Phizzfest Poetry Award 2012

Entries are now being invited for the Phizzfest Poetry Award 2012 award.

Deadline: 31st of July 2012

An entry consists of two poems of not more than 36 lines each
You must be a resident of Ireland and at least 16 years of age on the above date.

A prize of €250 will be awarded to the winning poem and a number of €50 runner-up prizes will also be awarded.

The entry fee is €5 and may be in the form of a cheque or postal order made payable to "Phizzfest". Only one entry per envelope though you may submit more than entry to the competition.

Why?

A pamphlet of poems selected from the entries may be published and a small fee paid to the authors.

Interesting.

The Phibsborough Community Arts Festival is 1st-9th September

Link here

snailmail only to Phizzfest Poetry Award, c/o 9 Shandon Park, Phibsborough, Dublin 7 with an entry form.

Liberties Festival Poems of the People

This sounds a little like IPYPIASM. Dropping poetry in public places.  


Poems of the People is an exciting public participation poetry project in association with Litterapture. We’re painting a poetic picture of Ireland and we want you to be a part of it.

The Liberties Festival celebrates with a call to children and adults of all ages, wherever you live, to write and submit their own poem.

Copies of poems will be ‘dropped’ in unexpected places – such as cafés, bus-stops, and parks – in the Liberties area for people to find, to bring a moment of quiet, a smile or a memory to their day, leading up to and throughout the 2012 Festival.

Poems can be on any topic relating to the (very open) theme ‘my Ireland’ and up to approximately 25 lines each. You can submit as many poems as you like. Please include your contact details and age. When ‘dropped’ and otherwise publicised, poems will contain your first name, age and where you’re from, e.g. Mary, aged 68, Dublin 8 or James, aged 9, Dublin 1.

Send us your poem today!

By email: libertiesfestivalpoems @ gmail.com

Litterapture, which has received sponsorship from the Fulbright Alumni Fund, is a global online initiative and poems submitted may also be uploaded to www.litterapture.com.

Writing Workshop in Monkstown July 29

Writing From The Five Elements-
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water

These are interesting prompts. Get out and do a workshop every now and then if you are writing, to kick start new ideas. This one is from Shirley McClure who is well published in Ireland.

In this workshop, we will draw on the 5 Elements and their many associations to begin 5 new pieces of writing. You will be led into writing by the use of visual prompts, evocative materials, examples of poetry & prose by established writers.

When? Sunday 29th July 2012, from 10 a.m. To 4.30 p.m.

Where? Pakenham road, Monkstown, 5 minutes' walk from Salthill/Monkstown DART station

Cost: €50 (2 concession places available at €35)

Course Leader: Shirley McClure

Suitable for beginners & people who have been writing for a while.
Group limited to 12 participants.

Tea/ coffee provided.

Enquiries/ booking: 086-603 4481 shirleymcclure2@gmail.com www.thepoetryvein.com

Shortlist for the dlr Strong Award

The shortlist for the dlr Strong Award (in partnership with Shine) at Poetry Now at Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival has been announced.

The Shortlist is:

• Nerys Williams, Sound Archive, Seren
• Eoghan Walls, The Salt Harvest, Seren
• Noel Duffy, In the Library of Lost Objects, Ward Wood
• Ailbhe Darcy, Imaginary Menagerie, Bloodaxe

Peter Sirr will adjudicate the award, which is presented annually to the author of the best first collection of poems published by an Irish poet in the previous year.

The dlr Strong Award in partnership with Shine is awarded in memory of Rupert and Eithne Strong and is made possible by the generous support of Shine, the national organisation dedicated to upholding the rights and addressing the needs of all those affected by mental ill health.

Congratulations to all. See previous interview with Eoghan Walls here.

Doneraile Literary & Arts Festival

Doneraile festival have a number of competitions. I think they may be doing themselves an injustice with such a steep fee and only one poem to be submitted. And only one prize.

The festival is 30th July to 5th August 2012.

Deadline: July 1st 2012
Fee of €10. Cheques/postal orders to be made out to Doneraile Literary & Arts Society

Edmund Spenser Poetry Competition (18 years or older) : Entrants may submit only one poem for the competition.
The winning prize will be €500 and presentation by one of our guests of the Edward Spencer Perpetual Poetry Award.
Poems must not be more than 30 lines.

