The Magma 2020/21 Poetry Competition is now open for entries in both
categories, the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines and the Editors’
Prize for poems of up to 10 lines. Award-winning poet Theresa Lola is the
judge for the Judge’s Prize here are no sifters. The Editors’ Prize is judged
by a panel of Magma Editors. The prize money for both competitions is the same,
so double your chances and try your luck at both. First prize for the Judge’s
and Editors’ Prize is £1000,
second prize £300
and third prize £150.
The six prize-winning poems will be published in Magma and there will also be
five special mentions for the Judge’s Prize and for the Editors’ Prize. Winning
and commended poets will be invited to read their poems at a Magma Competition
Event in Spring 2021.
We are all deeply saddened to
learn of the death of poet Derek Mahon. His influence in the Irish poetry
community, literary world and society at large, and his legacy, is immense.
Derek, who died in Cork following a short illness, was one of Ireland’s
leading poets, a member of Aosdána and a highly accomplished
translator. Born in Belfast in 1941, he spent time living in
Dublin while studying at Trinity College and subsequently lived in France, the
US, Canada and London before settling in Ireland again.
Chair of Poetry Ireland, Ciarán Benson, said, “In the loss of Derek Mahon, Ireland, and the world of
poetry, has lost an outstanding voice, one that ranged over the wide
territories of contemporary life, both personal and natural. He effortlessly
framed and clarified centrally important ideas and longings and gifted them
back to us in a beautiful and rich body of work. His influence will continue to
grow.”
Director of Poetry Ireland, Niamh O’Donnell, said that Derek’s legacy in
the poetry world is very keenly felt.
“Derek was an extraordinarily brilliant poet. A gifted and noble observer of our world and one of that generation of outstanding poets from
Northern Ireland who rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. His legacy to us is an
incredible body of work, full of hard-earned insight and wisdom, including so
many touchstone poems that will continue to resonate with people all over the
world for generations to come.”
One of Derek Mahon’s poems, ‘Everything Is Going To Be All
Right’, has been a beacon of solace
during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Derek will be remembered for so many of his insightful poems, including
‘A Disused Shed in County Wexford’ which he referred to as "that one"!
also ‘Beyond Howth Head’ and ‘A Refusal to Mourn’ and many more. His many honours
include the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry (1990), The Irish Times-Aer Lingus
Poetry Prize (1991), the Scott Moncrieff
Translation Prize and the David Cohen Prize
for Literature (2007). In 2019, his collection Against the Clock won him the
Irish Times Poetry Now award, his third time receiving the award.
At the time, Bernard O’Donoghue said on behalf of the judges that the
book was “driven by an unfailing poetry energy” and that “All we can say is
that the other five writers on the shortlist were unfortunate to be in
competition with Derek Mahon, one of the great poets of our time, at the top of
his form.”
Derek’s poems were featured many times in Poetry Ireland Review – his poem ‘Quarantine’ is a stand-out in the latest issue – and his work was often reviewed in the Poetry IrelandJournal.
Reviewing Derek’s most recent collection, Against the Clock, in the Review, Nicholas Grene wrote: “But wonderfully, for a poet who has
so often written out of a troubled life, there is a sense in many of these
poems of someone at peace with himself…Against the Clock is indeed the collection of a great poet, and we have
every reason to be grateful for it.”
Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Derek’s partner Sarah
Iremonger and his children Rory, Katy and Maisie, along with all of his
extended family, friends and comrades.
Every Tuesday at midday (UTC) from 14th April 2020 – 26th January 2021, five words are posted on this competition page.
Entrants will have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week.
Prize
A prize of 750 euros will be awarded to the winner, plus 500 euros for second place and 250 euros for third place. These three, if available will be invited to read at Ó Bhéal’s fourteenth anniversary event, on Monday the 12th of April 2021. An additional travel fee of 100 euro plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this. The overall winner also receives a physical award, hand-crafted by acclaimed glass artist (and poet) Michael Ray.
The shortlisted poems and winning entry will also be published in Five Words Vol XIV – the next annual anthology of five word poems, to be launched at the same event. A shortlist of twelve poems including the overall winner will be announced by the first week of March 2021.
