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I would like to be able to write with the sheer joy of this

General

Hi,

I'm on my holidays for a week or so, getting some writing done, I hope, so no posts from me. If you're starved of writing related reading, check out the other blogs froma couple of posts ago.

Coming in July, posts on more UK magazines and yet more grants from the Arts Council but not for me

EW

Castleknock festival

A couple of highlights.

26 June 2008
9 p.m.
Launch of Chapelizod Community Festival 2008
Reading by
Dermot Bolger
St. Laurence’s Church
€5

28 June 2008
Music and Words
9 p.m.
Ben Dwyer (Classical Guitar) & Christine Dwyer-Hickey (Author)
St Laurence’s Church
€15

30 June 2008
7 p.m.
Reading by
Pat Boran & Mark Granier
Park Lane Gate, Phoenix Park
€5

2 July 2008
7 p.m.
Reading by
Kevin Barry & Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Park Lane Gate, Phoenix Park
€5

4 July 2008
7 p.m.
Reading
Conor Kostick
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Park Lane Gate, Phoenix Park
€5

Anything you wanted to know about Yeats and were too afraid to ask

Summer’s Wreath 08 :
A celebration of William Butler Yeats is a two-week long programme of free events at the National Library of Ireland. Running in conjunction with the Library’s award-winning Yeats : the Life and Works of WB Yeats exhibition it offers a varied programme including readings, reflections and discussion featuring a selection of well known writers, filmmakers, actors and poets. Events include:

Poet on Poet: Panel discussion
Tuesday 24 June, 8pm :
Panel discussion with Vincent Woods (chair) - Presenter, The Arts Show, RTÉ 1; Ian Duhig, poet (England); Dr Carrie Etter, poet and academic (USA); Matthew Sweeney, poet (Ireland).
Was Yeats the most influential poet of the 20th century? Three poets from different cultural backgrounds, yet each influenced by Yeats, discuss Yeats' influence on their own work, his impact on 20th century literature generally and poetry in particular. This event will be broadcast on The Arts Show, RTÉ Radio 1.

Yeats: One day immersion course
Thursday 26 June, 9.30 - 6pm : A one-day immersion course on Yeats for the enthusiastic amateur and lovers of poetry and literature in general. It will give participants a real understanding and overview of WB Yeats and his work. Focussing on Yeats' poetry and drama, the day will consist of lectures, film screenings and a guided tour of Yeats by our exhibition staff.

Places for both events are limited so call now: (01) 6030277

Full Summer’s Wreath programme on the National Library website

Writing Exercise

Take a poem and translate it on the wonderful and free babel into a language of your choice. Then translate it back again. Repeat at will. Use the result as inspiration for an original poem of your own.

Dutch
I ran solitarily as a cloud
which on high oerdal and hillock
when I everything float turn in an one mob saw,
a host of golden daffodils.
Beside the lake, under the tree
dancing that and in wind agitation

Japanese
I as a cloud when loneliness
suddenly me whom you wandered about
meeting to crowd float with the valley and the hill of the high oer,
gold [ratsupasuisen] it is many.
Side of Kinosita's lake which the [bi]
comes with the breeze, dances,

Korean
I when seeing the multitude,
was lonely in the cloud
which will float from the top price
oer valley and the hill
and in order to go out the immediate
a golden trumpet narcissus majority, was.
On the tree lower part which is useless
from side of the breeze and the lake from virtue distance the ladle,

Russian
I wandered lonely in proportion to cloud
t it floats to the maximum [of veyl] and the hill of oer
when immediately I it saw crowd,
the owner of golden daffodils.
Near the lake, under the shafts
fluttering and dancing in the breeze

More blogs and other websites

More blogs worth a visit if you're procrastinating...or looking for diversion:

A website devoted to the Ampersand.

Baroque in Hackney the Salt poet has moved.

Big Window shows some fascinating art work and talks about poetry.

Bookends is the blog of a literary agent with lots of useful thoughts and advice.

