Ask An Editor!

A one-hour phone call.

Maybe you feel stuck in your story or novel; maybe you’re confused about tenses or point of view. Maybe you want to get closer to your characters but they keep eluding you. Maybe your have lost motivation or direction in your work. Maybe you’re struggling with openings. Or endings. Maybe you keep re-writing and don’t seem to ever finish anything. Or maybe you have finished a manuscript but you have no idea what you’re meant to do next. Actually, what the hell is a manuscript? What’s an agent? What on earth is going on?

This session is an opportunity to ask an editor with sixteen years’ experience (who is also an author) a question or two, or maybe three – and for us to think through your problem, query, niggle, together. After the call, I will send you a list of resources and/or tailored recommended readings.

I welcome enquiries from both new and established writers.

  • €95

  • ‘Ask An Editor’ sessions are borne out of my experiences as an editor and writer, and experiencing first hand the transformative power of being able to talk through writing problems.

    On one level, the session is a place to demystify writing and publishing – and I aim to give to practical and logistical answers to practical and logistical questions.

    But on a deeper level, the sessions can be an opportunity for you to talk about your work and hear yourself say aloud the thing you didn’t know you already knew. It’s a place for you to articulate what you’re seeking to do, and what you’re presently doing, and a chance for us to identify any limiting beliefs or unhelpful ‘rules’ – on or off the page – that might be holding you back.

    My hope is that through airing your doubts we can begin to reframe writing problems as opportunities, allowing you to return to your work with vigour and a revived sense of possibility.

  • For this kind of session, generally no! But if I think it would be prudent for me to look at a few pages ahead of our call, I will ask.

    If you are seeking intensive feedback on your work, I recommend taking a look at my ‘Going Deep’ sessions.

  • Drop me a short message using the enquiry form, letting me know – if you can – what your problem is about.

    I’ll get back to you asap; we’ll arrange a date and time for the session; I’ll send you a secure Stripe payment link, and then we’ll jump on the phone and talk things through.

    I have good availability throughout October 2025!
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  • I have worked professionally in publishing since 2009, beginning my career at the Lilliput Press.

    As an editor and mentor, I have worked on stories and books by authors including Nicole Flattery, Rebecca Ivory, Michael Magee, and Chetna Maroo.

    For twelve years, I worked at The Stinging Fly, in many capacities, including two years as Editor ot the magazine. The Stinging Fly has an open submissions policy – anyone can submit work to the magazine, and it’s from these submissions that the magazine puts together each issue. During my editorship, I read thousands of short stories and worked with hundreds of writers. It was a privilege to read all this fiction and poetry, and to edit and nurture so many superb writers – a number of whom have since gone on to publish books of their own.

    In later years, I became Editor at Large and ran the Stinging Fly Writer Development Programme, where I mentored a number of writers working towards their first books. During this time, I was also commissioning and editing fiction, essays, and literary criticism.

    Nowadays I work with writers on a freelance basis and through state-funded initiatives such as the National Mentoring Programme.

    A fuller account of my editing and publishing experience is available here.

  • I have delivered workshops, talks and seminars at universities across Ireland and the UK, including University College Cork, where I taught on the MA in Creative Writing. I have also taught and given talks for institutions and organisations such as The Irish Writers Centre, The Faber Academy, The Stinging Fly, and The Arvon Foundation.

  • I am the author of two books of stories: We Don’t Know What We’re Doing (2015) and Open Up (2023), both published by Faber & Faber.

    My awards include the Wales Book of the Year, The Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, and a Somerset Maugham Award. In 2023, I was named as one of the 20 Best Young British Novelists by Granta magazine. My work has been shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize; and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Sunday Times Short Story Award. My books have been chosen as a Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Observer,The Spectator, The Irish Times, and The Irish Independent. 

    Stories of mine have been published, anthologised, and broadcast in venues including: The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story; Best European Fiction; Zoetrope; Granta; and BBC Radio 4.

    An Italian-language edition of Open Up will be published by Edizione Sur in February 2026. A French edition is forthcoming in 2027.