 Canon Sheehan Short Story Competition (18 years or older) 
 Stories must not be more than 2000 words. Fictional
Entrants may submit only one short story

The winning prize will be €1000 and presentation by one of our guests of the Canon Sheehan Perpetual Literary Award.

 

There are also:

 

 3. Children's Short Story Competition for 10 to 12 year olds
 4. Children’s Poetry Competition for 10 to 12 year olds
5. Children’s Short Story Competition for 7 to 9 year olds
6. Children’s Poetry Competition for 7 to 9 year olds

Entry forms here

The Joy of Books

Super video on the joy of real books from Canadian bookshop Type.

iYeats Poetry Competition 2012

The iYeats Poetry Competition, now in its fourth year goes from strength to strength, attracting hundreds of entries from across Ireland and abroad. 

2 categories; General and Emerging Talent for poets between the ages of 16 & 25. 

Judges: Theo Dorgan and Paula Meehan 

 

2012 PRIZES

First Prize - General Category: €500, poem displayed in Theatre foyer, 2 tickets to Seamus Heaney reading
First Prize - Emerging Talent Category: €300, poem displayed in Theatre foyer, 2 tickets to Seamus Heaney reading

Five commendations will be awarded €50 each in general category.

All winning poets will have their entries published on the Hawk’s Well Theatre Website  and in the foyer of the theatre and will be offered the chance to read their work at an informal ceremony during the 2012 Yeats International Summer School.

2012 THEME

There is an optional theme for this year’s competition ‘The Greasy Till.’

The prize giving for the iYeats Poetry competition will take place after the 11.30am lecture at the Yeats International Summer School in the Hawk’s Well Theatre on Wednesday 1^st of August.

Deadline: Wednesday 11^th July, 2012

Results Publicly Announced: Wednesday 1^st August, 2012

Prize-giving ceremony: Wednesday 1^st August, 2012, 1pm.

Entry fee: €5 per poem*

For full terms and conditions of this competition and to download an entry from please visit www.hawkswell.com

*The Hawk’s Well Theatre is a not-for-profit institution, an officially registered charity. All entry fees received in this competition will be disbursed in prize money and to fund the administration of the competition.

Paul Howard In Conversation with Fiona Looney

In Triggs: the Autobiography, Paul Howard has created an unforgettable character in Triggs, the dog famed for seeing Roy Keane through the turmoil-filled days of Saipan 2002. Says Triggs: "This isn’t some saccharine-sweet story of a love affair between a man and his beloved Labrador retriever – it’s the Dog’s honest truth!” Come and sample the comic genius of Paul Howard in conversation with Fiona Looney.

Monday June 25th at 8.00pm

Pavilion Theatre, Marine Rd, Dun Laoghaire

Tickets €10 & €8 concessions from (01) 231 2929

Or online at www.paviliontheatre.ie

McLellan Poetry Prize

The McLellan Poetry Prize has been revived as part of the annual McLellan Arts Festival on the Isle of Arran. 

Once again we will be offering a first prize of £1000 (along with 11 other prizes and commendations). 

Poems will be judged by Jackie Kay who will present the prizes in person at a special festival event on 31 August. 

The closing date is 30th June so you still have time to enter if you have not already done so.

Full details can be found at http://www.arranart.com/atat/poetry.html

Caca Milis Cabaret Summer is coming

Location: The Wexford Arts Centre, 9pm Friday 22nd June, €10 in.

The Cáca Milis Cabaret will be celebrating the longest day of the Celtic summer with a fantastic, diverse evening of music, poetry, literature and dance for your entertainment pleasure.

We’re really excited to present Dutch retro Diva Ms. Truly Divine, whose singing has been described as: “theatrical, sassy, caramel-sounding interpretations of jazz and blues from the Roaring 20s till the Rocking 50s.” Cork singer-songwriter Nella Dwyer, whose raw-honey vocals are also something you won’t want to miss. Wexford’s Fran Greene will perform material from his second album, “Backroads,” which will be on sale on the night. Favourites The Darling Sins will be in the house – it will be a great opportunity to see them before they head into the studio to record an album.