Get writing –
the Trócaire Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition is open until 12 June
Adults and children alike can get creative and enter a poem or poems to the
Trócaire Poetry Ireland Poetry Competition.
The competition takes place annually and
uses the arts to raise awareness about the leading global justice issues of our
time. The deadline has been extended until 12 June, with the competition open
to published and unpublished poets.
Adults and children, through their
schools, can enter the competition. Poems in English or Irish are welcome in
all six categories, with spoken word pieces actively encouraged as well as
poems.
The competition is always free to enter
The attractive prizes on offer include for
the adult categories: a choice of a two-week stay at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig,or a tablet or time in arecording studio to the value of €300 (for spoken word
poets) plus a year’s subscription to Poetry Ireland Review.
Winners of the post-primary and primary
categories win a Kindle Fire plus a visit by an author to the winner’s school
(to be scheduled post-Covid 19 restrictions).
This year, the competition explores the
theme ‘Standing Her Ground’, inspired by the extraordinary stories of
hardworking women who are holding their families together, battling enormous
odds, including threats like violence, intimidation and drought, to provide
food for their children and are battling to keep their children, and the earth,
safe from harm.
Poets of all ages are encouraged to
explore the theme, from a local to global perspective. Each year, the winning
poems are published in booklet form and presented to the winners at an awards
ceremony.
Fingal Poetry Festival, which will take place from Sept 4th – 6th 2020 in lovely Skerries, are delighted to announce the Inaugural Fingal Poetry Prize.
Our judge is esteemed poet and writer, Mary O’Donnell
Deadline 30th June
First Prize €500
Second €300
Third €200
Five additional short-listed poets will also be invited to read at an awards ceremony in Skerries and receive a reading fee of €100 each.
Our generous sponsor for the Fingal Poetry Prize 2020 is DHL Ireland.
For rules and details of how to enter please visit https://poetryatskerriesmills.com
Because I am so good to you, here are the highlights
Entry fee is €6 per poem. Paypal.
Poems must not exceed 40 lines and be the original work of a living writer
All entries must be submitted, on one continues document, as an attachment to poetryatskerriesmills@gmail.com with the title: Competition Submission as your Subject Header.
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.
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.
Poetry Day Ireland 2020, takes place on Thursday 30 April. Everyone is invited to join in and celebrate poetry’s very special place in Irish culture – traditional and new.
This year’s theme is ‘There will be time’. Time is universal in all of our lives. Whether we’re looking to the past, living in the ‘here and now’ or pondering what our future will look like.
If you’re thinking about organising a Poetry Day event but are wondering where to begin, Poetry Ireland will be hosting an Information Session in its Dublin city centre base on Tuesday 14 January at 6.30pm. Everyone is welcome to come along and learn more about planning and promoting an event for Poetry Day, with useful tips on event management, social media promotion and lots more.
Almost 150 poetry-related events took place on Poetry Day Ireland last year, in libraries, bookshops, arts centres, schools, hotels, nightclubs, bars, cafes and street corners from Kerry to Derry. Everyone is invited to join in and celebrate and we welcome all events and activities, large or small!
The iYeats International
Poetry Competition 2019 is now open for entries! Hosted by Hawk’s Well Theatre since
2009, the annual event has won a prestigious reputation for the calibre of
both entrants, and judges.
The competition is open to all those who are sixteen
years of age and upwards, with an prize of €500 for the winner of the General
Category, and €300 is awarded to the winner of the Emerging Category for those aged
between 16-25 years of age.
Launched a decade ago, the poetry
competition was initiated by the Hawk's Well Theatre to mark the 50th Yeats
International Summer School, and the 70th anniversary of the death of W. B
Yeats.
Following in the tradition of the previous years’
lauded panels, the judges for this year’s iYeats Poetry Competition are highly
respected poet John F. Deane, and spoken word artistRafeef Ziadah.
Reflecting the truly global impact of the
competition, 2018’s winning entry ‘New York, It Had a Ring To It’ was written
by Sighle Meehan
from Galway, while the emerging category saw ‘Helen’ by Sarah Ang of Singapore, take
the top prize. All the previous award-winning poems are available to read on
the Hawk’s Well Theatre’s website.
