HANNA GREALLY LITERARY AWARDS

This just in from SiarScéal:

Hanna Greally Literary Awards 2015 including the Ger Hanily Memorial Cup

Theme: Centenary in Reflection

Submissions of poetry, prose, short stories on the theme are invited, subject to rules of entry - see below.

Prizes: The Overall Prize Winner will receive a cash prize of €200 Runners-Up prizes will also be awarded in categories that include International Poetry, International Prose/Short Stories, National Poetry, National Prose/Short-Story, Local Winner in both Poetry and Prose/Short Stories categories, prizes for Highly Commended and National Schools.

The Ger Hanily Memorial Cup will also be awarded from the entries submitted.

Competition Rules of Entry:

·         All entries submitted must be the author’s own unpublished work

·         Entries are limited to three entries (poems, short-story or prose) per person

·         Entries submitted must be typed and titled

·         Entrant’s name and address contact number, details, must be on a separate page to the written submission

·         Entries will not be returned and the judges’ decision is final

·         Festival organisers and guests are not eligible for entry

·         Entry into the competition implies acceptance of the competition rules and guidelines.

Competition Entry Fee: €5 per entry; €10 for three entries.

Please make cheques, postal orders, etc. payable to SiarScéal Festival Group. Include with your entry submission, which can be posted to SiarScéal Festival, c/o Richie Farrell, County Librarian, Roscommon County Council Library Services, Abbey Street, Roscommon.

Payments by credit/debit card can be made to the PayPal account of payments@siarsceal.com

You can also enter online. Please see our website for more information - www.siarsceal.com/competitions

Closing Date: All entries, posted and online, must be received before 5pm on Friday 23rd October 2015.

The Costa Short Story Award 2014

This award, for a single short story, is open to authors aged 18 or over (on January 1st 2014) whose primary residence has been the UK or Ireland since 1st November 2011.

No Entry Fee.

 

Max of 4,000 words.

 

Previously unpublished stories only.

 

Closing: 4pm, 1st of August 2014.

 

One story per author only. No set theme.

 

Six stories will be shortlisted and these will be posted on the Costa Book Awards website from mid-November 2014 to mid-January 2015. The public will vote for their favourite. (GROAN!)

 

Prizes: £3,500, £1,500 and £500.

 

Full competition rules and entry on the website.

BANTRY, VIENNA & GALWAY NOW

 
A swift reminder that the Seán Ó Faoláin Prize closes for entries on the 31st July so you still have time to polish that story and send it in. Apart from the fact there are 6 prizes, you get to read at the Cork Short Story Festival which is the best festival EVER. It was announced by Munster Lit and the festival yesterday, btw, that young skin Colin Barrett has won the 2014 Frank O'Connor Award, which is very impressive for a début book. Kudos, Colin.

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I had a lovely time in Bantry, teaching at the West Cork Lit Fest - I met with a fine bunch of aspiring bloggers/Facebookers/Tweeters. The time flew, we had fun. What more could you want? I enjoyed readings too by the wondrous John MacKenna, the sublime Mary Morrissy and the winners of the FISH awards, including Dublin man, David Butler, a fellow New Islander, who took the top prize.

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I'm off to Vienna tomorrow for the International Conference on the Short Story, which I have been attending, in its various locations, since 2006. I'm taking part in a panel on linked short story collections on Weds 16th; reading from Of Dublin and Other Fictions at the Irish Embassy on Thurs 17th; and reading from Mother America, with I-Wei Wu from Taiwan, on Fri 18th. It is a great conference and I am so looking forward to catching up with old friends including Tania Hershman, Billie Travalini and Bob and Kelly Butler. So ta-rah for now. If I get a moment, I will blog from Vienna.

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If you live in the Wesht, I am interviewed in the current issue (Jul./Aug.) of Galway Now magazine about The Closet of Savage Mementos and about what Galway means to me.

