Rosemary Jenkinson

2025 has been a bumper writing year for Rosemary Jenkinson – she’s published a poetry collection, Sandy Row Riots; a novel, The Memorisers; a short story collection, Laganside Lights; and a raft of non-fiction, including an eyewitness account of her most recent visit to Ukraine. In conversation with Malachi O’Doherty, she’ll be talking about what has driven this recent creative burst, the challenges of writing across different genres and why she believes words are always a form of resistance.

Rosemary Jenkinson is a short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist and poet. Her latest short story collection is Laganside Lights. Previous collections, Lifestyle Choice 10mgs and Love in the Time of Chaos, were shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Her debut novel, The Memorisers, and poetry collection, Sandy Row Riots, were published by Arlen House in January 2025 and November 2024. The Irish Times has praised her fiction for ‘an elegant wit, terrific characterization and an absolute sense of her own particular Belfast’. She is an Arts Council of Northern Ireland Major Artist and Royal Literary Fund fellow at Queen’s.