Is it just me?

Is it just me or is this another one of the really expensive for no apparent reason type of workshops? I find this new proliferation worrying. And who has the dosh? Not me.

Maybe we should start up a workshop of poor, starving in a garrett (sp?) writers, committed to their writing, who meet once a week somewhere nice for 6 months and work on their novel/poetry collection/short stories. There are specialist talks for small amounts of dosh all year round if you look.

The Stinging Fly is looking for writers in the early stages of writing a novel, for their upcoming workshop at the Irish Writers' Centre, who feel they will benefit from a relationship with a group of others engaged in the same process.

The group (of no more than 10 writers) will meet once a week in a workshop setting over a 6 month period. A serious long-term commitment from all participants is required. The ultimate aim is for each participant to complete a strong first draft of her/his novel.

Alongside the workshops, on one Saturday every month, there will be a series of specialist talks on issues around the process of writing and the imagination. The workshop and group discussions will be overseen by the writer Sean O'Reilly.

See here for more details.

The cost of workshop €1,500 and will start on 12 October.

Presuming Sean O'Reilly and the specialist presenters don't get €9-15,000 between them, where does the money go?

Plans

Maybe if I write them down, I'm more likely to adhere to some of them.

- Send out more poems, particularly to UK magazines. Plus I haven't sent to Poetry Ireland in a while and I'm sure they're missing me. Once I'm rejected from the Stingy Fly (reading from now to 31st March but they always reject me, bah) I'll start sending out. Any suggestions? Preferably paying.

- Apply for bursaries from whoever is out there for writing, arts council in April, County Council, anywhere else? Again, money is so tight. I have to pay for my writing retreat with something. For writers, it's time that costs. And that's harder to itemise for your average grant.

More later.

The SHOp

The Shop is a lovely poetry magazine published John and Hilary Wakeman in Skeagh, Schull, Co. Cork.

Each issue of THE SHOp contains work by established poets, both Irish and foreign, and also poems by talented newcomers, some of them never previously published. The magazine will consider poems in any form, on any subject, though not if they reflect racial or gender bias. THE SHOp has pioneered the practice of grouping together poems on similar themes. A group of half a dozen poems on the subject of love, say, or death, demonstrates the variety of human response to universal experiences, and also the variety of formal methods available to poets.

Regretably they lost out on significant funding this year and the Arts Council has warned them that 2009 will see 'a significant reduction' in their grant. We really shouldn't let this quality magazine flounder.

They have a lovely website but unfortunately, they do not have a way of subscribing (or donating) online. You have to print off a form and post it. How bizarre. I'm personally much more likely to donate or subscribe to something if I can do it in a click or two. See Stingy Fly for how it's done. It's really easy to add a paypal account to a website.

Anyway, if you have time, a printer, a chequebook and a stamp, if you've ever submitted to them , been published (or rejected) by them, I recommend a subscription. It's also on sale in lots of good shops.

Succour submissions

A new one for me.

Deadline: 20 August 2008

Succour publishes in the UK and Ireland's new fiction, poetry and art. Editors in London, Manchester, Brighton, Exeter and Dublin are committed to seeking out and publishing the very best new writing - original and ambitious not clichéd or self-indulgent

The theme for the Autumn/Winter 2008/2009 issue will be Icons. Potential contributors are invited to respond to the title in as wilful or oblique a manner as they desire.

Please send your work in Word or Rich Text format documents, with a limit of 3,500 words (fiction) or 250 lines (poetry), to new Dublin editor Christodoulos Makris at succourdublin@gmail.com.

Again, they recommend you read a copy first. In Dublin, Succour is available from Books Upstairs, The Winding Stair and the IFI Bookshop or online.

And is you want to see what type of writing made it into the Stinging Fly:

There'll be a reading from the summer issue of The Stinging Fly on Thursday July 24th in the Winding Stair Bookshop, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin 1 (across from the Ha'penny Bridge).

Grace Wells, the featured poet in the summer issue, will read alongside fiction writers Jennifer Brady and Orlaith O'Sullivan and poets Richard W. Halperin and Paul Perry.

The reading is at 7 p.m — all are welcome!

Stinging Fly Submissions

The Stinging Fly is accepting submissions until 31st March. They say:

We are looking for writers who have something to say, and who have taken the time to say it well. We've a particular interest in promoting the short story form.

Send to: The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 8. Include an SAE or they can respond by email if an email is given.
No multiple submissions.
Max 2 short stories and/or 4 poems.
Max for a short story is around 3,000 words, give or take. They welcome longer poems.

Editor: Declan Meade
Poetry Editor: Eabhan Ní Shúileabháin

This time around, they are also looking for submissions to a special issue of the magazine that will celebrate and explore erotic writing.
Submissions for this special issue should be marked for the attention of Sean O'Reilly and posted to PO Box 6016, Dublin 8 to arrive on or before Friday, 14 March 2008.

