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 The Prize will be awarded to an unpublished piece of writing – prose fiction, non-fiction or poetry – which best combines exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writer’s relationship with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 The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.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 The Moth Nature Writing Prize is open to anyone (over 16) as long as their piece is previously unpublished.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.

Poetry Day ireland

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! 

Ó Bhéal's poetry competition

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.

http://www.obheal.ie/blog/five-words-poetry-competition/

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/

Bangor Literary Journal Submissions

Submissions open for Bangor Literary Journal
Deadline Midnight 31st March

Poetry

• Please email your submissions to thebangorliteraryjournal@hotmail.com with the heading (SUBMISSIONS-Name-POETRY- 8th ISSUE)
• 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.

Flash Fiction Submissions:

• Please email your submissions to thebangorliteraryjournal@hotmail.com with the heading (SUBMISSIONS-Name-FLASH FICTION-8th ISSUE)
• 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.

Also Art photography and Reviews

More info here

Poetry Divas at Inaugural Meadery Sessions

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)

Seashores Haiku Submissions

The Fishing Cat Press is pleased to announce the launch of seashores an international journal to share the spirit of haiku.

The objective of seashores is to share haiku from all over the world and explore how the way and the spirit of haiku, with its power to connect us to nature and our world can play a role in poetry and our lives in general.

Editorial team: Paul Chambers (www.paulchambershaiku.com) and Gilles Fabre (Haiku Spirit) with the contribution of David Burleigh.

www.haikuspirit.org to view more information 

You are all welcome to submit a maximum of eight (8) haiku/senryu, in any combination. Essays or articles on haiku are also welcome (app. 800 words max). All copyrights to remain with the author.

The submissions deadline for issue 1 is: 30 June 2018 for publication in autumn 2018.
Send all submissions (and any request of information) to haikuspirit@haikuspirit.org
Please enter Submissions for Seashores in the email subject. Family name, first name as well as country must be included in the email body text.

We regret to advise you that no free copies of this printed journal will be offered. Only contributors whose essay/article is selected to be published will receive a free copy. Price to be confirmed but each copy will be a maximum of €10 (including postage) for the first issue (2018).

Submissions Criteria:
1. All submissions must be unpublished and not being considered elsewhere.
2. All submissions must be in English. If originally in another language, translation must be provided with the original entry (if the author is not the translator, please indicate the translator’s details and his/her consent to publication).
3. All essays and articles must be submitted in English.

Submissions Guidelines:
Haiku (and senryu) need to reflect the rules and guidelines that are generally accepted in the global haiku community. Basically, haiku in three distinct lines with good rhythm are favoured and may include a season word (kigo) or a key word, a cut (kireji, by way of style, space or the use of punctuation or other) but poems of 1, 2 or 4 lines with haiku essence and spirit will also be considered. Ultimately, submissions will be judged on quality and originality.

The North – Irish Issue

Deadline: 30 Jul 2018

Issue 61 of The North, to be published in December 2018, will be a special Irish issue, edited by poets Jane Clarke and Nessa O’Mahony. It will focus on work by poets living on the island of Ireland, or who are from Ireland but living elsewhere. 

There is no set theme for submissions, but the editors are interested in contemporary poems reflecting the cultural diversity of life in Ireland in the 21st century, and particularly welcome submissions from poets from minority communities.

Send up to four unpublished poems to thenorthirishissue@gmail.com as a word attachment and cut and past it into the body of the email. Please make sure to put your name, postal address and email address on every sheet.

The editors also intend to include reviews of collections by Irish poets published between January 2017 and end April 2018. We welcome review copies – please email thenorthirishissue@gmail.com for address.

Sand Submissions

SAND is an English-language literary journal published twice annually in Berlin. It features prose and poetry, translations, art and photography. Our contributors come from all over the world and include established and emerging writers, poets, artists, and translators.

We look for work that is fresh, well-written, accessible, and diverse, as we take pride in producing a beautiful journal that can be enjoyed by a wide audience.  We’re particularly interested in writing from perspectives that are generally underserved in literature, including work by women, people of color, people from the LGBTQ+ community, and people from the wider international writing community.

There is a good Q&A on Six Questions - a great idea for a blog!

Deadline: 6th July 2018

Link http://sandjournal.com/submit-your-work/

Mslexia submissions on the theme of cooking

Note: Open to women writers only.

