A member of staff at GMIT Mayo has been shortlisted in a prestigious national short story writing competition and is to have her story read out on air on RTÉ’s Radio 1 later this month.
Anne Donnelly is originally from Carlow but moved to Castlebar 19 years ago.
The student services officer at GMIT Mayo turned her hand to creative writing as a hobby two years ago. And she seems to have quite the flair for it.
Ms Donnelly submitted her tale, Poke, to RTÉ’s Frances MacManus short story competition and was selected from more than 800 entries to make it on to a shortlist of just 25 stories.
Poke tells the story of a woman whose world is turned upside down when her mother, whom she has not seen in 26 years, ‘pokes’ her on Facebook.
The story will be read out on air at 11.02 pm on July 18 on RTE Radio 1.
Ms Donnelly said she found inspiration for her new hobby after completing a creative writing course at her place of work.
“I only started to write two years ago in the evenings and at weekends, and then I decided to do the evening course at GMIT Mayo to see if I was any good,” she explained. “The course was brilliant and gave me the confidence and skills I needed to continue writing.”
This is not the first time Ms Donnelly’s literary skills have been recognised. She recently had one of her plays shortlisted and performed at the Claremorris Fringe Festival of Drama.
Dr Deirdre Garvey, head of GMIT Mayo, said staff and students at the college are “delighted” about Ms Donnelly’s success.