Bookwitch is an excellent reader with a penchant for crime (in books)

Charles Bernstein Writing Experiments

Daisy Fried's Writing Exercises.

Darragh Doyle writes a blog of warm stories.

Dead Drunk Dublin publishes a mixed bag of writing.

Delusions of Grandeur lives a life of love and rockets. Reference Los Bros Hernandez.

Don't eat with your mouth open blogs about living and working in London.

Doug Rose website is about tiles on the London Underground. Yes, really.

English Mum in Ireland is worth a dip.

Going Underground is stories from the Tube. Lots of inspiration there.

Those madly witty graphs


Is this you reminds me of the film Amelie and the photobooths.

Postsecrets is where people post secrets anonymously.

The Unbearable Lightness of Banishment moans just a wee bit in NJ.

Writerjenn writes interesting pieces about writing.

Filter Judges

This is interesting from the Acumen magazine website

Many competition use filters so the high profile judges don't need to go into poetry overload reading every last poem about Kitty's Demise or The Day My Mother Died or My First Day at School (See Roger McGough, A million-billion-willion miles from home...) or the Fading Tulip.

Of course it depends how good the eye is of the filter judge and what percentage they have to filter to.

What Acumen complains about is that it is not always stated that filter judges are used or who they are.

POETRY COMPETITIONS:

The Bridport poetry competition organiser states:

'Our final filter judges are Jon Wyatt for short stories and Candy Neubert for poems, we have not hidden this information. There are several more readers who do the initial sifting. It would be unfair to list them - already our filter judges are given a difficult time by some writers. This is why we do not give out names on general enquiries.'
I am confident that our judging system is fair and professional.

The following competitions have judges who read all the entries or which state exactly how the winners are chosen (and by whom):

TROUBADOUR POETRY PRIZE
TORBAY OPEN POETRY COMPETITION
PETERLOO COMPETITION
WARE POETRY OPEN COMPETITION
VER POETS OPEN COMPETITION
FROGMORE PRIZE
YORKSHIRE OPEN POETRY COMPETITION
KENT and SUSSEX POETRY SOCIETY COMPETITION
LEDBURY POETRY COMPETITION
JOSHUA FOUNDATION POETRY COMPETITION

Blinking Eye and Poetry Business filter in house.
The Poetry Business sending only 20 to the external judge out of 500/700 entries. I'm not sure I would want to condone that level of filtering.


What about the Irish competitions?

The Sean O'Faolain Short Story Prize judge, Nuala Ní Chonchúir reads every entry (so send in early)

Fish writing competitions are filtered but they don't say how heavily. As are the RTE competitions, Francis MacManus and P.J O'Connor.

What about Over the Edge. The judge is Celeste Augé but are they filtered?
Strokestown, Patrick Kavanagh Award, Feile Filiochta and Padraig Fallon have named judges but don't say one way or the other.

I think it would be a good idea for all competitions to state if they use filter judges and how much they filter. Any comments?

Dialogue

1. Dialogue is not like real speech. Try and transcribe a real conversation and it will be full of inconsistencies, incomplete sentences, bad grammar, interruptions, noisewords, often quite boring and be completely unreadable on the page.
But don't use it to tell the whole story.

2. Make your talkers distinguishable.
An old shop assistant doesn't have the same vocabulary as a teenage shoplifter.
A teacher talks differently to a pupil than to a parent than to the school bus driver.

3. People don't always answer the questions they were asked (look at politicians!) Evasion is interesting.
People keep secrets. Much more interesting. Leave some work for the reader to do.

4. Please, please, please don't (over)use replacement verbs for 'said.'I'm thinking here of joked (we should know from the words) replied, stuttered, exclaimed, ejaculated, yelled, stated, shouted, declared and my personal bugbear quipped.

Same goes for adverb. Use sparingly. Think Marmite. Said quietly, hopefully, tentatively, despairingly. It should be obvious from the words, the response and perhaps a bit of description of the conversationalists.