And of course - Mistress of Ceremonies Helena Mulkerns is accompanied by The Featherhead Trio.

Writer Suzanne Power has excelled in both the fiction and non-fiction fields, and tonight we welcome her as she reads from new material that touches on the spiritual aspect of Celtic traditions. Wexford’s Westley Barnes has already made a name for himself as a young Poet, having delivered his keenly observed material in Wexford venues now for a number of years.

Ciné Sweetcake is proud to present “Johnny Boy,” the latest short film from actress and director Laura Way, and in the dance department it’s the triumphant return of one of the Cabaret’s favourite dancers, Alexandra Drafilova of Khelashi Dance.

If you're on for it, bring a pair of low shoes, because weather permitting, we will do a walk across the bridge after the show to celebrate the Solstice, ending with a drink or a cuppa at the Riverbank Hotel (you can always get a taxi home!!)

For any questions, get in touch at: cabaret@cacamilis.org

For bookings, see: www.wexfordartscentre.ie or phone 053-912-3764

Please see more at The Cáca Milis website at: www.cacamilis.org

The launch of 'Housewife With A Half Life' with Alison Wells

Book Launch, Signing and Reading

June 22nd, 2012 at 7.00pm

Hughes & Hughes Dundrum

Guest speaker, bestsellling author Colette Caddle.

Author Alison Wells will launch her hilarious new sci-fi comedy, 'Housewife With A Half Life' (as A.B. Wells) in Hughes & Hughes Dundrum on Friday, June 22nd.

The book, which has been described as 'the housewife's answer to 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', is a rollercoaster adventure through inner and outer space. Susan Strong, eponymous housewife, travels through a myriad of alternate worlds with her Fairly God Father, Fairly Dave to find the scattered pieces of herself. Time is short! Susan must save us all from Universal Devastation. Oh, and she also has to get the dinner started!

This is a laugh out loud funny but also touchingly heartwarming read from an author whose lightness of touch has defined her as 'something of an alchemist' in literary circles.

All are welcome to come along to the launch. With readings, refreshments and general merriment this is bound to add up to a great event!

For more visit www.alisonwells.wordpress.com or http://www.hughesandhughes.ie/content/book-launch-alison-wells

Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

Annual creative writing competition. Open to both poets and fiction writers.

Prizes
The best fiction entry will win €300.
The best poetry entry will win €300.
One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2012.

The 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at an Over The Edge: Open Reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 2012/13.  

Salmon Poetry will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category.

Doire Press will read, without commitment to publish a collection of short stories submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category.

The winning poems and the winning story will both be published in a special Over The Edge Tenth Birthday anthology which will be published during 2013.

Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of the Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland with an accompanying SAE. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or story. Put your contact details on a separate sheet.

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee.
You must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2012 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in the genre in which you enter. Chapbooks excepted.
Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition. The competition is open to writers worldwide.

Fee
The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or money order to Over The Edge.


The closing date is Wednesday, August 8th, 2012.

This year’s competition judge is John Corless.

Poets to Check Out - Vrouwkje Tuinman

I have my own translation here from her original Dutch

Balance

What if I paint my nails red and pare a pencil

Draw a line down the middle of the page

Put the cons on the left and pros on the right.

On one side of the line is IKEA; I wouldn’t go there anymore

because I only go there with you.

Underneath is you calling from work, calling about work

me calling you at work. I don’t need that.

On the other side is that I gain a family.

They said it themselves.

Last Friday I was at your brother’s party and Sunday at your sister’s.

Also there are the new friends

who all have a left side for things they’ve lost - you -

and a right side where sometimes they put me.

On the left, I’d have no one to mind my house or my cat

or go with me to the vets.

That I’ve seen how happy you are, I put on the left side

and on the right side as well.

The pencil breaks. I pare my nails red.

Popshot magazine

Popshot magazine are now taking flash fiction and short stories.

We are now open for literary submissions for Issue 8.