HANNA GREALLY LITERARY AWARDS 2014

Festival 2014 Update: Terms of Entry for Hanna Greally Literary Awards Extended

By a decision by the SiarScéal Festival organisers, the terms of entry for the 2014 Hanna Greally Literary Awards have been extended. The maximum length of composition for poetry submissions is now 100 lines (previously 60), while prose and short stories submissions of up to 1,000 words (previously 300) will also be accepted. This decision has been made in response to requests received and in order to encourage the widest participation. Competition entrants should of course be aware that no particular merit will be attached to submissions solely on the basis of length of composition. Quality, not dependent on quantity, is what the judges will be looking for. The theme for this years competition is open - entries will be accepted on any theme, topic or subject. The Ger Hanily Memorial Cup, which forms part of the Awards, will be awarded to the best entry received on the theme of Coman's Wood. The organisers hope that this decision will provide an additional spur to authors and writers who are considering entering this year's competition, where the overall prize winner will receive a publishing package deal from The Manuscript Publisher, valued at €1,000. Full terms and conditions of entry are available from the SiarScéal website. Closing date for entries is 5pm on Friday, 10 October. Winners will be announced at the SiarScéal Festival, which takes place on Saturday, 25 October at Roscommon Library in Roscommon Town. The full Programme of Events takes in an evening of readings, concert recitals and workshops. Make a note in your diary.

MIKE MC CORMACK JUDGES THE MOTH INTL SHORT STORY PRIZE

Galway-based writer Mike McCormack is the judge for this year's Moth Short Story Prize. The Prize is open to everyone, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.  There is a 6,000 word limit. The entry fee is €9 per story and you can enter as many stories as you like. 

You can enter online or simply send your story or stories along with a cheque or postal order made payable to The Moth Magazine Ltd. and an entry form (downloadable here) or a cover letter with your name and contact details and the title of story attached to: The Moth, 81 Church Street, Cavan, Co. Cavan, Ireland. 

This year’s competition will be judged by Mike McCormack, a recipient of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature whose debut short story collection was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His novel Notes from a Coma was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award and was described in the Irish Times as ‘the greatest Irish novel of the decade just ended’. 

CLOSING DATE 30 JUNE 2014

  

The three winning stories will feature in the autumn 2014 issue of The Moth and the winners will be invited to read at a special event at the Winding Stair Bookshop in Dublin in September 2014. 

READ THE RULES HERE

ENTER ONLINE

PRINT AN ENTRY FORM

You can read the winning story from the 2013 competition, judged by Martina Evans, here.
Read more about the winners of the 2013 prize here. 

LONDON MAGAZINE SHORT STORY COMP

The London Magazine has announced its second short story competition. Entries accepted from now to the 31st of October.

Winner receives £500 and will also be printed in the magazine and online. Second and third place prizes are £300 and £200 and will be featured on their website.
Word count: up to 4,000 (but no flash). Entry fee: £10 per short story. Postal and email entries accepted. Click here for more.

WOW! AWARD 2013

The annual WOW Award admins have appointed the judges for the 2013 award. Elizabeth Reapy is the judge for fiction and Knute Skinner is the judge for poetry.

  

Elizabeth (EM) Reapy is an Irish writer. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University, Belfast, edits wordlegs.com and is the director of Shore Writers’ Festival in Enniscrone. She compiled and edited 30 under 30: A Selection of Short Fiction by Thirty Young Irish Writers. In 2013 she was selected as the Irish representative for PEN International’s New Voices Award, where she made the long-list of 6 writers.

Knute Skinner was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but now lives in Co. Clare, Ireland. His collection, Fifty Years: Poems 1957-2007, from Salmon, contained new work along with work taken from thirteen previous books. The Other Shoe won the 2004-2005 Pavement Saw Chapbook Award. A memoir, Help Me to a Getaway, was published by Salmon in March 2010. A new book of poems, Concerned Attentions, was published by Salmon in September 2013.

The WOW! Award has €2100 in prize money plus publication. Stories up to 3000 words. Poems up to 100 lines. Closing date: Thursday October 31st 2013. Full details here.

GLADSTONE'S LIBRARY MYSTERY LADY - flash winner

Gladstone's Library recently ran a writing competition based on a mystery portrait of a lady in red that they own. I'm thrilled to have won the flash section of the comp. I'll be going to Wales for a week to write next year as part of my prize. Congrats to Fiona Knowles-Holland who won the short story section. Thanks to the library for supporting fiction writers, particularly those of us who love the shorter forms.

I was half-awake last night thinking (with gratitude) about the week in Gladstone's - Britain's only residential library - deciding I will take the ferry rather than the aeroplane because I am utterly sick of airport shenanigans. You would think there would be more exciting things on my mind like: 'A whole week to myself!' or simply 'Wales!' but, there you go, even half-asleep I am sorting out the practicalities. However I get there, I am looking forward to it hugely. Once again writing provides an exciting and fun opportunity. Ain't life grand.

