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.

Bare Fiction Prize

International awards for Poetry, Flash Fiction, and Short Story.

Now in its third year, the Bare Fiction Prize has given new and old writers alike an equal chance to win big cash prizes and publication within each of the three categories offered. In 2015’s Bare Fiction Prize, first place in the poetry competition (judged by Jo Bell) went to Astra Bloom – a complete newcomer to the UK literary scene. Each entry is judged anonymously by our judges, with the poetry and flash fiction category judges reading every single entry and our short story judge reading a longlist selected by magazine editor, Robert Harper.

POETRY JUDGE: Helen Mort

FLASH FICTION JUDGE: David Gaffney 

SHORT STORY JUDGE: Courttia Newland 

PRIZES (IN EACH CATEGORY)

1st Prize: £500 

2nd Prize: £200 

3rd Prize: £100 

2 x Highly Commended Award: £25

1st, 2nd & 3rd prize winners will be published in the Spring 2017 issue of Bare Fiction Magazine and on the website, with the prizes to be awarded at the launch reading in London in Spring 2017

FEE

Poetry (max 40 lines):

Flash Fiction (max 500 words):

Short Story (max 3000 words):

£5 / £3 for subscribers

£6 / £4 for subscribers

£8 / £6 for subscribers

You can subscribe during the submission process if you wish.

Payment can be made by Credit/Debit Card, PayPal or by Cheque (GBP Sterling).

Link here

Deadline 31st October

The Stony Thursday Book

The Stony Thursday Book is seeking submissions from local, national and international poets for its next issue, to be published in December 2016.

The Stony Thursday Book is one of the longest-running literary journals in Ireland and celebrates its 41st edition in 2016.

This year's Editor of the Stony Thursday Poetry Book is poet and writer John Davies.

How to Submit:

• Each poet should send no more than 6 poems. 
• Submitted poems must be previously unpublished. 
• Each poet should submit a short bio (max 100 words) 
• Submissions are being accepted by email and by post. 
• When submitting poems by post please write your name on each page. Please mark envelopes: The Stony Thursday Book 2016. 
• When submitting by email please reference TSTB 2016 in your subject line and please attach all poems in a single file attachment (pdf or doc).

Send poems to:
The Stony Thursday Book 2016, Limerick Arts Office, Limerick City and County Council, Merchant’s Quay, Limerick
Or
by email to: artsofficesubmissions@limerick.ie

Deadline: Friday 28th October 2016

About the Editor:
John Davies
Born and raised in Birmingham, England, John Davies now lives in Brighton. His published work includes the full collection Shedman, Our Storeys – Art and Poetry in Healthcare, co-written with artist Sue Ridge, and the pamphlets Glove Poems and The Nutter in the Shrubbery. His work has been published in The Echo Room, Poetry South East, The Stony Thursday Book, The Guardian and the Irish Examiner amongst others, as well as online. A New and Selected is forthcoming in 2017.

He was director of THE SOUTH Writers' Network from 2002-2008, which promoted poets in Sussex and developed a longstanding connection with the CUISLE Poetry Festival in Limerick. At the same time he ran Pighog Press, which specialised in publishing Sussex (and Munster) poets. The Pighog list was transferred to US publisher Red Hen in 2014.

John is perhaps best known as Shedman, the itinerant poet in a shed who has appeared at numerous festivals and events since 2002. As Shedman, John’s commissioned work has included poems engraved into the windows of a learning centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, a poem for the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a series of poems for the atrium at North Middlesex University Hospital.

www.johndavies.net

The Stony Thursday Poetry Book is funded by The Arts Council & Limerick City & County Council.

2017 Strokestown International Poetry Festival Competitions

The 2017 Strokestown International Poetry Festival Competitions are open for entries.


The closing date for the competitions has been brought forward, to facilitate the publication of a festival anthology in which poems from shortlisted entrants for the two main competitions, English and Irish, will feature alongside the work of the well known judges and other poets who will read at the 2017 festival.


Maura Dooley and Paddy Bushe will judge the Strokestown International Poetry Prize for a poem in English, which carries a prize of €2000.


Duais de hÍde, which carries a prize of €500 for a poem in Irish, will be judged by Cathal Ó Searcaigh.


Shortlisted poets for each of these competitions will also be asked to read a selection of their poems as part of the festival, and will receive a reading fee of €200.


The Percy French Prize for humorous poetry will be judged by Margaret Hickey, and the Roscommon Poets’ Prize by Jessamine O’Connor.


For details, rules and entry forms see www.strokestownpoetry.org

Deadline:  2^nd December, 2016

18th. Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

The Francis Ledwidge poetry competition is open for entries.

1st Prize is the Ledwidge plaque (a keepsake) inscribed with the winner’s name & cash prize. Cash prizes and books for Second and Third and merit certificates for finalists.