Mind you

I was still standing. He glared at me. "Sit down," he yelled

is different from "Sit down," he whispered or hissed. More menacing.

5. Also, leave out the boring bits, the how are you, the nice weather, the shall I pour your tea?.

Hi Anne. How are you?
Fine. And you?
Fine. That's a nice jacket.
Thanks
Where d'you get it?
It was a present
Nice. Who from?
Jerry
Did I miss your birthday?
No.

Hi, Anne. I love your jacket. Is it new?
No, Jerry gave it to me, out of the blue.

6. Also, try and make the speech even. So there isn't one character who does a big long lot of speech and then a one liner from someone else and another bit long lot of speech. Equally, having one line per speaker line after line can grate too.

7. Anyway, read these two articles. Here and here and again here.

More on Festivals

An article on creative writing breaks in Friday's Irish Times highlighted these festivals, some of which are new to me.

The Flat Lake Literary and Arts Festival. Aug 23-24th.
This new festival apparently has a good vibe. Clones, Co Monaghan.
High art meets popular culture. Seamus Heaney, Paul Moldoon, Edna O'Brien and Ciaran Carson.

49th Yeats International Summer School. July 26th to August 8th.
An international and academic flavour. Sligo.
Poetry Readings, Plays, Outings and visits to places of Yeatsian interest, etc.

Kinsale Arts Week. July 12th-20th.
What more excuse do you need to visit Kinsale, Co Cork?
Theatre, Workshops, Visual Arts, Literature, Comedy.

Gerard Manley Hopkins Literary Festival. July 19th to 25th.
I asked the organisers if I could read and they didn't even respond so I'd give this a miss, if I were you. Monasterevin, Co Kildare.

NUIG John McGahern International Summer Seminar 24th-26th July and School 27th July to 2nd August.
Aimed at the US market I think. Co Leitrim.

West Cork Literary Festival. 6th-12th July 2008
Bantry, Co Cork.
Oisin McGann, Joseph O'Connor, Paul Durcan, Colum McCann, Colin Dexter, Arthur Mathews, Sally Elsbury, Matthew Sweeney, John Waters, Dog Tail Soup, Selma Dabbagh, Eoghan Harris, Jennifer Johnston, Peter Fallon, Kate O'Riordan, Rowan Gillespie, Vanessa Gebbie, Monica Boyle, Kenneth Irvine, Colm O'Riain & Pireeni Sundaralingam, Veronica Coburn, Colin Vearncombe, Mia Gallagher, Derek Mahon, Derek Landy, Deirdre Purcell, Dervla Murphy, Kevin Barry, Marita Conlon-McKenna, Ciaran Nagle & Tara Novak, Carlo Gebler, Susan O'Toole, Michael Collins, Sean Lusk, Bernard O'Donoghue, Christopher Fitz-Simon, Hazel Vickery, James Harpur, Joyce Russell, Michael McCarthy, John Draper, Kenneth Irvine, Chuck Kruger, David Bajo, David Mitchell, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Ann Kelley, Alannah Hopkin, Elise Blackwell, Michael Thorsnes, John Toomey.
Workshops and readings.

Kilkenny Arts Festival. 8th-17th August
Theatre, music, literature, visual arts, children's events and street performances, featuring International, Irish and local artists, in wonderful venues all over Kilkenny City and County.

Merriman Summer School. Sunday 17 to Saturday 23 August
Pays homage to the 18th century poet Brian Merriman. Ennis, County Clare

Padraig Fallon Poetry Competition 2008 Results

The results are out here http://www.athenryheritagecentre.com/news.htm. Congratulations to all listed. Some recognisable names here.

There are some very insightful comments from the judge Ciaran O'Driscoll on the website that you should read.