Dromineer Lit Fest Writing Comps - poetry & flash

The Dromineer Literary Festival Writing Competition is open for entries. There are two categories: Poetry and Flash Fiction. The Judges are Jean O'Brien for Poetry and John MacKenna for Flash Fiction.

Entry fee for poems is €5 for the first poem, plus €3 per additional title. Entry fee for flash fiction is €10 for each entry.

Prizes (in each comp.): 1st: €500, 2nd: €350 and 3rd: €150.

Deadline: 30th August 2013.

Further details: Dromineer Literary Festival

The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2014

The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2014 is now open for entries. 

The judges are looking for an outstanding English-language story of 6,000 words or under from a fiction author from anywhere in the world who has been published in the UK or Ireland. The winner will receive £30,000, and the five shortlisted writers will each receive £1,000 as well as having their work published online. A longlist will be announced in February.

T&Cs and entry form here.

10th ANNUAL SEAN Ó FAOLÁIN PRIZE - DEADLINE LOOMS

Judge Joyce Russell

There are just 12 days to go to the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize deadline on July 31st. The prize is ten years in existence this year and is open to all writers. €15 entry fee.

Judged once more by former winner Joyce Russell, first prize consists of €2000 (approx $2600/£1700) in cash, publication in Southword, a reading spot at the Cork International Short Story Festival in September, with hotel accommodation and meals provided AND a week at Anam Cara writers' retreat.

Entry details here. Read last year's winning story here. There are also prizes and publishing opportunities for second place and four runners-up.

MSLEXIA NOVEL COMP

Mslexia's Women's Novel Competition is running again this year. It is open to unpublished women novelists writing in any genre for adults. Your MS must be least 50,000 words.

Deadline: 23rd September 2013

 

Prize: £5000

Three finalists will be offered free feedback by The Literary Consultancy and 12 shortlisted authors will be invited to meet literary agents and editors at a networking event in London.

Rules here.

99 WORD STORY BY TONIGHT

Can you write a 99 word story by midnight tonight? If so Big Smoke Writing Factory want your words:

Entering "The 99" - Guidelines

• Entrants must be available to read at the Flash Bulbs event in Dublin on the evening of Saturday June 22nd 2013
• Submissions should be flash fiction of exactly 99 words. No more. No less. (Title is not included in wordcount.)
• Up to three entries per writer
• Entry is free
• Send all entries to bigsmokeflash@gmail.com
• Please include "Competition Entry" as the subject of your email
• Work should be submitted as an attachment (.rtf, .doc or .docx)
• Author's name or personal information must not appear on the attached document
• Entries must be the original work of the author
• Entries will be judged by guest judge Dave Lordan
• The judge's decision is final
• A short-list of the top entries will be invited to read their pieces at Flash Bulbs and the winner will be announced on the night
• Winner will receive a €250 Big Smoke Writing Factory gift voucher
• Entries close at midnight GMT on Friday June 7th 2013

Micro-fiction comp - 100 word stories

National Flash Fiction Day (UK) are starting off the year with a micro-fiction competition. They are looking for fantastic flash-fictions of 100 words or fewer. From NFFD: "They can be on any subject or theme, as long as they are going to blow our minds, knock our socks off and eradicate our clichés."

Judges:

• Cathy Bryant - flash-fictioneer, poet, editor, and winner of the 2012 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad writing.
• Tom Gillespie - flash-fictioneer, lecturer, and author of the novel Painting by Numbers (2012)
• Kevlin Henney - all round fiction-writer, and winner of the 2012 NFFD Flash-Fiction Slam in Oxford.
• Emma Lannie - widely published and respected flash-fictioneer, with a story in the recent collection Overheard, from Salt.
• Kirsty Logan - writer, editor and all round literary person.
• Angela Readman - a poet, a flash-fictioneer, and not just that but also the winner of this competition last year.

Closing date: Friday 8th March 2013 (at midnight in the UK) and the winners will be announced in early April.

You do not have to be a UK resident to enter, this competition is open to any writer anywhere in the world.

Your story should be no longer than 100 words. This does NOT include the title.

The competition is free to enter.

Send your story as a Word document attached to an email. Do not put your name in the attachment, just the title of your story. In the email, please include a short bio and the title of your story so we can synch you with your story. Send to: nffdmicrocomp@gmail.com

NFFD will not consider any entries which they consider to be offensive or defamatory. They are looking for new stories, so no previously published works. No simultaneous submissions.

