Writer in Residence 2026-27

dlr Arts Office is delighted to welcome two new Writers in Residence for dlr LexIcon. Both residencies will focus on fiction for adults and will allow time for creation of new writing as well as a public engagement programme for other writers and the public.

Lisa Harding will be the new Established Wrier in Residence while Zoe Comyns will be the Emerging Writer in Residence.

Lisa Harding is an actress, playwright, short story writer and novelist. Her debut novel, Harvesting, won the Kate O’Brien Award and was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kerry Group Prize. Her second novel, Bright Burning Things, was a Today Show Book Club Pick, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a People Magazine Pick, and was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and the Dalkey Literary Award. Her third novel, The Wildelings, was featured in the Observer, Harper’s Bazaar, The Economist, the Irish Independent and the Irish Times. Her short story ‘A Bellyflop Shouldn’t Hurt Like This’ was selected for The Stinging Fly’s online fiction series in May 2026. She regularly teaches at Arvon and the Irish Writers Centre and was previously Writer in Residence at University College Cork.

Zoë Comyns was awarded a 2026 Writing Place Writing Planet residency with UCD Mary Lavin Centre for Creative Writing/iCrag. She was Podcaster-in-Residence at the National Library of Ireland
(2025/26). She presents the new writing series The Prompt on RTÉ Radio1 and her dramas, essays, documentaries and weekly shows have been
broadcast on BBC, RTÉ, ABC and Newstalk.