First Prize
Root Zone, Jim Maguire, Wexford

Second Prize
Service, Margaret Galvin, Wexford Town

Joint Third Prizes
The Cailleach, Patrick Deeley, Rathgar, Dublin 6
Talker’s Country, Tom Duddy, Galway,

Runner Up Prizes
1. Exchanging Essentials and 7. Word Sounds, Maria Wallace, Tallaght, Dublin 24 (Hi Maria)
2. The Paradox of Clouds, Stephen Duncan, London SW2
3. Ode to my Slippers, Peggy Gallagher, Sligo
4. Suburban Sonnet, Brian Kirk, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 (Hi Brian)
5. Dropping Off and 9. Golden, Gavin Duffy, Tallaght, Dublin 24
6. Spare us the Moonlight, Geraldine Mitchell, Louisbourg, Co. Mayo
8. Rooks Encountered, Brendan Kinnane, Athboy, Co. Meath
10. Magnolia, Alma Brayden, Sandycove, Co. Dublin

Troubadour Poetry Competition

Coffee-house poetry at the Troubadour

Judges: Jo Shapcott and Stephen Knight who read all the entries, unlike many competition where they read a shortlist.

Prizes: 1st prize £1000, 2nd £500, 3rd £250, plus 20 commendations @ £20 each
and a coffee-house poetry reading for all prizewinning and commended poets with Jo Shapcott and Stephen Knight on Monday 1st December 2008

Deadline: postmarked on or before Friday 10th October 2008

Fee: EITHER £5/€7/$10 per poem if less than 4 poems OR £4/€5/$8 per poem if 4 or more poems submitted; payment by cheque or money order (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only) payable to “Coffee-House Poetry” with entry name (and/or e-mail Entry Ref) written on back.

By Post: do not show author’s name or any other identifying marks on submitted poems; include a separate page showing Name, Address, Phone, E-Mail (opt), Titles and Number of Poems. Troubadour Poetry Prize, Coffee-House Poetry, PO Box 16210, LONDON, W4 1ZP

Or email: No entry form required; poems must be submitted in body of e-mail (no attachments) to CoffPoetry@aol.com; (But what's the point if you;ve had to post a cheque or money order?)

Poems typed and up to 45 lines on one side of A4. must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online); winning & commended poems may be published (in print or online) by the Troubadour Poetry Prize and may not be published elsewhere for one year after 10th October 2008 without written permission.

The Bill Naughton Short Story Competition

Another small competition.

Wordcount: max 2,500 words
Fee: £5 or 7 Euro or $10

Postal Entries:

Bill Naughton Short Story Competition,
Box No 2008,
Aghamore,
Ballyhaunis,
County Mayo, Ireland.

Deadline: Friday 5th September 2008

Prize: First : 200 Euro, second 130 Euro, third 65.

The ten best stories will be published in a booklet entitled SPLINTERS.

Boyle Poetry Competition

A smaller competition, with smaller prizes and consequentally a smaller number of entries.

Fee: 5 euro per poem
Prize: 300 Euro for the winner and 4 runners up of 50 Euro. 10 highly recommended poems get not cash, just the glory
Deadline: There doesn't seem to be one. Bit of an oversight. The prize giving is on Sunday 27th July at the Boyle Arts Festival
Maximum length: 40 lines
Entry Form on the website
Judge: Peter Fallon

Peter is giving a reading on Sunday 27th July at the Royal Hotel at 12.30pm. The reading will be followed by the presentation of prizes to the winner and runners up of the 2008 Boyle Arts Festival Poetry Competition and by readings of the winning and highly recommended poems. This will be followed by a workshop.

The Boyle Arts Festival will also include readings by John Banville, Bernard MacLaverty and local writers

Young writers and readers

Young writers asked to make their great escape

Booktrust is inviting young writers to enter a short story competition to give themselves a chance to join the judging panel for their internationally acclaimed Booktrust Teenage Prize 2008. The charity that encourages people of all ages to enjoy reading has set the challenge for young writers aged 11-16 to write a 500- word short story with the title My Great Escape. The title ties in with the National Year of Reading’s theme for June which is Reading Escapes.

