THE MOTH NATURE WRITING PRIZE

Richard Mabey, one of the UK’s foremost nature writers, will judge the inaugural Moth Nature Writing Prize. The Prize will be awarded to an unpublished piece of writing – prose fiction, non-fiction or poetry – which best combines exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writer’s relationship with the natural world. The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. The winning piece will be published in the winter issue of The Moth, and the winner will receive €1,000 and a week-long stay at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland. Closing date 15 September 2020.

LINKS:
ENTER ONLINE: https://www.themothmagazine.co.uk/mothnature/story1.asp
DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM: http://www.themothmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=8539&page=27
THE MOTH RETREAT: http://www.themothmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=8148&page=28

IN SHORT:
1st prize €1,000 plus a week at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland. The Moth Nature Writing Prize is open to anyone (over 16) as long as their piece is previously unpublished. The word limit is 4,000 and there is an entry fee of €15. This year’s judge is Richard Mabey. Closing 15 September 2020. See www.themothmagazine.com for details.

haiku/senryu writing competition

To celebrate Poetry Day in Ireland, Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat in Beara, West Cork, Ireland (www.anamcararetreat.com), is organising and sponsoring a haiku/senryu writing competition. They are looking forward to your joining the celebration with your entry.

Please submit up to three previously unpublished and original haiku (nature based) and/or senryu (human nature based) to Poetry Day Competition at c. The Subject Line must read ‘Poetry Day Competition’. Please include contact details only on your cover email; each entry should be submitted in a Word doc or PDF with no identifying information and the contact info either in the body of the email or in a separate document.

First Prize: A week's all-inclusive retreat at Anam Cara Writer's and Artist's Retreat

Runners Up: A collection of haiku/senryu books published by Alba Publishing

Deadline: 31 March 2019

Winners Announced: 2 May 2019

Judges:  Maeve O'Sullivan and Kim Richardson

You may find the following resources, and guidelines for writing haiku, of interest:

http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html

https://hacketthaiku.com/the-haiku-moment/

http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/journal/

The Moth Poetry Prize 2017

The Moth Poetry Prize (formerly the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize) is now in its seventh year, it continues to offer one of the most lucrative awards in the world for a single unpublished poem.

ABOUT THE PRIZE Since its inception in 2011, the prize has been judged by such celebrated poets as Deborah Landau, Matthew Sweeney and Billy Collins. Winners of the prize have included Lee Sharkey, Abigail Parry and Ann Gray, whose poem was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2015.

The Moth Poetry Prize is open to anyone (over 16), as long as the poem is previously unpublished, and each year it attracts thousands of entries from new and established poets from over 50 countries worldwide.

This year’s judge is Daljit Nagra. Nagra was the first poet to win the Forward Prize for both his first collection of poetry and its title poem. He recently published his third collection of poetry with Faber, British Museum, and teaches poetry at Brunel University London and is Poet in Residence for BBC Radio 4.

Terms and Conditions
Deadline: 31 December 2017.

• The name of the author must not appear on the same page as the poem. 
• It’s not a requirement, but we strongly advise you to purchase a copy of The Moth. 
• You can write on any subject and there is no line limit. 
• Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published online or broadcast. 
• Fees Entry fee is €12 per poem Online payment should be made to enquiries@themothmagazine.com via PayPal. Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Moth Magazine Ltd.’, with the sender’s name and address on the back.

Prizes 
1st €10,000 3 runner-up prizes of €1,000 Prizewinners
The shortlisted writers will be notified by the end of February 2018.
 The shortlisted poems will be published in the spring 2018 issue of The Moth.
 The winner will be announced at a special award ceremony at Poetry Ireland in Dublin in the spring of 2018.

Link 

Iron Mountain Literature Festival - John McGahern Award

As part of the Iron Mountain Literature Festival, Leitrim County Council and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre have developed the John McGahern Award to encourage the development of emerging Irish writers and to pay tribute to the exceptional contribution of John McGahern to literature, and to Leitrim.

The recipient of the Award will receive a two-week fully resourced residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and a stipend of €500. 

This is an open call to emerging writers of fiction resident in the Republic of Ireland. Applicants must have had some fiction or short stories published in a recognised journal or anthology selected by an established publisher or editor.

