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 The Prize will be awarded to an unpublished piece of writing – prose fiction, non-fiction or poetry – which best combines exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writer’s relationship with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 The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.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 The Moth Nature Writing Prize is open to anyone (over 16) as long as their piece is previously unpublished.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

Cill Rialaig residency submissions

The deadline for the next selection precession is 15 September.

Cill Rialaig Project invite applications for residency awards at their artist retreat on Bolus Head, near Ballinskelligs, County Kerry.

Selection panel sits twice yearly.

Please email Mary O’Connor at cillriakaigarts@gmail.com for official application pack.

www.facebook.com/CillRialaigArtsCentre/

Cold Coffee Cup Spoken Word

Westport Arts Festival 2017 are running a spoken word segment, open for submissions and open to both emerging and established creators and performers.

Since its launch this past April, Cold Coffee Stand has showcased new work by poets and authors both Irish and international.  

http://www.westportartsfestival.com/spoken-word

Guidelines

• Submissions should run no more than 10 minutes of performance time per piece.  
• Performers can submit up to three entries.
• The Cold Coffee selection panel and guest judge Roberta Beary (Modern Haiku) will consider spoken word in any genre (poetry, prose, rap, theatre), provided it is the work of a single performer and does not exceed the time limit.
• The first entry will cost €10, for two entries the cost is €15 and €20 for three. 
• Closing date for submissions is Sunday September 10th.

A shortlist of five finalists will be announced on Thursday 14th September. The finalists must be available to perform their submitted work in Westport on Friday September 29 at the inaugural Cold Coffee Cup Spoken Word Night at the Gallery Wine Bar at 8pm.

Upload your details on the Westport Arts Festival's online form, submit the links to your video submission and pay your entry fee and fill in the form!

Links should be to your own website or to a publicly accessible format on a video hosting site such as Vimeo or Youtube. 

All submissions, short-listed or otherwise, will be published and promoted by Cold Coffee Stand alongside their regular programming of poetry and short fiction: http://coldcoffeestand.com/coldcoffeecup/


The best received performance on the night will be awarded a €500 cash prize.

Bailieborough Poetry Competition

This year’s judge is Patrick Chapman

Closing date for entries is Friday September 1st 

First prize of €300 for winning poem.

Each poem must not exceed 50 lines, and should be typed, single-spaced.

The competition is open to anybody who has reached their 18th birthday by the closing date of the competition.

Up to three poems may be submitted per entry. You may submit as many entries as you wish. A fee of €5 per poem or 3 poems for €10 is payable.  

See link for submissions details

All shortlisted poems will be featured at a reading at Bailieborough Poetry Festival in October 2017, and authors will be invited to attend. If the author is unable to attend the short-listed poem will be read by a LitLab member. The winner will be announced at that reading and will be published on the website.

Glebe House poetry competition

The third Glebe House poetry competition is now open for submissions.

Glebe House, for more than forty years, has been offering cross community rural retreats for young people in Kilclief County Down.

This year's judge for the competition is Emma Wright, founder of the Emma Press, one of the most energetic breakthrough publishing endeavours of recent years.

  

Poems submitted should be 40 lines or less. 

Entry fee is £10 for the first poem and £5 for each poem after that 

Prizes are 1. £200, 2. £100 and 3. £50.

The theme for this year's competition is Trust.

Deadline 1st September

Details of how to enter the competition this year are available at http://www.glebehousepoetry.com/

