On returning from S.W. France to live in Northern Ireland, a retired teacher of twenty-
six years, Mary Farrell joined her first Creative Writing Group in Flowerfield Arts
Centre in Portstewart, Northern Ireland, in 2017. At present, each week, she
facilitates two independent writing groups, Words Inc in Coleraine, and Sanderlings
in Portstewart called Sanderlings. A regular facilitator for Portglenone Writers, she
also co-ordinates a fourth Writing Group by Zoom for AsIam, an All-Ireland Charity
for Autistic Adults.   
 
Previously a member of CIEP, The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading,
UK, she is now in her second year as a member of the Judging Panel for the Weekly
Competition run by the Reedsy Online Publishing Company. Mary is also the Co-
ordinator of the annual Impspired Writing Competition, Soundwaves, where the
Competition Showcase Event is held each October as part of the Swell Festival on
the Causeway Coast of Northern Ireland.
 
She has published a trilogy of general Collections, It’s like Walkin a
Tightrope, 2021, Out of the Chrysalis, 2022 and A Phoenix Still Rising in 2023, with
Springboards: a Creative Writing Manual for Beginners through to Facilitators
appearing in October 2022. The first and second parts of The Circle Trilogy, The
Kingdom, and Maybury were published in 2022 and 2023 respectively, and the third,
New Asgarth, in 2025. Editor of three Anthologies, Irish Hares and Seahorses,
2022, Spun Yarns and Woven Words, 2023, and Sea Spray and Woodland Glades,
2024, the books listed above have all been published by Impspired Press.
 
Having read her own work on BBC radio, she was a guest on the Time of Our
Lives show, also on BBC Radio Ulster, in 2019. A regular performer on stage at
Tenx9 events, she performs at various Open Mic Sessions in Northern Ireland. Her
short story, A Tale of a Barn won the Lurig Drama Club Competition in
2020.  Recorded by the actor Ciaran Hinds on November 26th, 2020, it can be found
at http://www.thenineglens.com. She has had various pieces of Prose and Poetry
published in Magazines and Anthologies, both locally and internationally.