GREGORY O'DONOGHUE PRIZE NOW OPEN

Last year's winner, John F. Deane

Munster Literature Centre are holding the Greg O'Donoghue Prize again, last year won by John F. Deane. Copious detail below!

The current judge is Leanne O'Sullivan, who will read each and every entry herself; in many other competitions entries are screened and longlisted by preliminary readers, not so for the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize.€1,000 first prize, €500 2nd prize.

Leanne O'Sullivan comes from the Beara Peninsula in West Cork and was educated at University College Cork. She has published two collections, both from Bloodaxe Books, Waiting for My Clothes (2004) and Cailleach: The Hag of Beara (2009). She has been anthologised in collections such as The New Irish Poets (ed. Selina Guinness) and Best Irish Poetry (ed. Matthew Sweeney).

Fees and Deadlines

There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five. (Postal entries can be paid for in US Dollars or Pounds Sterling. No cash, please.) Closing date for entries is December 15th 2010.

A result will be reached by late January 2011, with a shortlist published on our website at that time. The winners will be contacted individually and announced publicly during the Cork Spring Literary Festival in February 2011. Due to the large volume of entries, the judge will not be able to notify the authors of non-winning poems or give individual feedback. Please refer to the submission guidelines below for details on how to enter.

Submission Guidelines--PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

1. The competition is open to original, unpublished poems in the English language of 40 lines or less. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, translated work is not in the scope of this competition.

2. Entries should be typed. The entrant's name and contact details must be on a separate piece of paper. Manuscripts cannot be returned. Your name should not appear on the same page as the poem to ensure anonymity.

3. There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five. For postal entries you may pay UK£5 or US$8 per poem, or UK£20 or US$32 per batch of five. You may submit as many entries as you wish. Withdrawn poems (for any reason) will not be eligible for refunds. Cheques and money orders must be made payable to THE MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE. VERY IMPORTANT: We DO NOT accept US Postal Orders as they cannot be redeemed outside of the United States. No entry form is necessary. N.b. American entrants: please date cheques by writing out the month as a word. For example: November 4 2010. If any information is crossed out or altered, our bank returns the cheque to us as unusable. In such cases we would have to request a new cheque from the entrant, delaying the processing of their work.

4. Closing date is 15th December 2010. Please note that the post office is very busy this close to Christmas and it is advisable to enter online after December 1st to ensure your poem arrives on time. Entries must be sent to The Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition, The Munster Literature Centre, Frank O'Connor House, 84 Douglas Street, Cork, Ireland (no postal/zip code).

5. A result will be reached by late January 2011, with a shortlist published on our website at that time. The winners will be announced at the Cork Spring Literary Festival in February 2011.

6. If you require acknowledgement of your entry, you must submit a self-addressed stamped postcard. SASEs for international entries should include money for IRISH stamps. Please do not include SASEs with American, British or other stamps foreign to Ireland. Instead you may add one dollar or pound to the total of your entry fee to cover the cost of postage.

7. The Judge's decision is final. Due to the large volume of entries anticipated, the judge will not be able to give feedback on an individual basis. We would kindly request that entrants refrain from emailing to check the status of their poems.

8. It would greatly assist us if you let us know how you heard of the competition (whether through mailshot, word of mouth, advertisements, newspaper, website, etc.) with your entry.

ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR EMAIL ENTRIES

Email entries should be submitted as follows:

1. Send your entry as a word document (files ending with ".doc"). Please note that we cannot open the most recent version of Word documents, which usually end in '.docx'. Please ensure you save the poem in a compatible format, usually labeled 'Word 97 - 2003 Document'.
2. Include the poem/poems and cover letter as separate documents in the same email.
3. Pay your entry fee through Paypal (see link on our webpage). Paypal accepts Mastercard and Visa and guarantees secure transactions.
4. In the body of the email, list your name, address, poem titles and Paypal receipt number.
5. Use the subject header "O'Donoghue Entry".
6. Email submissions to competitions(AT)munsterlit(DOT)ie

Munster Lit say: "We would kindly request that entrants refrain from emailing to check the status of their poems. Withdrawn poems will not be eligible for refunds." So, now you know, people ASK! See their site here.