Thursday 31 October 2013

An Evening ith Paul Durkan

Saturday November 9th 2013

An Evening with Paul Durcan

Poet Paul Durcan was born in Dublin in 1944. He is one of modern Ireland’s most distinctive poets, Paul Durcan is renowned as both an outspoken critic of his native country, and as a chronicler of its emergence from the repressions of the 1950s to the contradictions of the present day. “These poems are a pleasure to read. Paul Durcan speaks in poetry with a rare openness and no matter where the setting, New York or Paris, he always returns to Ireland. He makes particularly engaging poems out of passing con…versations -  “ You’re looking great – are you going to a wedding?”/ “Oh God no – I’m coming back from a wake.”
We are sure that this event will be really special and would encourage all those interested in poetry to attend.” Bookings for this event can be made at the Dunamaise Arts Centre Tel:  057 8663355. www.dunamaise.ie and more information from the Arts Office, Laois County Council T: 057 8664033/13 E: artsoff@laoiscoco.ie  W: www.laois.ie
For dinner Reservations before the event please contract Preston House directly on 0578731432

International Radio Playwriting Competition 2013

International Radio Playwriting Competition 2013

Welcome to this year's competition!

Dear Playwright

We are delighted to be launching this year’s BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition in partnership with the British Council. Now in its 24th year, the competition has some exciting additions!
There are two first prizes - the best radio play by a writer with English as their first language and the best by a writer with English as their second language. The overall winners will each receive £2000 sterling and a trip to London to see their play being recorded for broadcast on BBC World Service.
We are very happy to run this year’s competition in partnership with Commonwealth Writers again and to welcome our co-producers - The Open University. This has allowed us to introduce another prize – the Georgi Markov prize for the most promising script.
The playwriting competition welcomes scripts from anyone living outside the UK, whether established or new, and encourages writers to use the immense power and accessibility of the medium of radio drama – to tell your story, use your imagination and have your “voice” heard. Reading your plays – and hearing the winning plays on air – is a unique way of hearing what’s happening around the world.
Do take the time to read the rules and tips below before you send us your script. Thank you for entering.
Marion
Marion Nancarrow, Executive Producer, BBC Radio Drama
Neil Webb, Director, Drama and Dance, British Council
The competition is now open for entries and the closing date is midnight GMT on the 31st January 2014.

Wednesday 30 October 2013

The National Poetry Competition from the Poetry Society, UK. International entries are welcome

The National Poetry Competition from the Poetry Society, UK. International entries are welcome - £5000 first prize, closing date 31st October. The judges are Julia Copus, Matthew Sweeney and Jane Yeh.

The Penny Dreadful seeking short stories, poetry submissions

Submit
Submissions are now open and we will be flirting outrageously with you until they close again on November 5.
Stories = Up to  2  of up to 3000 words each.
Poetry = 6 of whatever length you like as long as you don’t take the piss.
Bio = Please include a short bio (100 words max) and any internet website linking things which are suitable for good, Christian eye-balls.
What we do want: Ball-grabbing, punch-in-the-face writing from nice, courteous ladies and gents.
What we do not want: Funny fonts.
Ok? SUBMIT
Enquiries can be sent to
The.P.Dreadful@Gmail.com
But please don’t send submissions to this email address or they will be taken out back and shot.

Friday 25 October 2013

Willesden international short story prize 2013-14


Rules

Rules 2013-14

Note, there are significant changes since previous years.

The competition is open to all aged 18 or over, regardless of nationality or country of residence.

Entries must be:
- in English
- double-spaced
- in a normal font size (12 point is fine)

Entries must be entirely your own work and never previously published or broadcast, online or offline.

You can submit as many entries as you like, provided the entry fee is paid for each one. However, please only submit your best stories. In the case of multiple entries, all will be read but no more than one will be short-listed. As the short list is created anonymously, this will be checked at the final short-listing stage and if necessary de-duplicated.

Please provide your real name and details. In the event that your story reaches the short list, you will be given the opportunity to specify a pen name for public use. We reserve the right to disqualify entries by anyone using multiple "identities" if we feel that these have been submitted with the purpose of deception.

Entries submitted on behalf of somebody else are not allowed and are disqualified.

Manuscripts must show no name, address or identifying marks other than the title of the story and any that do will be disqualified. After the anonymous reading and selections, your name and details will be retrieved if your entry has been successful.