Hanna Greally International Literary Awards 2017

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	SiarScéal Festival 2017 20-21 October, Roscommon Town literary festival inspired by the culture and heritage of County Roscommon, in the heart of Ireland Contact Us: enquiries@siarsceal.com Website: www.SiarSceal.com
SiarScéal Festival 2017 - including Hanna Greally International Literary Awards -
SiarScéal Festival 2017, which includes the Hanna Greally International Literary Awards ceremony, will take place over Friday and Saturday, 20-21 October at Roscommon County Library HQ from 10am to 4.30pm, including a break for lunch. Presentations will be followed by readings and an open mike session, giving opportunities to participants who would like to showcase their work in a public setting. This will take place on the Saturday. There will a special presentation for winners in the student categories on Friday, 20 October. Hanna Greally International Literary Awards 2017 Entries now being accepted Competition Theme Beneath Western Skies Prizes Overall Prize winner will receive a publishing package from The Manuscript Publisher, valued at €2000 A cash prize of €700 will be awarded to recipient of 1st Prize Trophy prizes will be awarded to Highly Commended entries in the various categories (poetry, prose/short stories) Beneath Western Skies anthology will be published from this year's school entries. Competition Rules of Entry Poetry not more than 100 lines and short story/prose not to extend beyond 2000 words. Entries submitted must be typed and titled, accompanied by entrant's name written on a separate page. The judges' decision is final. Competition Entry Fee €10 for up to three entries. Entries may include poetry and/or prose. Deadline: 1 September, 2017.  They can be submitted online or sent to: Mary Butler, a/County Librarian, Roscommon County Council Library Services, Abbey Street, Roscommon Cheques, postal orders should be made payable to SiarScéal Festival Group. Payments by credit/debit card may be made via PayPal – see Competitions page for details.

Heinrich Böll Residency on Achill Island

The Heinrich Böll cottage in Dugort, Achill has been in use as a residency for artists and writers since 1992.

The Residency at the Böll Cottage is designed to achieve the following;
– To provide a secluded and private environment for writers and Artists to do their work, a space where artists can be away from their usual environment and routine, in a place conducive to their needs, and to producing high quality work.
– To provide access for the resident island community to high quality, professional standard, cultural and artistic events. This is achieved through readings and exhibitions – visits to local schools etc, organised in a manner which does not distract the resident artist from their main creative work, while at the cottage.
– To build on the existing tradition and reputation of Achill island as an area of interest to writers and artists. The residency attracts interest from professional artists from an international base – hence focusing on the island as an area of cultural and artistic interest.

– To have an appropriate memorial to Heinrich Böll on Achill island. The residency, by providing support for artists, is a living, growing and creative way to celebrate the work and achievement of Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll. This project, in memory of Heinrich Böll, makes available a real tangible support structure for creative artists, and is therefore a most appropriate memorial to this important writer.

Link here

Deadline: 30th September

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. 

Stanzas Seeks Submissions

Solstice Sounds is an online magazine. It's open until 31st October for submissions of Music, Poetry, Spoken Word and Experimental Sounds.

Find out more at stanzas.ie/solstice

Stanzas also do chapbooks, more experimental than many. They say

"Our Chapbooks this month are going to be a little different. We're taking the idea of Washed Up to its logical extreme and are literally going to make it look washed up!

"So to be a part of this mad endeavour, send your poetry, prose or artwork to stanzas.limerick@gmail.com.

Deadline 7th September

Keep an eye on their facebook, instagram and twitter for more

Abridged 0 – 48: Mercury Red Submission call

The submission calls for Abridged magazine, a poetry and art publication, are always a good read.

This is the age of the inspirational. We wake up each morning to a torrent of messages on social media informing us that if we ‘be ourselves’ and ‘believe in ourselves’ we can achieve the impossible. Transformation will be quick and painless. A screen full of medicine men (and women) selling easy answers with beautiful backdrops. Conversely when we do achieve something there are legions of ‘trolls’ ready to lay siege to us. The age of the inspirational is an age of extremes. Love is public and anger is quick to surface. We search for the impossible and when it can’t be found we want to scorch the earth. Our loves, our hates, are quick. Our fear is now public domain.

This fear remains in the ether, an indistinct agent in our psychological lives, both invisible and disturbing as hypothetical warfare. When we feel under attack it solidifies and we name it.  It is in naming the thing that should be feared that it comes into focus, even merely as mirage or red herring. By naming it, mythologizing it, adorning it with colours and connotations so as to turn it into a child’s villain, we cast it from ourselves and make it temporarily stable enough to identify: a tangible enemy.  A named fear is a catalyst for all that frightens, within and beyond ourselves. Telling a story of good and evil, of black and white masks the problematic complexity of these qualities incestuous and changeful relationship. Light can obscure as much as darkness, and on each the other depends for definition.

Red Mercury is a mythical explosive. Abridged in 0 – 48: Mercury Red explores our need for immediate public affirmation, our virtual emotional lives and our search for the impossible personally and as a society then the anger when we realise our Nirvana is unattainable. 

