Brian Leyden
He has published three novels, two short story collections and a bestselling memoir. He has co-written a script for a feature film, made radio documentaries and is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1. He is a renown writing facilitator and has conducted intensive writing workshops at the Hawkswell Theatre in Sligo. In 2021 Brian Leyden founded Lepus Print
We are very pleased to honour the Arigna man who has brought such esteem and poetic life to our country towns. He is well deserving of all our attention . 
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Gerry Boland is a poet and author. He was born and lived for much of his life in Dublin and moved to north Roscommon in 1999. With ten published books, he has wide experience of leading writing workshops in poetry, short fiction and memoir. Gerry’s books include novels for children, travel books, a myriad of books of poetry.
A consummate writing facilitator, in 2025 he conducted a well attended Memoir Writing Workshop at The Dock.
Gerry was our Written Word Interviewer for our 2022 festival where he warmly recieved writers such Clare Keegan to the stage. It’s our delight to have him share his writing with us as well as interview Brian Leyden.
Cormac Culkeen. He is the founder of the acclaimed Galway based Ragaire Literary Magazine.
Cormac’s work has been published in Sonder Magazine, Causeway, Ropes Literary Journal, The Honest Ulsterman, Skylight 47, The Galway Review and other publications. His debut poetry collection ‘The Boy with the Radio’ was published by Beir Bua Press. We are very glad to bring Cormac onboard as this year’s Poetry Workshop leader. His comprehensive and compassionate approach to the craft will be enjoyable at any stage of your writing experience.
Paddy McEneaney 
Founder and Artistic Director of Exit Does Theatre.
Paddy’s most recent performances on stage have been with Exit Does Theatre in Ante Beckett, a solo show written by Joel Smith and directed by John Carty. The performance earned a 4-star rating by the highly regarded Mervyn Stutter Pick of Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Paddy has recently played Colm in LULLULA dir. Roisin Loughrey and supported by The Directors Guild.
Paddy’s selective reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic, The Great Gatsby, reminding us of the outsider’s observations on empty opulence and the impossibility of the American Dream.
One hundred years ago, on April 10, 1925, Charles Scribner’s Sons published The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Since then, the novel has become a timeless classic of American fiction, inspiring countless other writers, as well as film and musical theater adaptations.
Though his family is Irish, he downplayed his grandparent’s history. Fitzgerald’s America was a cold house for Irish Catholics: Al Smith presidential bid collapsed in 1928 under a wave of anti-Irish, anti-Catholic hysteria. 100 years on this novel shows remarkable parallel to current times.