The Binding 2026: The Open University and the Connections That Bring Writers Together
The Binding International Festival celebrates its partnership with The Open University in Ireland, highlighting a shared commitment to accessible education, creative development and the power of storytelling to connect communities.
At the heart of The Binding International Festival is a belief that literature can bring people together, creating opportunities for dialogue, collaboration and cultural exchange.
This vision is shared by the organisations, institutions and individuals supporting the festival. While our partners and sponsors represent different sectors and communities, they are united by a commitment to creativity, inclusion and making meaningful opportunities accessible to a wider audience.
We are pleased to highlight our partnership with The Open University in Ireland, whose involvement in The Binding 2026 reflects these shared values. The partnership also reveals several connections between our festival participants, mentors and facilitators, demonstrating how creative communities extend across institutions, disciplines and geographical boundaries.
The Open University: Making Education Accessible
The Open University in Ireland partners with employers, communities and learners to widen access to high-quality higher education, support workforce development and promote lifelong learning. The university helps people gain recognised qualifications and essential skills while balancing work, family and other commitments — changing lives across Ireland.
Among many other subjects, its courses in Creative Writing can be taken at undergraduate level, as stand-alone modules, or within the MA in Creative Writing.
The Open University's mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. It promotes educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential.
Writing Surgery with Siobhan Campbell and Nessa O'Mahony
As part of The Binding 2026, two published authors and experienced Creative Writing tutors from The Open University will offer a Writing Surgery for writers and aspiring writers.
Siobhan Campbell is an award-winning poet and leads courses in Creative Writing at The Open University. Her latest work appears in Poetry Ireland Review and Abridged, and is forthcoming in Irish Pages and The Waxed Lemon.
Nessa O'Mahony is a novelist and poet whose sixth poetry collection, Dodder Daughter, explores the experience of womanhood through all its cycles, from youth to old age, through the persona of the River Dodder, her local river in Dublin. The collection is published by Salmon Poetry.
Siobhan and Nessa have also collaborated as editors, co-editing Eavan Boland: Inside History, an anthology of essays and poems celebrating the work of Eavan Boland.
Participants will go away with useful resources to support their writing endeavours.
Writing Surgery | Friday, 20 November 2026 | 12:00–13:00 | Longford
The event is fully booked at the moment but you are very welcome to write to info@littlebeetlepress.com and join our waiting list. Please check availability to other events as well: https://www.littlebeetlepress.com/event-list
Connections Across The Binding
One of the most interesting aspects of bringing together writers from different countries and backgrounds is discovering how their creative and professional paths are already connected.
We discovered that one of the mentors in our international online programme The Binding: PenPals Edition, Rosaleen Lynch, also has a longstanding connection with The Open University.
Rosaleen Lynch is an Irish community worker, teacher and writer living in London, researching the power of stories to promote social change. She writes mainly flash fiction, with nearly 200 pieces published online and in print in journals such as New Flash Fiction Review, Fractured Lit, CRAFT, SmokeLong Quarterly, Jellyfish Review, EllipsisZine, Mslexia, Litro and Fish.
Her work also appears in charity anthologies such as Word for Freedom, celebrating 100 years of women's suffrage, and FUEL, a fuel poverty charity anthology of prize-winning stories. Alongside her writing achievements, Rosaleen has studied and taught at The Open University. She completed her MA in Childhood Studies with the OU and has taught there for seven years. She currently teaches on KE207 Supporting Children and Young People's Wellbeing.
Having run a youth and community centre for twenty years and facilitated creative writing workshops, she is now undertaking a PhD with The Open University, bringing together her interests as a writer and practitioner by researching the impact of stories on social change.
Another interesting connection involves Jeanette Everson, one of the authors participating in our in-person festival programme, including Words of Solidarity and Book Reading Corner.
Jeanette Everson is an award-winning, multi-published writer across genres and forms. She has performed at literary festivals and spoken-word events and has published several novels under the pen name Jinny Alexander.
Interestingly, one of Jeanette's former tutors was Nessa O'Mahony, who will be delivering the Writing Surgery as part of The Open University's contribution to The Binding.
It is a wonderful example of how the paths of writers and educators can cross again, this time within an international literary festival. These connections reflect what The Binding was created to do: unite people through literature, encourage the exchange of experiences and create opportunities for new conversations and collaborations.
A Shared Mission: Connecting People Through Literature
The Binding brings together writers, readers, educators, publishers, illustrators and cultural organisations who believe in the importance of stories and the opportunities they create.
Our partners and sponsors play an essential role in making this possible. Although each contributes in a different way, we share a commitment to supporting creativity, encouraging learning and bringing people and communities together.
We look forward to welcoming you to The Binding 2026!
The Binding International Festival 2026
19–22 November | Online and Longford, Ireland