The closing
date for entries into the 2019 iYeats International Poetry Competition is Wednesday
3rd July, at 11am (GMT). As this is an online poetry competition, entrants can
visit the Hawk’s Well website for further information on the competition terms
and conditions and to upload and submit their entries.
7th Ó Bhéal International Five Words Poetry Competition
At around noon each Tuesday (GMT), from April 2019 to the end of January 2020, five words are posted on the Ó Bhéal Five Words competition page. Entrants have one week to compose and submit poems that include all five words given for the week.
The competition runs for 41 weeks, until the last week of January and a prize of 500 euro is awarded to one winner, and if available, invited to read at Ó Bhéal’s anniversary event in early April (an additional travel fee of 100 euro plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this). Follow the link for submission guidelines.
Prizes for this year’s Adult Poetry Competition are: 1st
prize €250, 2nd prize €75 and 3rd prize €50. Winners will
be announced at our Padraic Colum Commemorative Concert on Friday, May 17th
– all welcome!
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:
Submit a maximum of two previously unpublished poems (We consider it published if it has appeared on: social media, online or in print) no longer than 40 lines long.
Submit a maximum of two previously unpublished pieces of flash fiction (We consider it published if it has appeared on: social media, online or in print) no longer than 200 words long.
Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is seeking entries again for its
annual poetry competition. The poetry competition is run in conjunction with
the Poems For Patience series as part of Cúirt International Festival of
Literature which runs from April 8th – 14th in Galway.
Deadline: Friday
February 22nd.
The prize as part of the annual poetry competition includes: the winner
will have his/her poem published and displayed on the Arts Corridor of
University Hospital Galway as part of the 2019 Poems For Patience series.
The poems, after exhibition on the Arts Corridor,
are then displayed in waiting areas throughout Galway University Hospitals.
The
winner will also be invited to read his or her winning poem at the launch of
the 2019 Poems For Patience at Cúirt International Festival of Literature in
April 2019; given a copy of their poem printed and framed as a Poem for
Patience poster and invited to submit six poems for consideration to be a
Featured Reader at the Over The Edge: Open Reading series in Galway City
Library.
The aim of Poems for Patience is to provide access to poetry for patients, their families, staff, visitors and the wider hospital community. Waiting areas are used by patients and their loved ones on a daily basis, in outpatient clinics, going for scans, x-rays and other tests as inpatients.
The competition judge
is Kevin Higgins.
Poems entered in the competition should be no more than 32 lines long. ENTRY FEE
To enter one poem the fee is €10. If you enter two or more poems the entry fee is €7.50 per poem i.e. to enter two poems it costs €15, to enter three poems €22.50 and so on.
“The world of John O’Connor is a world
of the freshly snedded turnip, the new-sawn plank, the sod shining under the
plough. His gift is to render the life of the Mill Row in Armagh as deftly and
definitively as Steinbeck renders Cannery Row or Bob Dylan Desolate Row”
Paul Muldoon
The festival, sponsored and supported
by internationally renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Paul Muldoon, has a
two-fold purpose. It aims to to celebrate and commemorate the life and works of
John O’Connor as well as offering practical guidance and assistance to aspiring
writers through its workshops and master classes in the various literary genres
and writing for commercial purposes.
Entries are currently invited from aspiring
writers for the third John O’Connor Short Story Competition. It is being held
to commemorate the Armagh born writer whose impressive literary legacy includes
a collection of short stories which still retain a timeless appeal.
Prize
The prize winner will be awarded a
full bursary to attend the John O’ Connor Writing School and Literary Arts
Festival which will be held in Armagh from 1st to 4th
November, 2018, plus a cash prize of £250. The bursary prize allows
the recipient to enjoy all events in the John O’Connor Writing School and
Literary Festival 2018, and to attend one class in the writing genre of his/her
choice. The winner will be notified by 2 October.
The winning entrant will be formally
announced at the opening of the Writing school on Friday 2nd November, and will
have the opportunity to read at an event on Sunday 4th November
2018. Single room accommodation will be available free of charge to the winning
entrant.
