Dedaus Press is pleased to announce details of our 2026 Mentoring Programme for emerging poets.
Combining online Mentoring Sessions and the publication of a selection of your work in our annual ‘Introductions’ anthology, the Dedalus Press Mentoring Programme is a unique opportunity to have your work closely read by practitioners who are enthusiastic about new work and willing to share their experience and expertise.
We’re delighted to confirm that this year’s Programme will be facilitated by David Nash. David’s debut collection No Man’s Land (“An auspicious and powerful debut – exuberant, original, comforting” — Paula Meehan) was published in 2023 and has received the Seamus Heaney Prize in 2024 as well as being shortlisted for both the UK-based Ondaatje Prize and the Pigott Prize at Listowel Writers Week.
Submission to the Mentoring Programme is open to poets of all ages and backgrounds who fulfil the following criteria:
1. Poets must be born in or currently resident in Ireland (a minimum of 1 year).
2. Poets must not yet have published a full-length collection of their work in English. (A full-length collection will be understood as more than 32 pages, published by a recognised publisher or self-published with an ISBN.)
3. Only submissions in English can be considered (though poets translating their own work from other languages may apply).*
Mentor David Nash will read all submissions and choose three to five poets who will each be offered three hour-long one-on-one online mentoring sessions over the coming months. Sessions may include feedback on individual poems, suggestions for revision, and advice for the shaping of a larger body of poems such as a chapbook or first collection manuscript. At the end of the mentoring process which takes place in Spring 2026, these chosen poets will be invited to submit a selection of their work (approx 20 pages each) for publication in the 2026 edition of our annual ‘Introductions’ series (see here for details of the 2025 edition, Beginnings Over and Over, edited by Leeanne Quinn, and featuring Mai Ishikawa, Róisín Leggett Bohan, Emer Lyons and Cal O’Reilly).
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
1. Applicants are invited to submit up to 12 pages of poetry, together with a short biographical note, and any other information that might be relevant.
2. Application is open from 01 to 16 Jan 2026 only. (Submissions will not be accepted after this period.) Applications may be made online and through Submittable only, the link for which will be posted on this page from 01 January to 16 January 2026.
3. There is no charge to apply for the Dedalus Press Mentoring Programme, which is made possible through the financial support of The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Eaiaíon. Applicants are invited to support the work of the press and of their fellow poets with the purchase of any recent or backlist title from this website.
* NB Dedalus Press issues occasional volumes of new poetry in translation, often in dual-language formats, but this Mentoring Programme is specifically for new poetry in English and any translations submitted, from whatever language, will be judged on their English-language versions.
ABOUT OUR MENTOR
DAVID NASH was born in Co. Cork and lives between Ireland and Chile. His work is widely published in journals, and his texts have appeared in numerous art exhibitions and books, including for Wolfgang Tillmans at IMMA. A Spanish-language children’s book, Bajo Mis Pies, came out in 2020, as did two translations of books on the cultural history of Chile. He writes for Harper’s Bazaar Korea and Elle Korea, and his essays have appeared in The Irish Times. His first pamphlet, The Islands of Chile, was published in 2022. His first full-length collection, No Man’s Land (Dedalus Press, 2023) won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize in 2024 and was shortlisted for both the Piggot Poetry Prize and the Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Literature.