The 4 best short stories will win their authors a place on the judging panel for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2008. They will join the journalist and novelist Amanda Craig, librarian Emma Sherriff, author Julia Bell, Children’s Books Specialist John McLay and Matthew Sawyer, a young judge whose short story won him a place on the judging panel last year. The four winners will also attend the award ceremony on Tuesday 18 November in London where they will get to meet the 2008 shortlisted authors. The four winners will be contacted in the second week of September when the shortlist will be announced. All winners will win a complete set of the books too.

Last year over 2,500 young people entered.
The entry form is available for download on the brand new Bookheads website You need to have a UK address.

Deadline: Monday 28 July 2008

similes

OK, I stole this from Writing about Writing who in turn stole it from NotesfromaSlushPile so I've no idea if it is urban legend or real.

It certainly sounds American to me, rather than British/Irish. Ive never heard of Cling Free. The opposite of clingfilm perhaps? And I'm sure I've read some before.

Actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are known to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

23. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

24. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

25. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

More on Poetry - Why and Haiku

Here's an interesting article on what poetry is for. Remembrance, romance and rudeness.

What about revenge, Random thoughts and reality?

Two haiku workshops with Maeve O'Sullivan

Poet Maeve O'Sullivan will lead two haiku poetry workshops. The first will take place in the Emmaus Centre, near Swords, County Dublin, on Saturday June 21. This is a spiritual place, if you like that sort of thing.

The second week-long workshop will take place in the Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat in West Cork from Saturday July 12 - 19. This pretty place seems to be aimed more at Americans. Has anyone been there?

Self Awareness through Art Therapy

OK, bear with me. This sounds interesting.

Venue: The Carmelite Centre on Aungier St. D.2.
Date: Saturday The 21st of June 10a.m -4.30p.m.

A one day course to give participants a focus on their own self awareness through art therapy exercises. This will give participants time to reflect and create work in an experiential way based on their own personal journey and experiences through creativity. Participants will be introduced to a range of materials and activities. Materials are supplied and places are limited to 12 people.

Price: € 60.00 per person.

For information contact Ann @ 0861959463 mcpartla@eircom.net Fiona 0862857659 feeclarke@live.ie

Chick Lit Competition - US Based

Thought I'd pass this on from the writing about writing blogspot.

A Get Your Stilletto in the Door contest based in the US for various different types of chick lit novels.

Open to all chick lit writers who have not signed a publishing contract for novel-length fiction within five years of the contest deadline. The entry must have a projected minimum of 75,000 words (35,000 words for Young Adult).

Deadline:June 15, 2008

All entrants will receive detailed score sheets and judges' comments from the preliminary round. This is worth the entry fee, I think. They have a sample on the site so you can see what you're paying for.

They want the first 35 pages and a synopsis (up to 5 double-spaced pages) so you don't even have to have finished your novel.

Fee: $30 with paypal.

Poetry Reading in Dublin this Saturday

If you're in town, why not stop in at the Original Print Gallery, Temple Bar at 5pm for an hour. They have wine and everything!

17.00 – 18.00, Saturday, 7th June, 2008

Readers: Noel Duffy and Orlagh O’Farrell (Dublin)

Special Guest Reader: Yong Shu Hoong (Singapore)

Yong Shu Hoong has published three books of poetry in English: Isaac (1997), do-while (2002) and Frottage (2005), which won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2006.
Shu Hoong’s poems have been included in the literary journals Asia Literary Review (Hong Kong) and Ars Interpres (Sweden), as well as the anthologies Over There: Poems from Singapore and Australia (Ethos Books, 2007, co-edited by John Kinsella) and Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (W.W. Norton, 2008). His writings have also appeared in The Straits Times and South China Morning Post.

I think Orlagh was the runner up at Strokestown this year.