The word limit this year is 7,500.

There is no set theme.

Entry is by completing the online entry form and uploading your manuscript in Microsoft Word (".doc" or ".docx") or RTF (".rtf") format to our account in the Submittable.com system.

There is an entry fee of £6 per entry. Entry fees are non-refundable.

Unfortunately we cannot help with any payment problems you might experience due to geographical location, computer system incompatibilities or any other issues. Please do not submit correspondence concerning entries as this will likely break the anonymity and therefore disqualify your entry.

Opening date for submissions: 1 August 2013
Closing date: 20 December 2013
Wi

Rules

Rules 2013-14

Note, there are significant changes since previous years.

The competition is open to all aged 18 or over, regardless of nationality or country of residence.

Entries must be:
- in English
- double-spaced
- in a normal font size (12 point is fine)

Entries must be entirely your own work and never previously published or broadcast, online or offline.

You can submit as many entries as you like, provided the entry fee is paid for each one. However, please only submit your best stories. In the case of multiple entries, all will be read but no more than one will be short-listed. As the short list is created anonymously, this will be checked at the final short-listing stage and if necessary de-duplicated.

Please provide your real name and details. In the event that your story reaches the short list, you will be given the opportunity to specify a pen name for public use. We reserve the right to disqualify entries by anyone using multiple "identities" if we feel that these have been submitted with the purpose of deception.

Entries submitted on behalf of somebody else are not allowed and are disqualified.

Manuscripts must show no name, address or identifying marks other than the title of the story and any that do will be disqualified. After the anonymous reading and selections, your name and details will be retrieved if your entry has been successful.

The word limit this year is 7,500.

There is no set theme.

Entry is by completing the online entry form and uploading your manuscript in Microsoft Word (".doc" or ".docx") or RTF (".rtf") format to our account in the Submittable.com system.

There is an entry fee of £6 per entry. Entry fees are non-refundable.

Unfortunately we cannot help with any payment problems you might experience due to geographical location, computer system incompatibilities or any other issues. Please do not submit correspondence concerning entries as this will likely break the anonymity and therefore disqualify your entry.

Opening date for submissions: 1 August 2013
Closing date: 20 December 2013
llesden international short story prize 2013-14

Thursday 24 October 2013

Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition Open Again

 
On this occasion the winner is entitled to the following cornucopia of prizes: 

1)€1000 in cash,  
2)up to €600 in travel expenses to come to Cork for the poetry festival,  
3)full room and board for four nights at the festival,  
4)a reading slot at the festival,  
5) free tickets to all festival events worth €102  
6) publication in Southword  
7) a week's residency in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at a time mutually convenient.

There will also be a second prize of €500, a third prize of €250 and ten runners-up will receive €30 and be published in Southword. This year's judge is festival director Patrick Cotter.

fish short story competition

Fish Short Story Prize €3,000
Ten Best Stories Published in the 2014 Fish Anthology

Claire Kilroy is the judgee.
She will select the best ten short stories for publication in the Fish Anthology 2014
Claire Kilroy is one of Ireland's most exciting emerging writers. She is the acclaimed author of four novels - All Summer, (recipient of the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was short-listed for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award), Tenderwire (shortlisted for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel Award), All Names Have Been Changed and The Devil I Know.
In 2002 she received an Arts Council Literature Award.

Closing Date: 30 November 2013.
Word limit is 5,000. There is no restriction on theme or style, and the prize is open to writers from all countries who are writing in English.
First Prize: €3,000, of which €1,000 is for travel to the launch of the Fish Anthology in July 2014 at the West Cork Literary Festival.
Second Prize: a week at the Anam Cara Writers Retreat in West Cork, plus €300.
Third prize: €300.
Entry fee: €20 (€10 subsequent entries). Online Entry. Once you register and enter online, you can login and check your entry(ies) at any time.
Results will be announced on 17 March on the Fish website, and sent out in the newsletter.