Those of you who will have read the opening editorial in our last issue will have been alerted to the fact that there are changes afoot at Popshot. After seven issues of being a strictly poetry & illustration magazine, we are now widening our remit to include short stories and flash fiction, as well as poetry. We've always been a fan of well written short stories and with an ever increasing platform and audience available to the magazine, now seems like the perfect time to add them into the mix. It's a very exciting move for us and will allow the magazine to become more diverse in terms of content.

If you would like the chance to have your short story or poem published within the pages of the new Popshot Magazine, head to the 'submit' page at our website to read the complete submissions guidelines for Issue 8. Submissions will remain open until July 25th so there's plenty of time to craft your beautifully written poem or short story.

www.popshotpopshot.com/submit

Get Shorty - RTE/ Penguin Short Story competition

The winning story in the RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition will be published 
in the RTE Guide and the winner will be presented with a special trophy and prize. The winner
 and 60 runners-up will be invited to a special day-long writers’ workshop at Pearse Street Library in Dublin on September 7, which is organised in conjunction with Dublin, UNESCO City of Literature. On the day. three professional writers – Sinead Moriarty, Niamh Greene and Naomi Alderman – will dispense words of wisdom for aspiring writers, and some industry figures will also be in attendance to show you the way to go.

Winner gets published in RTE Guide, plus 'special trophy and prize'.

Deadline: 15 July 2012.

No entry fee.


No restriction on number of entries.

Word count: 2000

Submissions to: RTE Guide/Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition, Box 1480, RTE Guide, RTE, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

From Louise Phillips blog here

Louise’s psychological crime novel, Red Ribbons, will be published by Hachette Books Ireland in September 2012, and her second novel, The Doll’s House, will be published in 2013.

Paris Baby!

The Paris Literary Prize is an international prize for unpublished authors, awarded for a novella. It's now open for submissions (in the range of 17,000 - 35,000 words).
Deadline: September 1st.

"We have long been admirers of the novella, a genre which includes such classics as The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The Paris Literary Prize celebrates this small but perfectly formed genre while giving a unique opportunity to writers whose voices have not yet been heard."

There are three Paris Literary Prize awards:
-The Paris Literary Prize award: 10,000 Euros
-Two Paris Literary Prize Runner-up awards: 2,000 Euros each

All three winners will be invited to a weekend stay in Paris to attend the Prize ceremony and read from their work at a special event at Shakespeare and Company.

Full Details and submission details HERE.

McLaverty Short Story Award 2012

In memory of Michael McLaverty, one of Ireland’s most famous short story writers, the Linen Hall Library has launched the 2012 Michael McLaverty Short Story Award. Entrants must have been born in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland and be over 18 years of age. The prize is £2,000 and the writer’s work will be published by the Library. PRIZE FOR THE WINNER IS £2,000. Judges:                      Anne Tannahill, freelance Editor and retired MD of Blackstaff Press                                                   Jennifer Johnston, Author     SPONSOR:                                Linen Hall Library   ENTRY FEE:                              £5 Sterling with each entry submitted   Deadline:                       Midnight Friday 29th June 2012 There's a lot of underlining and bold type on the website. They must have lots of entries that don't comply so read the guidelines.   The award is open to Irish writers (born in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland) over eighteen years of age.   maximum of 3,000 words Post only. Details here

World record

The Irish Writers' Centre is celebrating 25 years since its founding with a world-beating public reading. Over 100 of our leading writers will participate in a marathon public reading which will commence at 10.00 am on Friday June 15th and finish at 2.00 pm on Saturday, June 16th - Bloomsday. 

If we succeed we will wrest the Guinness World Record for such an event from the Berlin International Literature Festival who managed to muster 75 writers. It will be launched by the great Joycean, Senator David Norris and the readers will include our Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney. 
 

This extraordinary programme of readings will continue for 28 hours continuously, and will be open to the public. It will also be live-streamed - a webcam will transmit it to the Internet so that it can be accessed around the world even as it takes place in the Centre. We will be reading for the world in every sense. Our record attempt will be monitored by the accountancy firm, KPMG, and by the university, American College Dublin.

Poem for the Holidays

I'm still on my holidays but with the magic of forward posting, here's a poem for you to enjoy.

Recorded at Festival of the Fires.