Deadline: 5pm, 31 July, 2017.

The recipient of the award will be publicly announced on Saturday 7th October 2017 during the Iron Mountain Literature Festival at The Dock, Carrick on Shannon.

Link here

Wexford Literary Festival Competition

Wexford Literary Festival 2017 runs from Friday, May 19 to Sunday, May 21 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, the heart of Ireland’s South-East. The Festival is holding three writing competitions: The Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award, The Wexford Literary Festival International Poetry Award, and The Wexford Literary Festival One-Act Play Competition.


Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award
Wexford Literary Festival welcomes entries to its annual international Colm Tóibín Short Story Award.
1st Prize is €1,000, 2nd Prize €500, 3rd Prize €300
Entries must be between 1,800 and 2,000 words in length.


Wexford Literary Festival International Poetry Award
Poets are invited to submit up to three poems, up to a maximum of 40 lines, for consideration.
1st Prize is €250 plus the Wexford Literary Festival International Poetry crystal award, 2nd €200 and 3rd €100
Entries can be up to and including 40 lines in length


Wexford Literary Festival One-Act Play Competition
Playwrights are invited to submit plays of up to 15 minutes in length and four finalists will have their pieces performed by Enniscorthy Drama Group at this year’s festival.
The play should require no more than four actors.
Four finalists will have their pieces performed by Enniscorthy Drama Group at this year’s festival, with a prize of €300 euro going to the overall winner.


Entry fee: €10
Deadline: 1st April 2017
Shortlisted writers will be invited to attend the award ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2017, however all expenses incurred will be the writer’s own
Link here

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016

I have a couple of reservations about this competition so buyer beware. Why must the entrant be unagented? Does Cornerstones agency then hope charge lots of fees to all entrants to edit their manuscripts?

Deadline: 20th November 2016

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016 is open for submissions, with entries invited from children’s novelists of any nationality and perspective. We’re looking for all genres of chapter, middle grade and young adult novels – from funny to dark, fashionable to forever, fantastic to futuristic.

Judge: Julia Churchill (Literary agent at AM Heath)

Prize: £2,000 with an additional shortlistee prize of £500 vouchers from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.

Submissions: 3,000 words plus a one page synopsis

Fee: £22 per novel

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016 Rules:

The Bath Children’s Novel Award is a competition for unpublished and independently published writers. Entrants should not have accepted a traditional publication offer for a novel. For the purposes of the competition, a ‘traditional publication offer’ is defined as an offer to publish a novel with advance payment.

Novels should be for children who are able to read for themselves, or young adults. Picture books and graphic novels are not eligible.

Entrants must be unagented.

Submissions should include (up to) the first 3,000 words of your novel plus a one page synopsis. Your novel extract should be double-spaced in a size 12 font and include the title. Your synopsis should be single-spaced in a size 12 font. As entries are read ‘blind’, please do NOT include your name anywhere on the extract and synopsis document.

In your email (or covering page for postal entrants), state your name, address, telephone number, novel title, genre, extract and approximate full manuscript word count, plus your method of entry fee payment.

Longlisted entrants will be announced early December 2016 and asked to submit their full manuscript for the final judging stages. Shortlisted entrants will be announced in December 2016.

The winner of The Bath Children’s Novel Award will be announced in January 2017 and receive £2,000 plus a Minerva trophy, designed by Jessica Palmer.

One shortlisted writer will receive £500 in vouchers from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy which may be used towards any editorial report or mentoring hours in either Cornerstones’ US or UK house. There is no cash alternative to this prize.

There are no full manuscript word count restrictions, however as a guide, we recommend 6-10,000 for a chapter book, 40-60,000 for middle grade and 50-70,000 words for YA (or longer for fantasy novels).

Novels must be your original work and in English.

Entries are open to writers aged 16 years and over of any nationality and based in any country.

Entrants retain full copyright of their submissions, however by entering, all entrants give The Bath Novel Award permission to post the first 3,000 words of any shortlisted entries on our site.

Check out the website for more info: https://bathnovelaward.co.uk/childrens-novel-award/

Mercier Press Fiction Competition

Ireland's oldest independent publishing house, Mercier Press, has launched a competition to find a first-time fiction author with the potential to become a best-selling writer.


