• Inaugural selection process led by Colm Tóibín
• Award comprises a year-long residency in Dublin City centre

Irish writer Naoise Dolan (32) has been announced as the inaugural IPUT Writer-in-Residence at Wilton Park as selected by Colm Tóibín.

Located in an elegant refurbished Georgian apartment at Wilton Park, the Residency has views across the Grand Canal and the well-known statue of Patrick Kavanagh, and of Mary Lavin Place, the first public square named in honour of an Irish woman writer. The area, known as Baggotonia, is rich with literary connections.

Dolan is one of an exciting generation of Irish writers gaining acclaim on the international stage, and the Residency gives her the chance to return to live in her home city for the first time since graduating from Trinity College in 2016. She plans to use the time to finalise her third novel, contribute to the city’s arts and literary events, and begin a new project.

The IPUT Writer-in-Residence, which includes a generous stipend, will be awarded annually to a published writer to enable them to live and work in Dublin and contribute to the life of the city, a UNESCO World City of Literature.

According to Niall Gaffney, CEO of IPUT Real Estate:

We are delighted to announce Naoise Dolan as our first Writer-in-Residence at Wilton Park. We hope Naoise will enjoy working and living in this peaceful and scenic part of the city where she can derive great inspiration from the neighbourhood. We have created the residency because we believe that cities are only great when there is space for arts and culture to thrive. We expect this will be a productive and enriching experience for Naoise who joins a long list of writers who previously lived in this area. The late Mary Lavin chose nearby Lad Lane to raise her family, and just recently, we named Mary Lavin Place at Wilton Park in her honour.

 

According to Colm Tóibín:

The apartment in Wilton Place that IPUT has created for a writer is a beautiful and inspiring space in an area of Dublin that has a rich literary history. IPUT and Niall Gaffney deserve great credit for their generosity and vision, for seeing their opportunity and knowing how much it will mean for Naoise Dolan and for writers of the future.

According to Naoise Dolan:

This residency will enable me to live and write in Dublin, my home city, for the first time in eight years. I’m very grateful to IPUT for giving me the time and space to develop my practice here. A writer’s greatest luxury is time, so to have a year of it means the world to me; I’ll do my best to use it well. It’s an especial honour to have been chosen in consultation with Colm Tóibín, whom I admire both for the psychological depth and precision-strike prose of his own novels, and for how generously he engages with the work of new Irish writers.

The recipient of the 2026 Writer-in-Residence Award will be announced later this year. The residence joins IPUT’s long-running Artists’ Studios at Wilton Park as part of the company’s acclaimed city-wide arts and culture initiatives. Programmed by the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Wilton Park Studios give dedicated space in the city centre to visual artists, rent free. This year, the Studios move to a permanent bespoke home at 2 Wilton Park.