I feel interest rising already. I wonder how sales will be affected by the subject matter?

Submission sought for Boyne Berries

The Boyne Writers Group was lucky enough to get a grant from Meath County Council. They are now inviting submissions for issue 3 of their 'Boyne Berries' journal of poetry and prose which will be published in March 2008. They say "Submissions are welcome from Meath, from the rest of Ireland and from abroad." There is a lot of local writing and a selection from outside the county borders.

Submission guidelines
Deadline for submissions is the 31st January 2008.
Poetry: Send no more than three poems. Each poem should be 70 lines or under.
Prose: Stories etc should be 1000 words or under.
Poems and prose should be original, previously unpublished and not currently submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere.

Include a brief biography.
Contributors will not receive any payment for their work but will receive a copy of the issue in which their work appears and may be invited to read their work at the launch of the magazine.

Some of the items published may be included on the magazine website.

by email to: editor@boynewriters.com - include text both in body of email and as a Word attachment.
OR by post to: Boyne Writers, 33 Avondale Drive, Trim, Co. Meath - typed, with the author's name on each sheet.

Include an email address and/or mobile phone number where possible.

Short Story and poetry outlets in Ireland

I was thinking about the Poetry Ireland introductions series that is looking for poets with an established body of work in recognised magazines. They don't specify which magazines to consider. Now there are more poetry outlets in Ireland than short stories. The best list is from Poetry Ireland.

Short Stories
There are very few, fewer pay. There are competitions from time to time of varying degrees of recognition and with varying styles. If at all possible check back copies of the magazine or competition to see what type of story they take. A story that fits in to The Stinging Fly would be unlikely to be taken by The People's Friend. I have an earlier entry about 'Women's Magazines' short stories.

Sunday Tribune. Once a month, the first Sunday of the month. Ciaran Carty choses a story 2,500 words or under. All 12 entries are put forward the following year for a Hennessey Award. Fairly literary, a mixed bag, can be funny or urban or rural, or glum, modern or traditional. Ciaran Carty, Sunday Tribune, 15 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2.

Crannog magazine looks for prose as well as poetry. < 2,000 words.

Cork Literary Review. The details for this are vague. Most of the online information is out of date. Cork-centric but some great writing.
Same for Southword, also out of Cork. Both published by Tigh Fili/Bradshaw Books. Looks like they accept submissions at the start of the year.

Irish Pages from Belfast is a bit high-falutin' for my taste.

Stinging Fly has a regular magazine for which they seek admissions of prose and poetry, Jan-Mar only. They also have a 2008 anthology for which they are seeking submission between now and 14th December 2007.
Urban, risky writing does well.

West47 is an online magazine out of Galway Arts Centre. The deadline for the January-March 2008 edition is Friday 16 November 2007. The maximum length for prose is 2000 words and 75 lines in total for poetry. Call me old fashioned but I prefer my journals on paper.

Prestigious Competitions include
The Cork based Sean O'Faolain short story competition where the winners are published in Southword.
The RTE Francis MacManus Short story award which looks for submissions of short stories for Radio every October. Free to enter.
There's also the Fish, which I don't rate highly though others love. It's expensive.
And the Molly Keane from Waterford, although these stories are never published, just win some money.

Otherwise, go to the UK or USA. That's all I can think of. Have I missed something?

Stinging Fly Workshop

These lucky applicants have been selected for the workshop with Sean O'Reilly. Some recognisable names in there. Should be a great group. Congratulations y'all.

Niamh Campbell
Gavin Corbett
Deirdre Gleeson
Patrick Heraghty
Colm Keegan
Viv McDade
Marie Noone
Ellsy O’Neill
Kevin Power

Stinging Fly

Stinging Fly is a literary mag edited by Declan Meade. It offers mostly fiction but also some poetry. In my personal opinion they usually choose urban, often depressive, sometimes look at me I've used drugs at some point in my life, now let's slit our wrists, type stories. And I'm not just saying this because my diverse offerings have been universally rejected by them (!) But the collection of short stories published last year 'These are our Lives' is worth reading.

Anyway they are running an open competition to get in on a free workshop with Sean O'Reilly on Saturday October 27th. Submit a work in progress, short story or extract by September 14th. Submissions should be clearly marked Fiction Workshop and sent to The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 8.

8-10 participants so you will get a personal assessment but it says 'the selected participants will discuss and review the submitted pieces.' Sounds like a normal writers group to me except you won't know the participants beforehand so don't know how to approach the work and critique.

Two more rejections on the book front since - Harper Collins and Headline, no with positive comments.

No work from movieextras.ie yet either.

My statistics for this blog show 2 readers a day averaging a 2 second stay. What can you read in 2 seconds? Most seem to be automated spiders, I think.