Connemara Mussel Festival Poetry Competition

Building upon the diversity of arts and culture already catered for at the festival, the Connemara Mussel Festival is delighted to announce the launch of  a  poetry competition for 2016.  The competition was the brainchild of John Coyle of Renvyle House who suggested at the festival launch in March of this year that there weren’t many poems about the humble mussel and to rectify that situation he would be delighted to sponsor a competition to be run by the Connemara Mussel Festival. 

The competition was launched at Renvyle House Hotel on 18th November by poet and Professor of Literature at Vassar University, New York, Eamonn Grennan, who will also judge the entries.

Theme: Mussels. While the poem does not have to be about mussels, it must contain some reference to the mussel.

Maximum length:  51 lines.

The two best poems in the opinion of the judge will be awarded €250 and €100 respectively.

Deadline: 13th  March 2016.

Link here. It appears to be free to enter. Email your poems.

Reclaim the Vision of 1916 – a Citizens’ Initiative

International Poetry Competition 2016

THEME: The Vision of 1916: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Inspired by the strong connections between poetry and the Easter Rising, the International Poetry Competition 2016 is now open for submissions.

Many of the Rising’s leaders were accomplished poets, including Pádraic Pearse, Joseph Mary Plunkett, James Connolly – and the eminent Thomas MacDonagh. Also acclaimed for his talents as a teacher, playwright, Irish language scholar, and literary theorist, it is in MacDonagh’s honour that we have chosen for the competition’s first prize the Robert Ballagh-designed Thomas MacDonagh Medal (along with a cash award of €1,000).


In its aftermath, the Rising motivated a generation of poets of national and international renown – including George Russell (AE), Francis Ledwidge, Padraic Colum, James Stephens, Sean O’Casey, Eva Gore-Booth and William Butler Yeats – to reflect upon its ideals, events, men and women, and consequences. Alongside these can be placed a succession of Irish language poets that includes Liam S Gógan, Máirtín Ó Direáin, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc and Seán Ó Tuama.


Likewise, we are now inviting the present generations of writers of poetry, young and older, established and emerging, to reflect upon the competition’s theme and submit up to three entries for our judges’ consideration.


The competition is open to persons over the age of sixteen years living on the island of Ireland or abroad.


Entries may be in English, Irish, or any of the languages in common use in Ireland today (with either English or Irish translations).

JUDGES
Catherine Ann Cullen, Louis de Paor and Ciaran Carty. Professor Michael Cronin will act as the competition’s Languages’ Advisor.


PRIZES
First: Thomas MacDonagh Medal, plus €1,000
Second: €500
Third: €250


ENTRY FEES
€10 for first poem
€5 for second poem
€5 for third poem

See: http://www.reclaim1916.ie/international-poetry-competition/


Deadline: 29 February 2016

Artist Residency The Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Deadline: 11 Jan 2016

Artist Residencies

Residencies of up to 3 months between September 2016 and June 2017, open to practitioners in all art forms with a record of professional achievement. Travel from Ireland, accommodation and a monthly stipend of €700 per month included.

Applicants must be Irish citizens or normally resident in Ireland, with professional involvement in creative practice.

 Link here
There are also some partnerships particularly with Words Ireland and Wicklow and the 4 Midlands Counties. I wish my county signed up to such partnerships.

Deborah Rogers Foundation Award

A literary agent all her professional life, Deborah Rogers (1938-2014) set up her own agency in 1967, and twenty years later formed Rogers Coleridge & White with Gill Coleridge and Pat White. One of the most influential literary agents of her generation, Deborah was renowned for her taste, her loyalty and her immense generosity in the support she gave to authors. Her sudden death sent a shockwave through the world of publishing and the many writers, publishers and agents whose lives she had touched. At the 2014 London Book Fair, Deborah was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing, the first agent to have received the honour. She accepted this with characteristic modesty:

“It hardly seems fair to be given an award for what has been a lifetime of such pleasure… Those who have entrusted their work to us over the years will never know the intense pride that they have brought, and the anticipation and excitement that greets each new manuscript never palls. I have them to thank most of all.”

Deborah’s particular genius lay in identifying and supporting talented young people. The Deborah Rogers Foundation (DRF) has therefore been set up in her memory to continue to seek out and nurture that talent. The Board chaired by Lord Berkeley of Knighton, Deborah’s widower, comprises people who knew and loved Deborah, including RCW colleagues and writers Ian McEwan and William Fiennes.

An award of £10,000 will be presented to a first-time writer whose submission demonstrates literary talent and who needs financial support to complete their work:

• Submissions should take the form of 20-30,000 words of a work in progress, fiction or non-fiction, which is not under option or contract
• Applications are only open to writers who have not previously published a full length book
• Entrants must write in the English language and reside within the British Commonwealth and Eire
• Submissions should be accompanied with a brief synopsis and a short biographical note

Deadline: 31st January 2016.

The winner of the Award will be announced by Ian McEwan at the 2016 Hay Festival.

Free to enter

Apply using the form here. http://www.deborahrogersfoundation.org/submissions

Galway Rape Crisis Centre Poetry Competition

 

This competition closes this Thursday 7th January but it's a very good cause so please consider entering and donating.

There will be three categories poetry, flash fiction and short stories.

Winners in each category will receive €100 cash prize, publication in SIN magazine and a chance to read at the prize- giving event at NUIG in February.

Entry fees are €7 each and €5 concession for students.

Multiple entries are allowed. Maximum lines for any one poem is 50. Maximum for flash entries 500 words and short stories 1800.

Entry fees can be paid by idonate links here.

 Entries can then be sent by email or post quoting the transaction reference.

Email your entry to writinggrcc@gmail.com

Judges: Alan McMonagle, Sarah Clancy and Celeste Augé

Poetry Ireland Introductions Series

I did this eons ago and it was very enjoyable and educational and you get to meet a lot of people and talk about poetry a lot which is a treat. And paid too. Another treat. You do have to have a publishing history behind you first.

The Poetry Ireland Introductions Series offers a paid public reading to poets working towards a first collection or with a début collection already published, and who have a track record of publication in journals and 'little' magazines. Writing may be in Irish or English. 

In 2016 the poets selected for the Introductions Series will participate in two workshops/master classes. The first workshop is focused on form and craft, the second on the art of reading/performing poetry in public.

These workshops will culminate in a number of public readings during the International Literature Festival Dublin, with one participant flown to New York to read as part of Salon Éire 100, an evening of Irish poetry at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center.

To apply for an Introductions in 2016, send a maximum of 10 pages of poems and a short biographical note emphasising publication credits to:

Introductions, Poetry Ireland, 32 Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Deadline: Friday 29 January 2016

Poetry Salzburg

Another English speaking journal looking for submissions.

Poetry Salzburg Review publishes poems, translations, interviews, essays and reviews of recent collections of poetry. Our intention is to publish the best available writing from a variety of writers.
All submissions should be typed and on one side of the paper only. Make sure that your name is on each page of the manuscript. Please include a bio/biographical note (up to 100 words).

 As Poetry Salzburg Review is a bi-annual magazine, authors are requested to send us only one submission (4-6 poems) per issue.

Due to the amount and high quality of work we receive, potential contributors are strongly encouraged to read the magazine prior to submitting their work.

All contributors are going to receive a complimentary copy of the issue that contains their work.

However, we would like to point out that Poetry Salzburg Review lost its small grant from the Austrian government at the end of 2011. This is why we would also ask our contributors to support the magazine by either taking out a subscription or by ordering a gift subscription for one of their friends.

Link here

Poetry Salzburg also publish poetry pamphlets. Link here for submissions