Deadline:1 February 2016.


Prize:
In addition to a publishing deal, the winner will receive a 1000 euro cash prize.

Aspiring authors must submit 10,000 to 12,000 words of original fiction aimed at young adults or adults, as well as a 1,000 word synopsis of the full novel.


Mercier Press Managing Director Mary Feehan commented:

‘Mercier Press has a history of nurturing new talent.  In an ideal world we will find our next John B. Keane, but, our main reason for running this competition is to encourage creative writing.  For both authors and publishers fiction is a hugely competitive genre and we are keen to publish the best fiction Ireland has to offer.’

Entrants must be resident in Ireland and are only eligible to enter if they have not had a novel published or released into the public domain in any format, including but not limited to the Internet. The competition is looking for new work.


Full details can be found on http://www.mercierpress.ie/


Entry form available here.

The Caterpillar Short Story for Children Prize

The Caterpillar magazine prize is open . They say:

Last year’s inaugural winner, Richard J. Jones, received €1,000 for his story 'Let's Say I Am', which was published in the winter issue of The Caterpillar. You can also read it in the Irish Times.

 

This year, we’ve decided to share the love, and to that end we have three prizes:

 

1^st prize €500 plus a 2-week stay at The Moth’s Artists’ Residence

2^nd prize €300

3^rd prize €200

 

All three winning stories will appear in the winter 2016 issue of The Caterpillar.

We're also very excited to announce that the fabulously talented and award-winning author of The Jam Doughnut that Ruined My Life, Pants are Everything and Socks are Not Enough, Mark Lowery, will be judging this year's prize.

All you need do to apply is send us your original, unpublished story of no more than 1,500 words – on any theme or subject, as long as it is appropriate for 7–11 year olds.

 

You can ENTER ONLINE or download an ENTRY FORM and send it along with your story to: The Caterpillar, Ardan Grange, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland

 

The entry fee is €12 per story, and you can enter as many stories as you like.

 

CLOSING DATE 30 SEPTEMBER 2016

 

Don’t forget to READ THE RULES before you enter!

 

Click here if you would like to sign up to our newsletters about prizes, publications and more. 

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition

Chicken House no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts, but they do offer unpublished and unagented writers of children's fiction the chance to submit their work to the annual Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. They say 

We're looking for original ideas, a fresh voice and a story that children will love!

First prize is a worldwide publishing contract with Chicken House with a royalty advance of £10,000, plus representation from a top children’s literary agent.

To enter, you must have written a completed full-length novel suitable for children/young adults aged somewhere between 7 and 18 years. By full-length we suggest a minimum of 30,000 words and ask that manuscripts entered do not exceed 80,000 words in length.

Deadline: Sunday 18 December 2016

Fee: £15

Link and tips here

The Caterpillar Story for Children Prize

Prizes: 1st prize €500 plus a 2-week stay at The Moth’s Artists’ Residence; 2nd prize €300;

3rd prize €200

For an unpublished story (of no more than 1,500 words) by an adult for children aged 7–11. The three winning stories will appear in the winter issue of The Caterpillar.

Judged by Mark Lowery, award-winning author of The Jam Doughnut that Ruined My Life, Pants are Everything and Socks are Not Enough
Entry fee €12

Deadline: 30 SEPTEMBER 2016
See: www.thecaterpillarmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=7644&page=17

Drabble about Huntington's Disease

What's a drabble? A flash fiction piece I think.

Your Drabble should be no more than 150 words. It should tell the story of Huntington’s disease and how it impacts on the lives of the people that live with it

Writing out of the HD shadow

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurological condition that is still hidden in the shadows and our aim is to use the power of storytelling to raise awareness.

The competition will be judged by Alan and Michael and they will present prizes to three talented writers at the winners event in September 2016.

The Prizes
Over 16
1st Place, £500 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers..
2nd Place, £300 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers.
3rd Place,£100 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers.

Under 16
1st Place, £100 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers.
2nd Place, £50 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers.
3rd Place, £20 and a framed copy of your entry signed by the celebrity writers.

