Café Writers Poetry Competition

Deadline: 30th November 2016

PRIZES

• 1ST  £1000       
• 2nd £300 3rd £200  
• Six Commended Prizes of £50
• Funniest Poem not winning another prize £100

The Norfolk Prize   £100
awarded to the best poem from a permanent Norfolk resident not winning another prize

Entry Fee: £4 per poem; or £10 for 3 poems and £2.00 per poem thereafter

Sole Judge: Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan was born in South Yorkshire in 1988: his debut collection Physical is the first ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award, it also won the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, was short-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and long-listed for the Polari Prize; it won a 2014 Northern Writers’ Award, and both an Eric Gregory Award and a Somerset Maugham Award in 2016 from the Society of Authors.  He lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and lives in Manchester.

Competition Rules

• Maximum of 40 lines (excluding title) on one side of A4.
• Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any web-site or broadcast.
• Entries must be your own original work and in English.
• Entries must show no name, address or identifying marks other than the title.
• Prizewinners will be notified in writing by 31st January 2017.  The list of prizewinners will be displayed on the website after the prize-giving ceremony at Café Writers on 17th February 2017.

Enter online or by post details here

Doolin Writers’ Weekend Competition

Deadline: Friday 13th January 2017

The 5th annual Doolin Writers’ Weekend taking place at Hotel Doolin from 3rd to 5th of February 2017. Participants confirmed for this year so far include Sara Baume, Mike McCormack, Claire- Louise Bennett, Alan McMonagle, Declan Meade, Rita Ann Higgins, Elaine Feeney and many more to be announced.

The Doolin Writers competition runs in conjunction with the weekend and includes prizes for poetry (€1000), flash fiction (€500) and short stories (€1000).

General rules:

• Submissions accepted from poets/writers of any nationality, from any country.
• Must show title & story only, must not show writer’s name or any other identifying marks on submitted stories – Please note stories submitted with the writers’ name or contact details will not be submitted to the judges!
• Poems, Flash Fiction and Stories must be entered separately.
• Must be double spaced.
• Must be the original work of the entrant.
• Must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online).

• 8 Shortlisted names in each category will be announced on Doolin Writers’ Facebook page at no less than 1 week prior to Doolin Writers’ Weekend.
• 2 winners in each category will be announced on the opening night of Doolin Writers’ Weekend.
• Winners will read their poem and excerpt from their story on Saturday night of the Doolin Writers’ Weekend.
• Accommodation and meals will be provide for winners and runners up on the Friday & Saturday night. 

Postal Entries
For Postal entries please post your submission to Doolin Writers’ Competition Entry with a cover letter to have your name, email address and contact number and with the €10 Fee in a cheque or Postal order form made payable to Hotel Doolin.

Here is the link to the website http://www.hoteldoolin.ie/doolin-writers-festival.html for online entries.

Flash Fiction 1st Prize €500
Must be in English, must each be no more than 500 words (that does not include the title).

Poems First Prize €1000
Must be in English, must each be no longer than 40 lines (that does not include the title).

Short Story First Prize €1000
Must be in English, must each be between 1000-3000 words (that does not include the title).

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/

Dublin Book Festival

Dublin Book Festival is one of Ireland’s most successful and vibrant book festivals.  This annual public Festival showcases, supports and develops Irish Publishing by programming, publicising and selling Irish published books, their authors, editors and contributors all in an entertaining, festive, friendly and accessible environment that reflect the creativity and personality of the Irish Publishing sector and its authors.

What's on link here

A delicious menu includes:
Friday, 11 November 1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Slake Your Thirst – The Future Always Makes Me So Thirsty: New Poets from the North of Ireland

Saturday, 12 November 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Dublin City Public Libraries Reader’s Day
With Mia Gallagher, Diarmuid Gavin, Mike McCormack, Deirdre Purcell and Donal Ryan in conversation with Dave Kenny

Saturday, 12 November 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Poetry Ireland: The Rising Generation
With Jane Clarke, Christodoulos Makris, Julie Morrissy and Ciaran O’Rourke with music from Sive

Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, 12 November 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Boys' School, Smock Alley Theatre
Salmon Poetry Anniversary Event. Even The Daybreak: 35 Years of Salmon Poetry
With many of Salmon’s outstanding poets taking part, including Seamus Cashman, Mary Dorcey, Jean O’Brien, Mark Granier, Colm Keegan, Mary O’Donnell, Maurice Harmon, Alvy Carragher, Anne Hartigan, Phil Lynch, Alan Jude Moore, Patrick Chapman and more!

