Fiction Mentorships Bursaries with Frank O’Connor Fellow Laura Jean McKay

Australian author Laura Jean McKay is the 2025 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow. The fellowship is very kindly funded by Cork City Council and is an initiative of the Munster Literature Centre. There is the opportunity for four Munster fiction writers to be mentored by Laura, tuition fees covered, between October and December of this year. Each author will benefit from four weekly two-hour contact sessions with Laura.

To qualify you must be a writer resident in Munster, Ireland. You must have had at least one short story published in a reputable literary journal. The mentorship is also open to authors with books already published who believe they can benefit from this opportunity. Previous recipients of a mentorship with a Frank O’Connor Fellow are ineligible to apply again. Successful candidates will need to pay a €100 deposit, refundable upon completion of the mentorship and submission of a short report.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 25th August

Submit your application here

Laura Jean McKay is the author of The Animals in That Country (Scribe 2020) – winner of the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and co-winner of the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 2021. The Animals in That Country has been shortlisted for The Stella Prize and The Kitchies and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Laura’s short story collections are Holiday in Cambodia and Gunflower (Scribe 2023), which was shortlisted for the 2024 Queensland Literary Awards and named one of The Guardian’s best books of 2023. An Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey University, Laura now lives in Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia, and serves on the Australasian Animal Studies Association committee. She was a 2024 Queensland Writers Centre Fellow and awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary Honours.