mentoring, manuscript & proposal development

I AM NOW ABLE TO TAKE ON NEW MENTEES.

I work with new and established writers on all aspects of developing their writing, and with arts practitioners of all disciplines who are looking to use writing in their work.

I have mentored regularly for Words Ireland and Ireland's National Mentoring Programme, as well as teaching emerging writers at the Irish Writers' Centre, Arvon UK, and many universities.

I specialise in autofiction/experimental memoir, hybrid, multidisciplinary and experimental prose, creative non-fiction and lgbt+ writing. I am not your best choice of mentor for literary fiction or genre fiction.

I charge the same rates as The Literary Consultancy.

I can meet in person in Dublin and sometimes in Marseille or Paris, and worldwide via zoom or similar. If you'd like to talk about working together, please send a very brief description of your project + a short writing bio. If you have no published work, that's fine, I just like to know about any experience you have. Please keep your email to under 500 words. Thank you.

Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Joanna Walsh is an extraordinary mentor, bright, kind, and rigorous. From our very first session together, she led our conversations in such a way that I began to see both the lacunae and connections that had been lurking within my rough drafts. Only the most gifted teachers can create an environment in which a student may be challenged with difficult questions and encouraged to puzzle her own way onwards, with all the attendant growth that follows such adventures. This approach was precisely what I needed of a mentor. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity to think alongside Joanna, and I would leap at the opportunity to do so again. - Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

Sian Norris

Joanna provided helpful and insightful feedback on my proposal for Bodies Under Siege: The Far Right Attack on Reproductive Rights - helping me to think through the questions I wanted to ask (and answer!) and therefore focusing the narrative. - Sian Norris, Social Affairs and Europe Reporter at Byline Times, author of Birth Violence (Verso, 2022)