Submissions may be up to three poems and can be sent to abridged@ymail.com preferably in Word format or as part of the email. Art should be up to A4 landscape in size and 300 dpi or above. 

Please note this is a landscape format issue rather than our usual portrait. 

Deadline is 23rd September.

Cornwall Contemporary Poetry Festival Open Poetry Competition 2016

Prizes: 1st prize: £600    2nd prize: £150    3rd prize: £50

Entry fee: £5 per poem, £3 per poem thereafter

Closing date: 3 September, 2016

Judge: Alison Brackenbury. The judge will read all poems submitted to the competition. There will be no sifting of entries.

Poems must be typed and no longer than 40 lines

Fee £5 for the first poem and £3 for each additional entry

More information here

Writing for Mslexia magazine

Mslexia is a great writing magazine committed to promoting women writers. So yes, you have to be a woman to submit.

Mslexia magazine was recently redesigned to widen the  range of submission opportunities. Whether it’s just one sentence about your life, or an entire 2,200-word short story, a rollicking rhyme to read aloud to children or a carefully-crafted villanelle, there's lots in the list below to choose from.

All submission slots are completely free to enter, and they welcome work from both published and unpublished women writers.

Here’s what we’re seeking for our December 2016 issue:

OPEN SUBMISSIONS
The following opportunities are open to all women writers, regardless of whether you subscribe to Mslexia (though subscriptions work out at just £2 per month, posting to a UK address). Except where stated, they pay (modestly) for everything they publish.

Secret fantasy
This is the next theme of the special ‘Showcase’ section – pages dedicated to stories up to 2,200 words and/or poems up to 40 lines, this time on the topic of erotic passion. Requited or unrequited, chaste or salacious, enacted or simply longed for, take a walk on the wild side of your romantic imagination. (Deadline: 5 September 2016)

Rhyme story
Many picture books for children have, at their heart, a narrative in the form of a rhyming text. Send rhyming texts of up to 200 words (preferably fewer), that tell a story to read aloud to a small child. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

First page surgery
Please submit the title and first page of your novel (any genre, up to 300 words). Our guest industry expert will comment, in the magazine, about how it might be changed to catch an agent’s or editor’s eye. If you’re feeling shy, you’re welcome to use a pseudonym. This is an unpaid slot. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

Confession
A memoir piece about something you were (or are now, in retrospect) deeply ashamed of (up to 300 words). (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

Pitch perfect
Send a ‘pitch’ (pithy description) for a writing project you’re planning to submit to an agent, editor or producer. The project might be a novel, memoir, biography, theatre play or screenplay, but your word limit is 100. The guest industry expert will suggest ways of making it spark the interest of the people you need to impress. If you’re feeling shy, you’re welcome to use a pseudonym. This is an unpaid slot, but the most recent pitch featured in the magazine resulted in the author finding an agent. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

Life sentence
One sentence only, of no more than 25 words, describing an interesting (or poignant, or bizarre, or traumatic, or uplifting) event your recent writing life. There’s publication, and a credit, but no payment for these. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

D is for…
A piece of creative non-fiction inspired by an alphabetic prompt (e.g. ‘H is for hawk’). Up to 300 words. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

Self-publishing survivors
Do you have a tale to tell about your self-publishing experience? We want to interview people who are prepared to share their triumphs, trials and tribulations – and their advice for fellow travellers. Please send a brief outline. We will contact you directly if we decide to interview you for the magazine. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)

Hindsight
Up to 200 words, in second person, of advice to your younger self, based on your later experience of creativity and life – that might benefit fellow writers today. (Deadline: 11 October 2016)


To submit your work, visit our website and use the online form, or email submissions@mslexia.co.uk. 

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

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.

The Manchester Poetry Prize

Deadline: 23 September 2016
Prizes: £10,000

Entry fee is £17.50, 
£10,000 prize for the best portfolio of three to five poems (maximum combined length: 120 lines). Open internationally to new and established writers aged 16 or over (no upper age limit).

Link here

This is a huge prize and possibly only goes to one person so you takes your chances.

Submissions for anthology of LGBT writing

The Limerick Writers’ Centre is seeking submissions for a new anthology of LGBT writing. The anthology, entitled “It’s a Queer City All the Same – An Anthology of LGBT Writing in Limerick”, will be published late October 2015.