Event supported by Poetry Ireland and The Original Print Gallery

Blog Stats

Every month, my blogging stats show, has beaten the previous month (except December - what were you all doing in December instead of reading my blog? What? Christmas? Parties? Eating? Watching TV?) And May has just managed to beat April at 4,300 and something views. Thanks! Let June beat May, event with one less day and lovely long evenings.

I'm amazed I find something to say most day though. The literary scene is certainly blossoming. Of course, I should be writing...or reading. See my amazon link for recent recommended and not-recommended reads.

What to do if an agent asks for a rewrite

An interesting blog entry here about what's really going through an agent's head when they ask for a rewrite and still don't offer representation.

Books in the Park

The lovely arts people in Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown council have another Family based book event in Cabinteely Park.
When: Saturday 14th June 1pm to 5pm

1.00 to 1.40 How to Write a Bestseller: Cathy Kelly talks to Irish Independent and Sunday World columnist, Martina Devlin. And lets us into the secret in 40 minutes!

1.45 to 2.15 Don Conroy: Draw with Don Age 4+. I have a book signed and drawn on by Don. He's a sweetheart.

2.20 to 2.45 Join Pauline McLynn for a hilarous peek into a writer’s mind. Yes, it's Mrs Doyle but she writes too.

2.50 to 3.15 Liz Weir: Storytelling Age 0 to 5

3.20 to 3.40 Joe O’Brien: Alfie Green Stories Age 6+

3.50 to 4.10 Oisin McGann: Cartoons and Stories Age 6+

4.15 to 4.45 Derek Landy: Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire Age 7+. Derek is on a roll. He's won a movie deal for his book and he just won the Red House prize at the Hay festival.

West Cork Literary festival - the one in Bantry

The West Cork Literary Festival has a good name and attracts some impressive workshop facilitators.

This year it's 7th to 11th July in Bantry.

All the Workshops run concurrently so you have to choose one. 5 half days can get quite intensive.

Venue: Ardscoil Phobal, Chapel Street.

09.30-12.30 Monday-Friday, 7-11 July *except screenwriting, which is 14.30 - 16.30

Max. 15 places on each workshop unless stated otherwise

Price: €175 for five days (quite reasonable I think)

The Novel for Beginners/Intermediates - Michael Collins
The Novel, Advanced - Carlo Gebler
Short Story - Sean Lusk
Writing for the Stage - Veronica Coburn
Women Who Want to Write - Kate O'Riordan
Poetry - Peter Fallon
Screenwriting - Jeffrey Caine
Songwriting - Colin Vearncombe
Creativity & Spirituality - Michael McCarthy
Writing a Thriller - Damien Lewis
Writing for Children - Oisin McGann
Seduction, Secrets and Surfing: Bringing your work alive in a public reading-
(3-day workshop) - Mia Gallagher

Google the names first so you know what you're getting. I have been to workshops with 3 of these and they were not all of the same high standard, let me tell you!

The Manchester Poetry Prize 2008

This is my 301st post!
Here's one you may not have heard of.

Manchester Metropolitan University Writing School is launching its own poetry prize to promote its own Writing School.
Sometimes the newer competitions have fewer entries, so a greater chance to win.

First prize: £10,000*
In addition, a bursary for study at MMU will be awarded to an entrant aged 18-25 as part of the Manchester Young Writer of the Year Award*.
Now does that mean the winner will more than likely be in this age range?
And only one prize, so lower chances. There may be two prizes if the winner is older than 25.

Deadline: 1st August 2008
Fee. at steep £15

They want a portfolio of poetry (three to five poems; the total length
of the portfolio should not exceed 120 lines). The poems can be on any subject but must be new work, not published elsewhere.
Entrants can submit work via the competition website , or by post using an entry form.
Contact:

James Draper
Project Manager: Writing School
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester, United Kingdom
Telephone : +44 (0) 161 247 1787
Email : j.draper@mmu.ac.uk

The Writing School will be launching The Manchester Fiction Prize in 2009.