Ts & Cs
The competition is open to those 16
years and over. Short stories must be the original work of the author and not
previously published or have received awards in other competitions. Entries
must be in English and between 1,800 and 2,000 words in length.
There is an
entry fee of £10. One entry per person.
Submit your entry online by 12.00
noon on 28 August 2018.
As part of the Kinsale Arts Weekend, the Poetry Divas will be bringing their poetry to the inaugural Meadery Sessions in Kinsale Mead Co. And there will be some super music two from Clonakilty musician and singer Chris Hayes.
An evening of local music, poetry and mead, as part of the Kinsale Arts Weekend. Hosted by Kinsale Mead Co, this is the first in-house event and is sure to be a celebration of talent from around West Cork topped off with a selection of meads fermented in the very meadery in which the event is taking place.
Performing at the inaugural Meadery Sessions at Kinsale Meadery. Poets: Kate Dempsey, Maeve O'Sullivan, Niamh Bagnell & Amanda Bell of the Poetry Divas. Musician: Chris Hayes
With mead tastings! a
Where: Kinsale Mead Co, 5 Barrack Lane, Kinsale (behind Lidl)
When: Friday 20th July 6:30pm
Free in (bucket for donations)
Poetry Divas bring their poems to the West Cork Literary Festival on Monday in the wonderful Organico café. Blurring the wobbly boundary between page and stage.
An afternoon of poetry and mead with the Poetry Divas. The Poetry Divas are a glittery collective of women poets who read their own poetry tailored to the event and audience. They promise a deliciously infectious show that’s bound to touch a nerve and blur the wobbly boundary between page and stage.
Maeve O'Sullivan is a ninja of vaious poetic forms including the haiku and has published four collections with Alba Publishing. Amanda Bell’s debut poetry collection First the Feathers (Doire Press 2018) was shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award. Kate Dempsey makes mead and writes poetry; her debut collection The Space Between (Doire Press 2016) had a poem commended for the Forward Poetry Prize.
We’re inviting you to send us a poem that deals with any aspects of the Brexit process. We're not interested in whether you are for or against leaving the EU but it’s about how you’ve put the poem together: your use of language, rhythm, sound, imagery, etc. We want to be touched, inspired or even frustrated by your poem. The actual word Brexit does not have to appear, but the poem needs to be inspired by Brexit, for example by throwing a new light on being in or out of the EU, or by expressing something that hasn’t been voiced before, but make sure to stay away from clichés.
Prize: £200 and publication in the Holland Park Press online magazine
Length: 50 lines or less
Entry fee: none
Deadline: 31 December 2018
Eligibility: poems written in English by writers over 18 from any country To submit: email your poem as a Word, Text or PDF attachment to submissions@hollandparkpress.co.uk Organizer: Holland Park Press Webpage: complete guidelines are available from https://www.hollandparkpress.co.uk/magazine_detail.php?magazine_id=459&language=English
SurVision
Magazine (http://survisionmagazine.com)
hosts the chapbook contest open to new, emerging and established poets from any
country writing in English. We prefer innovative, experimental, surrealistic
poetry to mainstream. To learn more about our preferences in poetry, please
read SurVision Magazine.
Prizes: 1st Prize: €200; 2nd Prize:
€100.
Both
winners of the James Tate Prize will win a chapbook publication and 20
complimentary copies.
We
will also arrange the winning poets' reading in Dublin.
Up
to ten finalists will be publicly listed as "highly commended". Finalists
may be offered publication at SurVision Books' discretion.
All
the poems must be the original work of the entrant. Manuscripts can be between
20 and 29 pages of poetry in length, in the English language. This does not
include the table of contents, title page and the list of acknowledgements, if
any.
Prose poems and translations of poetry are also eligible; all translations
must be accompanied by the same work in the original language.
Individual
poems may be previously published.
There is an entrance fee of €18 for each
manuscript.
The winners will be selected by the editor of SurVision
Magazine.
They
will be offered for sale internationally through our own website and in
selected independent book sellers.
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