Saturday, 12 November 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Looking at the Stars
With Colin Barrett, Tara Flynn, Joseph O’Connor and Mary O’Donnell in conversation with Rick O’Shea

Sunday, 13 November 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Main Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre
Magazines and their Makers with Brendan Barrington, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Tony O’Dwyer, Olivia Smith and Susan Tomaselli in conversation with Paula Shields

Sunday, 13 November 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The Workmans Club
The Magazine Social with Angela Carr, Oisín Fagan, Caelainn Hogan, Pat O’Connor, Deirdre Sullivan and Dimitra Xidous

I could go on.

The Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize

The Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize

Prizes: 1st prize €10,000, plus 3 prizes of €1,000 for each of the shortlisted poems

For an unpublished poem of any length. 

The four winning poems will appear in the spring issue of The Moth.

Judged by Deborah Landau, director of the creative writing program at New York University. ‘Landau’s killer wit evokes Dorothy Parker crossed with Sylvia Plath – leaping spark after spark, growing to deadly dark fire,’ says the Los Angeles Times of her work.

Entry fee €12

Deadline: 31 DECEMBER 2016

See: www.themothmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=8010&page=13

Unbound Short Story Prize

Unbound is crowdfunding, a relatively new way of published so please enter eyes open.

To celebrate the fifth birthday of Unbound, the founders are delighted to announce the first Unbound Short Story Prize.

Deadline 31st October 2016

The competition is open to writers from all over the world, writing in any style or genre, and there is a prize fund of £5,000. The top 20 stories will be published in the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology.

The author of the winning story will receive £2,000 and be offered a book deal with Unbound.

Like all Unbound books, this one is being crowdfunded. Our hope is that we will find short story enthusiasts, both writers and readers, who want to help us make this anthology a reality.
The book will be published once we hit 100% and the closing date has passed, with everyone who helped to crowdfund it getting a special Unbound edition, and another edition appearing later in bookshops

Rules

1. The maximum length per story submitted is 5,000 words but there is no minimum length. Flash fiction will be accepted. Stories can be in any style or genre and tackle any theme or subject.

2. The prize is open to all published and unpublished writers from anywhere in the world but all entries should be in English and entrants must be over 16 years old on the closing date, 31st October 2016.

3. Submitted stories should not have previously been published in print or online. There is no need to submit at the time of pledging.

4. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant. No plagiarism or copying. We cannot accept simultaneous submissions.

5. All entrants must agree that, if shortlisted, their work will be published in the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology book and ebook. Authors retain copyright of their work at all times but Unbound has first publication rights.

6. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive one free copy of the Unbound Short Story Prize Anthology, in addition to the copy they receive as part of their pledge, and will be able to purchase further copies at a discount of 50%.

7. No entrant may win more than one prize. The prize will be judged by the Unbound editorial team who will select a longlist of 50 titles before selecting 20 prize winners. The judges decision is final and no individual correspondence will be entered into regarding the selection.

8. Prizes are: 1st prize-£2000, 2nd prize -£800, 3rd prize -£500. Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted writers will receive £100.

9. Entrants who have paid for critiques and feedback will be contacted once the longlist has been announced.

10. This competition, like all projects at Unbound, is crowdfunded. In the unlikely event that the book does not hit its target all entrants will be offered a full refund.

To enter visit this page to make your pledge.

The Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Prize

Deadline: November 30, 2016

The Gregory O’Donoghue Prize is an award for a single poem, with a first prize of €1,000 ($1,120/£860), a week’s residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and publication in Southword journal.

Organisers The Munster Literature Centre will also bring the winning writer to read at the Cork International Poetry Festival in February 2017, covering travel costs up to €600 and providing food and hotel accommodation for the four days of the festival.

Other poets who will be reading at the poetry festival include Mark Doty, Karen Solie, Matthew Dickman (the poetry editor of Tin House), and Maya Catherine Popa (a previous winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize).

There will be a second prize of €500, third prize of €250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published in Southword and receive the journal’s standard fee of €30.

This year’s judge is poet Mary Noonan. Read her tips for writing poetry on Writing.ie here.

Terms and Conditions
A shortlist will be posted on our website in late January and the winners will be announced during the Cork International Poetry Festival.

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

2. Entries should be typed. As this competition is judged anonymously, the entrant’s name and contact details must be on a separate piece of paper. If you pay by Paypal, please quote the receipt number and the email address payment was issued from. Please also include a note about how your heard about the competition. Manuscripts cannot be returned. Your name should not appear on the same page as the poem to ensure anonymity.

3. There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five.

Guidelines and to enter, click here.