We welcome all writers to submit as long as you or your character identify as LGBT. This anthology will feature poetry, prose, essays and more, and will hope to explore the queer experience of Limerick life. We are looking for work that is sensitive, brave, irreverent, and humorous; above all we want writing that is original, fresh, innovative and varied – work that embodies the strength of the region’s queer talent, covering themes and issues relevant to the LGBT community, but relatable to all.

Link here

Deadline: Friday 18th Sept 2015

Bailieborough Poetry Prize

The Baileborough poetry prize is open for submissions.

Deadline:Friday 25th September 2015

First prize of €250 for winning poem with a 2nd prize also to be awarded.
There will also be a special prize this year for a local entrant domiciled in Cavan or Meath.
Each poem must not exceed 50 lines, and should be typed, single-spaced.

Up to three poems may be submitted per entry. 

A fee of €5 per poem or 3 poems for €10 is payable.

The judging panel this year is Michael Farry and Honor Duff

All shortlisted poems will be featured at a reading at Bailieborough Poetry Festival on Saturday 10th October 2015, and authors will be invited to attend. Also at the festival are visiting poets Niamh Boyce, Tony Curtis and Patsy McDermott. The venues will include the town library in the old Market Square and local bars and restaurants.

Link here

You can also have a look at last year's shortlisted poems here

September Freestyle Writing Contest

No Entry Fee!
Word limit: 600
Deadline: SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
Submissions: email to
brilliantflashfiction@gmail.com

Prizes: 
50 euro first prize (or equivalent amount in your currency)
25 euro second prize
15 euro third prize

Glenn A. Bruce

Contest Judge: Glenn A. Bruce

Glenn says: We are looking for your most interesting, creative, soulful writing. Take some chances. Move us.

No poetry, please. No erotica or hardcore genre stuff like alien steampunk zombies or speculative transgressive comic noir. Other than that, have fun and surprise us!

You may enter as often as you like. No simultaneous submissions for this contest.

All entries must be original and unpublished elsewhere. This means submissions that have been accepted for publication anywhere else, including anywhere on the internet, blogs, personal web pages, etc., are not eligible. Entries of more than 600 words or entries found to be published anywhere else will be immediately disqualified. Good luck and good writing!

All winning entries (including shortlisted stories) will be published in the September issue of Brilliant Flash Fiction. Link here

The Hudson Review Short Story Competition.

As with all such submission calls, I strongly recommend reading a few issues before submitting.

For a special fiction issue, The Hudson Review is sponsoring a short story competition. First prize is $500, second and third are $250 each. 10,000 words and under.
Deadline: 1st September

No submission fee.

Please submit hard copies (with a self-addressed, stamped envelope) to:

The Hudson Review
33 W. 67th St.
New York, NY 10023

Note: If you would like to hear back from us via email, please include your email address with your story.
Link here

Short Film Commission Scheme

Submit a story idea; the best three ideas will be selected and receive a prize of €500 each. These three writers will also be mentored by an experienced script editor to bring their idea from a story outline to a finished script. One script will then be selected and the winning script will be made into a short film.

Entry Fee: 25 euro

Deadline: September 4th, 2015

Manager of Galway Film Centre, Declan Gibbons adds “We’re delighted to be collaborating with RTÉ on a new short film initiative and to be doing so under our new UNESCO Galway City of Film banner. We’re also really happy with our directors mentoring panel where emerging talent will get the benefit of such a wealth of experience of directing talent. Galway Film Fleadh are also on board and have agreed to have the finished film shown in competition in next year’s festival so this is a terrific opportunity for young writers and directors to cut their teeth.”

RTÉ’s Drama Development Executive David Crean said “ we’ve ring-fenced a total budget of €23,000 for this project to cover both the prizes, mentoring process and the production process. This gives us a healthy budget to work from and we really want to spend time finding and nurturing new writing and directing talent and to bring them through a supportive process to get the best results possible. We’ve spent a good bit of time developing this with Galway Film Centre and so it’s great to be announcing it now.” Around 65% of this €23,000 will become the production budget once all other costs are covered.

Details on the Link here.