West Cork Literary Festival

Have you planned any festival for the summer? I will be reading at a couple, more details later, watch this space. West Cork Literary festival didn't invite me yet (next year guys?) even with all my West Cork roots and in-laws but I'm not bitter, no. I am magnanimous.

From Sunday 17th to Saturday 23rd July, Bantry will welcome a wonderful line-up of international and Irish writers. 

Zadie Smith, John Banville, Dame Marina Warner, Michael Harding, Nick Laird, Carol Drinkwater and Louis de Bernières are just some of the high profile writers. 

This year there are readings by Caitriona Lally, Gavin McCrea, Louis de Berniéres, Theo Dorgan, Sarah Howe, Jo Shapcott, Carol Drinkwater, Aiden O'Reilly, Andrew Michael Hurley, Cónal Creedon, Afric McGlinchey, William Wall, Thomas Morris, Max Porter, Carys Davies, Paddy Bushe, Matthew Sweeney, Lia Mills, Alice Carey, Marion Coutts, Lisa McInerney, Danielle McLaughlin, Eoin McNamee, Glenn Patterson, Joanna Walsh, Mary Morrissy and many more. 

There are still some places on their workshops if you have a week.

More information can be found on their website www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie  and booking on the website is now open. 

Barehands Submissions

Submissions are now open for Issue 22 and full guidelines can be found here. They published poetry and are starting to include reviews. Send a maximum of three poems

You can read issue 21 here to see what kind of poem works in their format. Featuring poetry from Vaughn M. Watson, Peter Lilly, Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin, Edward Ahern, Laura-Blaise McDowell, Emma Lee, Bethany W. Pope & Anne Tannam, photography from Conor Horgan, Hugh O'Conor, Clare Coyle, Ella Potter & Deianira Urovi, an essay by Claire Brankin, and Alvy Carragher reviews The Year of the Ingénue by Michael Naghten Shanks.

The Bristol Short Story Prize

The Bristol Short Story Prize

Deadline: 30th of April 2016.

Prizes: £1,000, £700, £400. There will also be 17 runner-up prizes of £100 each. 
Twenty stories will be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 9.

Submit stories of up to 4,000 words. Any theme, 
Entry fee is £8

Judging panel for this year’s competition, chaired by celebrated writer and short story champion, Tania Hershman. Tania is joined on the panel by acclaimed writer Niven Govinden, Simon Key, owner of the award-winning Big Green Bookshop in London, and Juliet Pickering,literary agent at Blake Friedmann. Suffice it to say, these judges know their stories.

Link here

Some More Upcoming Readings

Rescued by Maria Murphy published by Poolbeg launches:

Wednesday 4^th May at 7pm in Barker and Jones Bookshop, Poplar Square, Naas.

And

Friday 6^th May at 7pm in Waterstones, Patrick Street, Cork.

All welcome.

In 1889, on the beautiful Mizen peninsula lives a young woman called Ellen. Although the daughter of a simple fisherman, she is no ordinary woman. Ellen is a healer, with a heart and spirit as wild and free as the Atlantic Ocean she lives beside. She devotes her life to helping others, often in secret. But when a stranger, in the fine clothes of the landed gentry, is washed up on the sand in front of her remote cottage, she is fearful of helping him because of the trouble he could bring to her and those she loves.

Trying to stay faithful to a warning her grandmother passed on to her, Ellen has to do all she can to protect herself and her home from this stranger.  But perhaps it’s the stranger and his heart that needs protection from her?

There are lots of interesting events as part of Poetry Day Ireland 28th April 8pm

Sports-themed poetry from Poetry Ireland’s recent "Everything to Play For: 99 Poems About Sport" anthology. Guest readers including poets John McAuliffe and Rita Ann Higgins, broadcaster and poet Vincent Woods, Senior Counsel and poetry and sports enthusiast Cian Ferriter and sports historian and journalist Paul Rouse in the shadow of the hallowed ground itself, Croke Park.

