audience. You can read more about the scheme here.
The list of publishers and journalists supported by the Arts Council is available
here.