Maria McLoughlin is an emerging writer living and working in Dublin.
About
A person who can’t but write who was born in Croydon, England to Irish parents, and moved to Dublin in the 70s. I spent much of my childhood in the West of Ireland which features as an unromanticised backdrop in a lot of what I write. Studied English in UCD, and graduated at the end of the 80s.
My work explores many themes and includes those of love, heartbreak, family, emigration, addiction and death. While there is a book in the pipeline, I am working on a collection of short stories also.
Influenced by the work of Richard Ford, Hilary Fannin, Claire Keegan, James Cahill, Sarah Manguso, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Niall Williams and more.
News
Spent Saturday last at the 26th Franco-Irish Literary Festival in Alliance Francais, there I sat in on panel discussions and interviews with Paul Murray, Marie Ndiaye, Rinny Gremaud and Bernard Phelan. Of course I came away thinking I have no business writing and my French should be a good bit better too. “You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on.
I was invited to the DLR Writers Coffee Morning March 2026 in the Lexicon Library Dun Laoghaire. About 20 of us got to know eachother a little and were then treated to very informative presentations by Carolyn Browne, Arts Officer DLR and writer Sonya Gildea.
March 2026 I have entered a short story; The Silk Roads Christmas for the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize 2026.
Very grateful to Eve McDonnell, writer in residence at DLR Lexicon Library, for our get together and invaluable advice at the end of 2025 https://startsomewhereblogbyeve.wordpress.com/
In September 2025, I was delighted to have been a participant on Claire Keegan’s How Fiction Works at the Write by the Sea Festival, Wexford.
Feel free to email me.
mariamcloughlinwriter @gmail.com
Contact