The first 3 poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK.
In addition, the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2017

Rules
Poems must be the competitor’s own work
not previously published or broadcast.
Poems should not exceed 40 lines of type
Entry fee: €4 per poem, 3 for €10.
Max. 6 poems (€20) payable to the Inchicore Ledwidge Society

Name and address and telephone number on a separate sheet.
S.A.E. or Email address for winners list. Poems will not be returned.
;
All entries must be submitted before 5th. November 2016 to
The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2016,
C/o 20, Emmet Crescent.
Inchicore, Dublin 8

Winners will be notified and results will be announced at our annual awards night enquiries 0858497531: check out our Facebook page: Inchicore Ledwidge Society

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 Flambard Poetry Prize

First prize: £1000

Second prize: £250

The Flambard Prize is awarded annually to the best group of five poems submitted by a poet who has not yet published a single-authored pamphlet or collection. Each poem should be no longer than 40 lines.

The 2016 Flambard Poetry Prize, which continues to honour the achievements of Flambard Press and the inspiration of founders Margaret and Peter Lewis. Between 1990 and 2012, Flambard Press published an acclaimed range of poetry and fiction, helping to nurture many emergent and established writers regionally and nationally. It was recognised as one of the finest small independent presses in the UK.

Fee: £5 per group of five poems.

Deadline:  31st October 2016.

Entries will be judged by Linda France and Andrew Forster.

Entries can be made via the Newcastle University WebStore or by posting hard copies to: 

Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, 

Percy Building, 

Newcastle University, 

Newcastle Upon Tyne, 

NE1 7RU

Link here

Donegal Bay & Blue Stacks Festival

I'm excited to be heading up to Donegal at the weekend to read at the Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival. It's a great line up.

Sunday Oct. 9th, Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon at 3:00 pm - €5


Poems, Songs and Stories from Elizabeth Reapy, Imelda Maguire, Anthony Glavin, Kate Dempsey, Rosie Carney and Sarah Cullen
Download the programme here- https://donegalgathering.files.wordpress.com/…/donegal_bay_…

Elizabeth (EM) Reapy’s debut novel, Red Dirt, has just been published by London publishing house, Head of Zeus. A thriller inspired by the author’s backpacking trip around Australia in 2011, the novel’s events unfold in the context of the 88 days of Outback farm-work that  backpackers, including many Irish, are required to do to qualify for a second year holiday visa.  A native of Mayo, her work is also featured in The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, as recently published by New Island Books.

Boston-born writer and editor Anthony Glavin is no stranger to the Abbey Arts Centre, having been featured in a number of the RTE Radio 1 Sunday Miscellany programmes recorded here, over the past few years. He is the author of two short story collections, One For Sorrow and The Draughtsman and The Unicorn, as well as two critically acclaimed novels, Nighthawk Alley and Colours Other Than Blue. He served as a commissioning editor for New Island Books from 1996 to 2004, for whom he edited Nuala Ó Faoláin’s  Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman and Joseph O’Connor’s The Irish Male: His Greatest Hits, among many other titles.

Kate Dempsey’s poetry is published in many journals in Ireland and the UK. She has won many awards for her work, including The Plough Prize, a Cecil Day Lewis Award, a Hennessy New Irish Writing Award shortlisting and she has had a poem nominated for the Forward Prize. She runs the Poetry Divas, ‘a glittery collective of women poets who blur the wobbly boundary between page and stage’. Her debut collection, The Space Between, was published this year by Doire Press.

Imelda Maguire’s most recent collection of poetry, Serendipity, was published last year by the Limerick Writers Centre. Born in Kildare, raised in Limerick, Imelda has lived most of her adult life in Sligo and Donegal, where she now resides. Her first collection, Shout If You Want Me To Sing, was published in 2004 by Summer Palace Press.

Rosie Carney is a singer and songwriter, originally from Hampshire, now living in Downings. Earlier this year she performed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, as part of a Culture Ireland–sponsored Irish artists showcase. A recent Burberry Acoustic video, for her song Humans, has already been viewed by over 20,000 people.

Sarah Cullen is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Carrigart. Coming from a well-known musical family, she has been a performer from a very young age. Blurring the boundaries between traditional country, jazz and blues, she has performed in the US and on mainland Europe as well as being involved in many musical projects in Ireland. Earlier this year, she travelled with Rosie Carney to the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

The London Magazine‘s Short Story Competition

The London Magazine has published short stories by some of the most well-respected literary figures over the course of long history. Our annual Short Story Competition seeks out new voices to join them. Established to encourage emerging literary talent, the award provides an opportunity for publication and recognition, as well as rewarding imagination, originality and creativity. 

The London Magazine is looking for unpublished short stories under 4,000 words from writers across the world. The story that wins first-place will be published in a future issue of The London Magazine. The second and third place stories will be published on our website. Prize winners will also be invited to a reception in early 2016.

Entry fee: £10 per short story (there is no limit to the number of entries you can submit)

Closing Date: 31st October 2016

First Prize: £500
Second Prize: £300
Third Prize: £200

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Judges: Erica Wagner, Max Porter, Angus Cargill

Read The London Magazine’s interviews with the judges here

You can enter by Submittable, link from here