Deadline: 31st of August 2016

Fee of £5.00 for each entry over the age of 16, if you are under 16 there is no administration fee.
Link here

Off the Beaten Track Writing Competition

Free To Enter 
prize of £100 
Judged by the Editorial Staff of SeniorTravelExpert.com.

SeniorTravelExpert.com are seeking aspiring or established travel writers to send us interesting, original writing relating to the competition theme: Off the Beaten Track. Your article may be about a fascinating, relatively unknown place near to where you live or that you came across by chance when travelling around, or it may be a totally fictional place. It’s entirely up to you.

The winning entry will be the one that is judged to most effectively persuade readers of theSenior Travel Expert website that the place you describe is somewhere they would very much like to visit.

(So no horror stories about delhi belly or street muggings I guess)

Although this website is aimed at seniors (meaning anyone 55 years old or above), you most certainly don’t need to be a senior yourself to submit an entry – far from it! Anyone 16 years old and above is invited to submit an entry.

Entries should be no more than 750 words in length, but could be much less, and should be written in English. Entries can be factual or fictional.

Please read the full Terms and Conditions before entering. The closing date for entries is midnight UK time on Friday, September 30th, 2016.

Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2016

Deadline: 29 July 2016

Prize: €10,000


Details: The award is for an unpublished collection of poems in English and is open to poets, born in the island of Ireland, or of Irish nationality, or long term resident in Ireland. 

The collection of poems in English must be original and consist of 20 poems. Individual poems should not be more than 40 lines

The only works eligible are unpublished or magazine published work. Entrants should not list the magazines where poems have been published or the prizes they have won as this might allow an entrant to be identified.

(interesting! Hard to stay anonymous)

The adjudicator is Brian Lynch again. Time for fresh blood? 

The entry fee is €25/£25

Link here

Wild Words Children's Literature Festival

There's a competition for young writers,   ages 14-18.

Wild Words Children's Literature Festival - Calling All Young Writershttp://wildwords.ie/

Deadline: 3 June 2016

Prizes: Publication and a free two-day writing master class at the festival in Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim on Sat 13 & Sun 14 August 2016.

Email your short story or poem to books@wildwords.ie. There is no entry fee or limit to the number of entries. 

Festival programme is still pending on the website here

Fool For Poetry International Chapbook Competition

The Fool For Poetry International Chapbook Competition run by the hard working Munster Literature Centre is now open for submissions. I've had a read of the books from the last two years and I was very impressed with the standard.

Deadline 31 May

The first and second prize winners will receive a cash prize (1st prize: €1000, 2nd prize: €500*), chapbook publication, 50 free copies of their chapbooks.

The winning poets will be offered a reading and given three nights' accommodation at the 2017 Cork Spring Poetry Festival.

The competition is open to new, emerging and established poets from any country BUT at least one of the winners will be a debutante (with no chapbook or book published previously).

Up to 25 - 50 other entrants will be publicly listed as "highly commended".

Manuscripts must be sixteen to twenty-four pages in length, in the English language and the sole work of the entrant with no pastiches, translations or 'versions'. The poems can be in verse or prose.

Each chapbook is guaranteed a review in Southword Journal.

Link here

SCRIPTS Ireland’s Playwriting Festival seeks New Works

Playwrights can submit original 15 minute plays on the theme Changes for selection by Friday 8 April, 2016.Those selected will benefit from a professional development process where they will be mentored by professional playwright Eugene O' Brien in an exciting workshopping process.
Successful playwrights must be available to travel to Birr, Co. Offaly from Sunday 3 - Thursday 7 July to take part in the workshop process and attend the premiere on Saturday 9 July.

From 3-9 July 2016, the picturesque heritage town of Birr, Co. Offaly, a haven of Georgian elegance, will play host to an ensemble of playwrights, producers, actors and directors, all working towards one goal - to produce outstanding new Irish plays in seven fun-filled days!

THEME: The Festival sets a theme annually to stimulate an artistic response. This year the theme is CHANGES.

