Literature Ireland runs a small programme of residencies around the world for Irish writers. These residencies give the writer space and time to work on their own creative projects. The writer has the opportunity to visit a country outside of Ireland, engage with the culture and local literary scene. Each residency is presented in partnership with exceptional cultural organisations and festivals across the world.
Roisin Kiberd, Château de Lavigny, Switzerland, 2026. Photo: Sophie Kandaouroff.
In June 2026, Roisin Kiberd travelled to Switzerland to become the inaugural Literature Ireland Writer in Residence at the Château de Lavigny. Roisin spent the month of June living at the Château, during which time she developed her current work-in-progress.
The Château de Lavigny International Writers’ Residence was founded by the late Jane Ledig-Rowohlt in memory of her husband, the renowned German publisher Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt (Rowohlt Verlag). Jane’s wish was to make their home a writers’ residence which would foster “a spirit of international community and creativity.” Since the establishment of the Heinrich Maria and Jane Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation in 1996, the Château de Lavigny has welcomed some 700 writers and literary translators.
Speaking about her residency, Roisin said:
"I absolutely loved my time at Chateau Lavigny. The house is unique and beautiful, and is charged with the memory of decades of literary visitors. The location, too, is wonderful – I swam in Lake Geneva, took lots of walks and visited CERN and the grave of Jorge Luis Borges."
Roisin Kiberd has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers and others, and her first book, The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through the Internet, was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2021. Her second, The Most Normal Woman: Essays on Appearances, will be published by Tramp Press in 2026. She was the non-fiction editor of The Stinging Fly, and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Galway.
In March 2026, Ben Keatinge travelled to Belgrade, Serbia to become the third Writer in Residence at the annual Belgrade Irish Festival. This residency is a partnership between Literature Ireland and the Belgrade Irish Festival (directed by Jas Kaminski).
Ben spent a total of five weeks in the Serbian capital, during which he developed a sequence of poems inspired by the life and research of Serbian-American engineer and inventor, Nikola Tesla. He also participated in the public programme of the Belgrade Irish Festival, speaking to noted historian Dr Bojan Dimitrijević the afternoon of 14 March.
Speaking about his residency, Ben said:
"I was very well looked after by Jas Kaminski and the BIF team during my stay. The set-up proved conducive to my work on Nikola Tesla and I managed 7-8 new draft poems which will go towards my projected 12-poem sequence on Tesla.
My reading on 14th March was, I think, a success. I read a mix of poems from my pamphlet - Waiting for Goran at the Broz Café - as well as some new Tesla poems and some Irish-themed poems. The audience appeared interested and there were several questions at the end. Two of my Balkan poems were translated into Serbian for the Festival and an additional two poems have been subsequently translated by another translator for publication in a Serbian literary journal."
Ben Keatinge was born in Dublin in 1973 and educated at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. He won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2022 and received a Dedalus Press Poetry Mentorship in 2021. His poems have been featured in The Irish Times, Irish Independent, and Poetry Ireland Review, as well as in several anthologies. From 2007 to 2016, he worked as a university lecturer, teaching English literature in North Macedonia while studying Macedonian and travelling extensively. He was also an International Research Fellow at the New Europe College, Bucharest in 2015. In 2025, he was named joint-winner of the Ireland Chair of Poetry inaugural pamphlet competition with his Balkan sequence, Waiting for Goran at the Broz Café.
Tim MacGabhann travelled to Belgrade, Serbia to become the second Writer in Residence at the Belgrade Irish Festival for the month of March 2025. The residency is a partnership between Literature Ireland and the Belgrade Irish Festival (Directed by Jas Kaminski).
The residency gave Tim the opportunity to spend time thinking and writing while exploring the multicultural city of Belgrade. The timing of the residency, coinciding with the festival, allowed Tim to participate fully in the life and culture of this vibrant and dynamic city and meet with local and international writers and artists.
Speaking of his time in Belgrade, Tim said:
"Overall the experience surpassed expectations, as I arrived with an open mind and a lot of curiosity about a region I'd long wanted to visit."
Tim MacGabhann is an Irish writer. His first two novels, Call Him Mine and How to Be Nowhere, were published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Other fiction, non-fiction and poetry has also appeared in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, The Tangerine, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Rialto, among others.
He is currently at work on a PhD with funding from CHASE at UEA. A memoir The Black Pool: A Memoir of Forgetting and a full poetry collection are forthcoming in 2025.
Rob Doyle © Katie Freeney
Rob Doyle travelled to Belgrade, Serbia to become the inaugural Writer in-Residence at the Belgrade Irish Festival. The residency was a three-way partnership between Literature Ireland, the Belgrade Irish Festival and the Krokodil Creative Centre. The timing of the residency, coinciding with the festival, gave Rob a unique opportunity to spend time thinking and writing while exploring the multicultural city of Belgrade and to meet with local and international writers and artists.
This new residency offered Rob Doyle a unique opportunity to engage with the rich cultural offerings of the city of Belgrade, one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Rob found the residency to be hugely beneficial and enriching, saying:
“The Belgrade residency was what I can only describe as a resounding success, at least in the sense that I had a hugely enriching time of it over there. Jas [Kaminksy] who runs the Belgrade Irish Festival is a first-rate guy - a friend now, really - and he and his crew are doing wonders in terms of forging links between two cultures I wouldn't have readily associated with one another. …I'm hopeful that Serbian editions of my books might come of the trip, as they put on a “publishers’ breakfast” for me at the Krokodil Cultural Centre.”
Each year two writers, who are Irish or normally resident in Ireland, are selected to spend a month in the beautiful Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) in the Latin Quarter of Paris. This residency is one of Literature Ireland’s longest partnerships. It provides a valuable and unique opportunity for Irish writers to spend time writing in a new and stimulating environment. The residency also offers the writers the opportunity to network with fellow artists from Ireland, especially across genres. The writers participate in the community and events in the Centre, and have the opportunity to meet artists from France and across the world while residing in Paris.