Salmon Poetry is launching the following collections in the Irish Writers' Centre, Dublin, on Wednesday 27th April at 6.30pm:

"Anchored" by Lorna Shaughnessy
"Quiet in a Quiet House" by Richard W. Halperin
"Evidence of Freewheeling" by Trevor Conway
"Bearings" by Patrick Moran
"Ghost of the Fisher Cat" by Afric McGlinchey
"Virtual Tides" by Paul Casey
"The Rain Barrel" by Nicholas McLachlan

This promises to be a lovely evening of poetry with readings by each poet. Admission is free and all are welcome.

Visit us online for further details: http://www.salmonpoetry.com/

Sunflower Sessions is on the same evening so you could spring from one to the other. Wednesday 27th April in Jack Nealon's Pub on Capel St Dublin, upstairs 7.30pm.

Poems on a Sunday Afternoon

by Castle Ward Arts and Crafts & Down Arts Centre

Sunday 24 April 2016 2.30 – 4.30pm 

All welcome to this chill afternoon. They invite budding readers, writers and signers to join in celebrating the written word in all its forms.  Offering a friendly space to read, they hope that those gathered will join in by sharing a piece of their own work, or perhaps a favourite poem.

In the featured spot is Stephanie Conn - whose first collection 'The Woman on the Other Side' (Doire Press) launched recently.

Banshee Submissions

Banshee is a new magazine of contemporary writing which publishes twice a year. They are looking for submissions of fiction, short story length or flash or articles to their 3rd issue.

Deadline: 30th April 2016

• All submissions should be previously unpublished.
• Stories and essays should be 1500-5000 words. Flash fiction should be less than 1000 words, poems no more than 40 lines.
• We are happy to read up to two stories, up to two essays, up to four flashes and up to six poems. However, we ask that each writer submit in only one of the above categories.
• Submissions should be in one .doc or .docx format attachment, double spaced, and in a non-quirky font.
• Please include a short bio (max 50 words) in the body of your email.
• Email to bansheelit at gmail dot com, with the category of the work (flash/story/essay/poetry) in the subject line.
• We believe in paying writers. We can offer contributors a small fee as well as a copy of the journal.

Link here

Editors are Laura Jane Cassidy, Claire Hennessy and Eimear Ryan (none poets as far as I know. Ladies if you want some poetic editorial input, let me know. I have form...)

They say:

Some of our favourite themes include coming of age, sexuality, gender, mortality, complicated relationships of all shapes, the joys and frustrations of the creative life, our relationship with technology, and the extended adolescence of young adults in the 21st century. While our outlook is literary, we’re open to genre elements. 

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Writer in residence

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Writer in residence

Deadline: 12 noon on Wednesday 27th April 2016

Access, at agreed times, to a room on the top floor of dlr LexIcon. It is a requirement of the residency that the writer spend at least 10 hours a week working in dlr LexIcon.

The residency is open to writers working in any genre (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, poetry, script-writing, etc). 
The residency this year will focus on the theme of Creativity and will have a particular emphasis on writing for 8-18 year olds.

The writer’s work may draw inspiration from this theme in a variety of ways. The residency is envisaged as a part-time residency which will allow time for the writer’s own work in addition to engagement and interaction with both the general public and, more specifically, with children and/or young people and potentially a range of schools in the county. 

Link here

Some upcoming readings

Near Dublin?
Thursday 21st April 19:00

Ranalagh Arts Centre 

Hibernian Writers reading from their anthology, The Lion Tamer Dreams of Office Work including Maurice Devitt, Amanda Bell, Maeve O'Sullivan, Brian Kirk, Philip Cummins, Evan Costigan and John Saunders. All Welcome. Should be good. Buy a copy!

Near Galway?

Monday 18th April  8pm
Venue: Dock 1, upstairs

The 2016 Cúirt Festival of International Literature invites you to the launch of Bone Fire by Susan Millar DuMars published by Salmon Poetry

Wednesday 20th April 3pm

Leitrim?

Saturday 23rd April 9pm 

Open mic An Caife Bia Slainte Main Street Manorhamilton Leitrim

Cork?

Saturday 23rd April 8pm

Triskel Arts Centre Cork

Launch of William Wall's new short story collection Hearing Voices Seeing Things published by Doire Press.

Any more, let me know.