Themed Writing
Twice annually we ask for themed poetry and prose submissions for the Showcase (previously New Writing) section of the magazine. Winners are selected by our Guest Editors (in the past they have included Julia Blackburn, Nicci Gerrard, Pascale Petit, Rachel Cusk and Sarah Dunant) and are published in the magazine. We also make a small payment for most submissions we publish.

We look for stories of up to 2,200 words, poems of up to 40 lines, and short scripts of up to 1,000 words (including character names and stage instructions).

Please note: we only accept up to four poems, two short stories and two short scripts per entrant.

 Issue 79: COOKING
Making a meal can be an act of love and sensual pleasure – or an act of hatred and grudging resentment. It can also be source of intense anxiety. Can I afford it? Will there be enough? Will they like it? Will it be on time? CLOSING DATE: 4 June 2018

Submitting your work
Entries are judged anonymously, so please put your name on a separate cover sheet and omit your name from your poem or story.

Or online here

Spectral Lines: Poems about Scientists

Alternating Current Press

At the intersection of science and poetry, strange things happen. There exists such a bizarre human experience and shared understanding, that we can’t help but admire and celebrate it. That’s what we’re hoping to achieve with this anthology. We want your poetry, prose poems, and hybrid work (that leans toward poetry) for an anthology of poetry about scientists. We are looking for the fundamentals of those scientists, a feeling, an atmosphere, something humanistic that breathes life into their beings, into their work. 

We are not looking for “biographies with line breaks,” and we are also not looking for poems about just science in general or “all scientists” or “all astronauts,” &c., combined. We want specific poems about specific scientists. Heavier consideration will be placed on poetry about female scientists, scientists of color, and more obscure subjects. Scientists can be dead or alive, and “scientist” is a very liberal term that can range anywhere from biologists to computer techs to inventors to chemists and beyond. Please note that we are not seeking prose for this collection. 

SUBMIT HERE. 

Because we do not want more than 2 poems about the same scientist within the same collection, once 2 poems have been accepted about the same person, we will list that scientist’s name here, and we will no longer be reading pieces about that individual (so please don’t submit them, once we are closed for them!). We are no longer looking for:

 Galileo Galilei
Marie Curie

This is a paid anthology.

There is no reading fee. We will accept approximately 40-50 poems for this collection, depending on length. 

Deadline 1st June 2018

More info here 

iota submission call

In the next issue, IOTA will explore work and play. 

Send your take on this theme. Be as oblique as you like (and they like oblique...) 

They are looking for short stories, poems, life writing, memoir, travel writing, food writing and more. These forms can be combined, played with, deconstructed and all can be completely fictive - they only ask that your writing is bold and original. To quote Emily Dickinson, "tell us all the truth, but tell it slant."

Features and essays - Email us your work

Stories - Email your short stories to us we’ll read and respond to submissions as they come in 

Poems - Email up to four poems

We will read all submissions and get back with our decisions within four weeks. Please send your work to: info@iotamagazine.co.uk

• Fiction/non-fiction submissions may range between 500 and 2000 words 

• Poems - we will consider submissions of up to four poems 

• We can’t accept work that has previously been published in print or online

• Please include your full contact details on a separate cover sheet with each submission

• The closing date for submissions is July 1st 2018

Submissions to Skylight issue 10

The lovely people at Skylight are looking for submissions.

Deadline 1 February 2018 (midnight).

Please send up to three poems, along with a short biographical note (max 60 words), to skylightpoets47@gmail.com. Work should be unpublished.
Poems to be no longer than 40 lines.

Please send your poems both as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rtf) and in the body of the email.

The editors are also looking for original artwork. We will be featuring one artist in each issue, publishing four or five pieces. If you would like to be this artist, please email your work during the submission window.

Contributors will receive one copy of the magazine.

Doire Press on Tour

Winter Warmer festival Cork

Ó Bhéal's 5th Winter Warmer festival is this weekend, with 23+ poets, films from the Ó Bhéal International poetry-film competition, poetry interpreted through dance, accompanied by music and a closed-mic set for ten local poets.

Free Admission to all events
(€5 suggested donation)

Venue: The Village Hall Patrick’s Quay, Cork

The full programme is here 

If I could go, I'd recommend Friday 24th November 10.00pm – 11.15pm Brendan Cleary & Ken Marshall, Órfhlaith Foyle, Felispeaks, Stephen James Smith

and Saturday 25th 8.30pm – 9.30pm Stephen Watts,  Billy Ramsell, Adnan Al-Sayegh

but everyone will have their preferences so do check it out.