Prizes:

These are yet to be finalised but will comprise a selection of books from Salt Publishing, Comma Press and Gumbo Press, plus copies of Jawbreakers the NFFD2012 anthology.

In addition, the winning stories will be used in the publicity material for NFFD 2013 and, we hope, in a second anthology to appear in June.

TREVOR-BOWEN S/STORY COMP 2013

Mitchelstown Literary Society has announced the launch of the third William Trevor / Elizabeth Bowen International, Short Story Competition.
 
1st prize: €3,000 (sponsored by William Trevor)

2nd prize: €500

5 runners up prizes of €200 each

A short list of approximately 25 stories will be selected for final judge, Ita Daly.

Entry fee: €20

Closing Date: Friday, 5th April 2013

Entries, by post only, to:
Trevor/Bowen International Short Story Competition, 37 Upper Cork Street, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, Ireland

Contact:
Tel:025/84969 Mob:086/8248736
Email: cusackliam@eircom.net
Web: www.mitchelstownlit.com

DOOLIN SHORT STORY COMP

Doolin Short Story Competition 

The Irish Writers' Centre in association with Hotel Doolin is delighted to announce the launch of DOOLIN SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2013.

Prize fund: €1,000 for first place and second/third of €600/€400. Entries can be on any theme and should be no longer than 3,000 words. The fee is €7 and closing date for entries is Monday 8th April, 5pm. Winners will be announced at the inaugural Doolin Writer's Weekend on 24th - 26th May 2013.

John McKenna is this year's judge: acclaimed author of seventeen books including short-stories, novels, memoir, history and biography. He is a winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award; the C Day Lewis Award; the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award and his most recent novel, The Space Between Us, was short-listed for the Kerry Book of the Year Award.

All three winning entries will feature on the Irish Writers' Centre website and the story placed first will also appear in print in The Clare People.

To download an entry form visit the Irish Writers' Centre website

If you have any queries, please contact:

June Caldwell,

Irish Writers' Centre

19 Parnell Square

Dublin 1

Tel: 01-8721302

Email: june@writerscentre.ie

WHITE REVIEW SHORT STORY PRIZE

 

The White Review Short Story Prize has a deadline of the 1st March 2013. This comp is for those without a publication or book deal.

 

Entry Fee: £15

 

This is an annual short story competition for emerging writers. The prize awards £2,500 to the best piece of short fiction by a writer resident in the UK and Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal. The judges will be looking for short stories that explore and expand the possibilities of the form. They encourage submissions from all literary genres, and there are no restrictions on theme or subject matter. 

 

The winner will have the chance to meet with jury member and literary agent Karolina Sutton to discuss their writing, plans for future work and possible routes to publication. Up to seven shortlisted writers will have their work published online and receive feedback from the editors of The White Review.

More here.

Hanna Greally Lit Comp 2013

The Hanna Greally Literary Competition 2013 celebrates The Gathering with its theme.

Competition Guidelines

All entries submitted must be the author’s own unpublished work in the English language.

Entries are limited to three poems/prose, stories per person

Poems will be no longer than 60 lines. Short stories/prose no longer than 500 words

Entries submitted must be typed and titled.

Entrant’s name/address/contact number/details and Poem/Story/Prose title must be written on a separate page-not to appear on the same page of the Poem.

Entries will not be returned and the judges’ decision is final.

Festival organisers and guests are not eligible for entry.

Entry into the competition implies acceptance of the competition guidelines.

Closing date for entries will be Friday 15th February 2013

CATEGORIES

Local groups/writers, national schools from 10 years upwards, secondary & third level students

National writers/groups, and the ‘Irish’ abroad or those with Irish links

Winners will be invited to read during the Festival Launch.

The Ger Hanily Memorial Cup will be awarded for the poem with the best sense of ‘Pride of Place’

Submission Fees: €10/£10/$10 for up to three submissions; school entries: €2. If you would like to pay via PayPal use the button here and quote your receipt number or transaction reference with your entry submission.

Entries to:

SiarScéal Festival c/o Richie Farrell, County Librarian, Roscommon County Council Library Services, Abbey Street, Roscommon, Ireland.

Further details:

Phone: 00-353 (0) 872628191 Email: siarsceal@live.ie Visit: www.siarsceal.com

500 WORD STORY COMP - HUNGRY HILL

The Hungry Hill Writing SHORT SHORT STORY competition 2013

500 words

Prize: €250

Judge: Alex Barclay (crime novelist)

Closing date: 1 February 2013

Check here for details