A Girl's Writing Is Never Done (c) Shauna Gilligan 2026
I was delighted to be featured on the Irish Universities Association #TwoTalk2 Series. This is a video series developed by the Irish Universities Association where Director General Jim Miley talks to a guest for two minutes.
Jim asks me about teaching creative writing and Mantles (Arlen House, 2021).
I’m delighted to have new fiction included in the “Thoughts on Paper” exhibition in Oriel y Bont Gallery, University of South Wales (17 January – 25 February 2022). My fiction “Waking The Mermaids” was a response to some powerful artwork by Frances Woodley entitled “Dump 2020” Digital Painting 100 x 120cm.
I especially enjoyed the process of including drafts of my work-in-progress alongside the edited, final (can it ever be final!) piece.
With thanks to the curators and Barrie LLewelyn for including my writing.
The exhibition brings together a group of artists from Wales who are interested in exploiting the versatile possibilities of working with such an everyday material. Paper combines fragility and durability in equal measure. It is a material that artists and writers have traditionally used to render their first thoughts; to make drafts, models and prototypes but it can also be used to capture spontaneity and immediacy in more resolved artworks. Every mark or crease is hard to erase, making an exhibition focused on work dependent on paper the ideal way to examine the creative process.
The exhibition includes work by Adéọlá Dewis, Penny Hallas, Richard Higlett, Sue Hunt, Maggie James, Kieran Lyons, Thomas Martin, Phil Nicol, Chris Nurse, Heather Parnell, Alan Salisbury, Stephanie Tuckwell, Tessa Waite, Frances Woodley together with responses from creative writers Maria Donovan, Judith Goldsmith, Sarah Klenbort, Kate Noakes, Shauna Gilligan, Malcolm Lewis, Samuel Mark Sargeant, Georgia Bolton, and Donna-Louise Bishop.
For more information see University of South Wales Oriel y Bont Gallery
I am very much looking forward to working with writers and artists on Saturday 9th October exploring Brigid and our sense of place at 2pm and Brigid and the Sacred Feminine at 7pm.
Both workshops are fully booked and have a waiting list.
Margo McNulty and I would like to thank everyone for engaging with our collaborative endeavour Mantles (Funded by Creative Ireland/ Kildare County Council/Roscommon County Council)
Shauna Gilligan Writer 