Dublin Book Festival 2017

Dublin Book Festival 2017 is coming up fast (November 2-9th) and they have a variety of poetry-related events this year including

Lunchtime Readings: Debut Poetry Collections

With Amanda Bell, Brian Kirk and Emma McKervey in conversation with Lisa Frank (Friday 3 November, 1.00pm – 1.45pm)

Takin the Mic at DBF

With Tory Campbell, Rob Doyle, Colin Dardis and Geraldine O’Kane (Friday 3 November, 7.00pm)

Michael O’Loughlin with Dermot Bolger

(Saturday 4 November, 2.00pm – 3.00pm)

For children there is:

Hopscotch in the Sky (Age 8+)

With Lucinda Jacob and Lauren O’Neill (Sunday 4 November, 12.00pm – 12.45pm)

Coast to Coast Magazine Submissions

Issue 3 of Coast to Coast Spring issue is open for submissions

Deadline October 22nd

Coast to Coast journal is designed and created by writer Maria Isakova Bennett, and edited by herself and poet Michael Brown. an A6 stitched journal, a piece of art work and a poetry publication. Each issue is produced as a limited edition, and will contain the work of twelve poets selected during submission periods. 

Maria has combined stitch and text to create a journal which is different to conventional poetry journals and magazines that you subscribe to, resulting in a publication which is a small piece of art in itself.

Email, up to 3 poems of no more than 24 lines both as a doc and in the body of the email to Coast2journal@gmail.com Include a 50 word max bio and address for your copy.

All poets will hear the outcome of their work by November 6th.

Issue 2 of to Coast to Coast to Coast includes a wonderful list of poets. More info here 

Skylight 47 Issue 9 Submissions

The Galway based magazine goes from strength to strength. Call for submissions now for Issue 9.

Our next issue will be launched in Autumn 2017.
Deadline midnight 1 August.
Please send up to three poems, along with a short biographical note (max 60 words), to skylightpoets47@gmail.com. 

Work should be unpublished.
Poems to be no longer than 40 lines.

Please send your poems both as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rtf) and in the body of the email.

The editors are also looking for original artwork. We will be featuring one artist in each issue, publishing four or five pieces. If you would like to be this artist, please email your work during the submission window.

Contributors will receive one copy of the magazine.

The Ogham Stone 2018

The Ogham Stone is a Journal of Literature and Arts produced by the MA Students of English & Creative Writing at University of Limerick.
The 2018 issue is now accepting submissions of unpublished work from both Irish and international writers and artists. They consider fiction, poetry,  creative non-fiction, and memoir, as well as visual arts/photography.

Deadline: 5pm on Thursday 31st August 2017.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• All submissions must be emailed to oghamstoneul@gmail.com. Submissions should be attached to your email.
• All written work should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document (set in Times New Roman, 12 point). The file name should be your surname and initial(s) (e.g.  Smith J).
• Please indicate in the subject line of the email what category your submission falls into (poetry, fiction, CNF etc).
• Include a 150-word biography in the body of the email, along with a contact email address. 
• Authors and artists are asked to submit pieces of work separately for each category (i.e. one email containing a poem, another for prose).
• Individuals may submit up to 4 pieces in total but may submit across all categories.
• Prose must not exceed 2,000 words in length.
• Poetry should be submitted in the format in which you wish it to appear on the page; individual poems should not exceed 50 lines.
• We cannot accept work that has been previously published (including on personal blogs) and prefer not to receive work currently being reviewed elsewhere

Link here

O'Bheal

Upcoming Events for June and July 2017

(scroll down for full details -the online version is here.)

Stephanie Conn and Simon Lewis – 5th June
Matthew Caley – 12th June
Jo Slade – 19th June
Linda Ibbotson and Sarah Byrne – 26th June
Maria McManus – 3rd July
Didi Jackson & Major Jackson – 10th July
in association with Foras na Gaeilge  Celia De Fréine – 17th July
Cork-Coventry Twin Cities Poetry Exchange  Andrea Mbarushimana and Russ Berry – 24th July
Mary O’Malley – 31st July

Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.

The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting at around 9.30pm. Guest poets begin after 10.00pm