In an Ireland that supports marriage equality, in a time when the #WakingTheFeminists movement is making huge strides in women’s representation in theatre and in a world where art has the power to transform, it is clear that change is in the air. Social changes are affecting the world we live in and the impact ranges from subtle attitude adjustments to massive alterations in the way we live. Smaller, unseen changes are happening within us, and in our relationships with the people around us. The impact may be intricate and complex. Playwrights can interpret this theme as they see fit, and responses may range from addressing outward changes in the world to a more micro view of small changes within.

We look forward to reading authentic, unique, and well crafted plays that have the power to change. In the words of the late David Bowie, “Ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the strange!”

PLAY LENGTH: Plays can be between 10-15 minutes in running time. Plays that go over 15

See www.scriptsireland.com for more info.

£5,000 Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2016

judged by jane yeh & glyn maxwell - not too shabby!

prizes: 1st £5,000; 2nd £1,000; 3rd £500
first prize sponsored by cegin productions

plus 20 prizes of £25 each 
plus an autumn 2016 coffee-house-poetry season-ticket
plus a prize-winners’ coffee-house poetry reading
with jane yeh & glyn maxwell
on mon 31 oct 2016
…for all prize-winning poets

submissions, via e-mail or post, by tue 21 jun 2016

always a good idea to check out the 2015 winners list, winning poems & judges’ report on their poems page.

Poems must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, 

Fees: All entries must be accompanied by submission fees of £5/€6/$8 per poem (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only); 

Link here

Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016

Applications are currently being invited for the Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016, an annual scheme marking Newcastle West native Michael Hartnett’s contribution to literature in English and Irish. The 15th annual award is jointly funded by the Arts Office of Limerick City and County Council and The Arts Council.

Each year the award alternates between Irish and English and this year the €4,000 annual prize will be presented to the author of a third book of English language poetry, or subsequent book of poetry, published during 2014 or 2015.

This year’s adjudicators are poet Rita Ann Higgins and Gerard Smyth, Poetry Editor with the Irish Times.

The winning poet will be presented with the Michael Hartnett Annual Poetry Award on the opening night, Thursday April 14^th 2016 of Éigse Michael Hartnett Literary & Arts Festival, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick.

Deadline: Friday 19 February 2016.

Click to Download:
Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016 - Application Form 
Michael Hartnett Poetry Award 2016 - Conditions

Deborah Rogers Foundation Award

A literary agent all her professional life, Deborah Rogers (1938-2014) set up her own agency in 1967, and twenty years later formed Rogers Coleridge & White with Gill Coleridge and Pat White. One of the most influential literary agents of her generation, Deborah was renowned for her taste, her loyalty and her immense generosity in the support she gave to authors. Her sudden death sent a shockwave through the world of publishing and the many writers, publishers and agents whose lives she had touched. At the 2014 London Book Fair, Deborah was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing, the first agent to have received the honour. She accepted this with characteristic modesty:

“It hardly seems fair to be given an award for what has been a lifetime of such pleasure… Those who have entrusted their work to us over the years will never know the intense pride that they have brought, and the anticipation and excitement that greets each new manuscript never palls. I have them to thank most of all.”

Deborah’s particular genius lay in identifying and supporting talented young people. The Deborah Rogers Foundation (DRF) has therefore been set up in her memory to continue to seek out and nurture that talent. The Board chaired by Lord Berkeley of Knighton, Deborah’s widower, comprises people who knew and loved Deborah, including RCW colleagues and writers Ian McEwan and William Fiennes.

An award of £10,000 will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their work:

• Submissions should take the form of 20-30,000 words of a work in progress, fiction or non-fiction, which is not under option or contract
• Applications are only open to writers who have not previously published a full length book
• Entrants must write in the English language and reside within the British Commonwealth and Eire
• Submissions should be accompanied with a brief synopsis and a short biographical note

Deadline: 31st January 2016.

The winner of the Award will be announced by Ian McEwan at the 2016 Hay Festival.

Free to enter

Apply using the form here. http://www.deborahrogersfoundation.org/submissions

CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition

CWA are looking for the best unpublished short story – one that fits into Margery’s definition of what makes a great story.

“The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”

The competition is open to all – both published and unpublished authors- and is for short stories of up to 3,500 words.
Not previously published so whether you polish off a dusty draft or craft a brand new idea is totally up to you.

£15 fee per short story. This fee is subject to VAT.

Deadline: 1st March 2016.

Link here.