Short Story for the Holidays

I'm off on my holidays. I'm planning to visit Deia where the famous poet and writer Robert Graves lived for years and it was a magnet for artists from all over. Now I can find no reference to any poetic goings on so I may recite to a bewildered cafe of tourists. German tourists probably. No matter.

Note to bad people: there is a tall, manly man living in my house while I'm away.

Meanwhile, you can read a review of my short story Saturday's Kiss here. And there's a link to the original story at the end.

Arlen House Short Story Collection

There are no short story collections for ages, and now a glut. Like Courgettes if you don't struggle with the slugs.

Arlen House are launching three new short story collections at

• 3pm on Saturday 9th of June in the Eight bar, Dock Road, Galway and then at 
• 7pm in the Irish Writers’ Centre on Tuesday 12th of June in the Irish Writer’s Centre, Dublin. 

The collections are James Martyn Joyce What’s Not Said, Collete Nic Aodha In Castlewood : An Ghaoth Aduaidh, and Eileen Casey’s Snow Shoes. Good luck to everyone at both launches.

Gerald Dawe Select Poems

Custom House Studios, the Creel Restaurant, The Gallery press and Poetry Ireland are pleased to present a poetry reading by Gerald Dawe from his recently published Selected Poems. 

Thursday June 7th 2012 at 8.00pm. 

The evening will also include guest readings from Gerald Dawe’s Selected Poems by Susan Kelly, Thomas Kilroy, Seán Lysaght, John McHugh, and Ger Reidy, with music by Laoise Kelly(Harp).  

Free Admission.

 Spanning over thirty-five years, in poems that move through Irish city and country life – Belfast, Galway, Dublin – to Italian and Polish landscapes and the American east coast, both of the present and ranging through the past half-century, Gerald Dawe’s clear and unadorned voice — in the words of Terence Brown — articulates ‘an imagination of European scope’.

Copies of Selected Poems, which the author will be happy to sign, will be available on the night (€12.50 paperback and €18.50 hardback)

www.gallerypress.com

Mslexia Poetry Competition

Judge: Gillian Clarke

1st Prize: £2,000 plus a week at the idyllic poets' retreat of Cove Park and a mentoring afternoon with the editor of premier poetry magazine, Poetry Review
2nd Prize: £400
3rd Prize: £200
17 other finalists receive £25 each

All winning poems will appear in issue 55 of Mslexia, published in September 2011

Entry fee: £7 for up to three poems

Deadline: 18 June 2012

You can enter online or snailmail.
Link here

Magma Poetry Contributions

Contributions are now being accepted for Magma 54, edited by Judy Brown and Cherry Smyth, for publication in November 2012. Poems are invited on any theme, but the editors particularly invite poems on the theme Visible/invisible.

Deadline is 30 June 2012.
 
We welcome poems that have not been previously published, either in print or online. All contributions by email are acknowledged on receipt.

Poems are considered for one issue only. We write to contributors as soon as a decision is made. As Magma receives a very large number of poems, we cannot consider more than 6 poems per poet per issue.

See About Magma and the Magma Archive to gain an idea of the type of work we accept.
Email contributions to contributions@magmapoetry.com. We strongly prefer for poems to be sent in the body of an email rather than as attachments. If, for formatting reasons, you feel that you must send an attachment, then combine all your poems into one file.

Poems published in the magazine may also be published on this website and in Magma e-book versions for Kindle and iPad. Poems remain the copyright of their author. Contributors receive a copy of the issue in which they appear and and can purchase further copies at a discount. They are also invited to read at the issue’s launch reading.

website here

Open Mic Belfast

Purely Poetry is a monthly poetry night at the CRESCENT ARTS CENTRE in Belfast.

Formed in October 2011, after the success of the Belfast heat of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam at the Belfast Book Festival, the event happens on the first Friday of every month. We seek to pro...vide an open, supportive and relaxed platform for poets to share their work and listen to others.

The format is very simple. Register your interest to read at the start of the night; the MC will add your name to the hat, and people are drawn out at random through the night

This event will be BYO, please purchase your tickets (only £4!) by calling (028) 9024 2338 or on the night.

You can find more information on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/purelypoetry

Next one Friday 1st June  21:30 to midnight when everyone turns into vampires.