Stories must not have been published previously, and must be eligible for publication in the 2014 Fish Anthology.
Stories cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered. Judging at all stages is anonymous. Names or addresses must not appear on the stories, but on a separate sheet if entering by post, or in the appropriate place if entering online.
Postal entries: €22 (€12 subsequent entries)
Address: Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. 

words with jam short story competition

Categories comprise a 2500 word Short Story Category on any theme, a Shorter Story Category for stories up to 1000 words and a Shortest Story Category for stories up to 250 words.
Overall Prize Pot £1500
1st prize in each category - £300
2nd prize in each category - £100
3rd prize in each category - £50
5 runners up in each category will be published in the second volume of our Short Story Anthology (of which they will receive a copy), and awarded £10.
All winners and runners up will receive a printed copy of our first Short Story Anthology (inclusion optional*).
Categories
Short Story Category - for stories up to 2500 words
Shorter Story Category - for stories up to 1000 words
Shortest Story Category - for stories up to 250 words
Closing Date 
31st October 2013
Results
All 1st, 2nd and 3rd place stories will be published in the February 2014 issue of Words with JAMWinners will each receive a printed copy.
For entry details, please click here
Short Story Judge (up to 2500 words): David Haviland
David Haviland is a writer, editor, and ghostwriter, with a number of bestselling books to his name, which have been sold to publishers all over the world and widely serialised.
David has written a number of books of amusing trivia and popular science. The most recent, How To Remove A Brain (Summersdale, 2012), is a collection of fascinating stories and anecdotes concerning the history of medicine and health. This book was previously published by Penguin in the US as Why You Should Store Your Farts in a Jar.
David's next book is a myth-busting guide to history, revealing the truth behind many long-held fallacies, called The Not-So-Nude Ride Of Lady Godiva (Penguin, 2012). This book will also soon be published in the UK.
He has worked with Andrew Lownie in a number of roles since 2004, and is now actively developing a fiction list within the agency. He is an experienced writer, ghost writer, and editor who has written bestselling books for major publishers including Harper Collins, Penguin, Piatkus and Little, Brown.
Shorter Story Judge (up to 1000 words): Polly Courtney
Polly Courtney is the author of six published novels. She started out as an investment banker and wrote her first book, Golden Handcuffs, because she wanted to expose the reality of life in the Square Mile. Having discovered her passion, she went on to write Poles Apart, a light-hearted novel based on her Polish migrant friend’s experiences in England. Subsequent novels have covered sexism, racism, fame culture and the summer riots and her most recent novel, Feral Youth, is about disenfranchised youth in a summer of discontent. She is a passionate champion of the underdog and this is reflected in her novels as well as her broadcast appearances.
In late 2011, Polly famously walked out on her publisher, HarperCollins, for the ‘girly’ titles and covers assigned to her books – most notably, It’s a Man’s World, the hard-hitting take on the lads’ mag industry and its impact on society.
Polly Sky NewsPolly is a regular commentator in the press and on TV and radio. She has a fortnightly slot on Sky News and often appears on the BBC and Channel 4 News to discuss a range of subjects including sexism, racism, youth frustration, the wealth divide, City culture and stereotypes in women’s fiction. Polly gives regular talks on the future of publishing and as a keen advocate of self-publishing, she offers masterclasses to other authors.
Shortest Story Judge (max 250 words): Susan Jane Gilman
Author of three nonfiction books, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress, and Kiss My Tiara, Susan has written for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ms., Real Simple, Washington City Paper, Us magazine and won a New York Press Association Award for features written on assignment in Poland. 
Her short stories have been published in Ploughshares, Story, Beloit Fiction Journal, Greensboro Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review and she was awarded VQR's 1999 Literary Award for short fiction. Susan is also a commentator for National Public Radio and co-hosts “Bookmark”, a monthly book show on World Radio Switzerland.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

The Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize

Deadline 30th October 2013: The Benjamin Franklin House Literary Prize."The 2013 Franklin quote is: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”  Entrants should interpret this quote for its significance today." The competition is exclusively for young writers, aged 18-25, with a first prize of £750, and a second prize of £500. 

Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge

Deadline 31st March 2014. Earlyworks Press Biography Challenge. 5,000 words / first chapter, plus plan, proposal / synopsis. £15 entry. £100 + publication / £350. 

Chicken Soup for the Soul submissions required

Chicken Soup for the Soul. Ongoing requirement for true, inspirational stories on various themes. $200 paid for those accepted. Current topics being sought include: Raising Kids on the Autism / Asperger's Spectrum, Making Lemonade from Lemons, Devotional Stories for Wives, Holiday Stories.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

maryhealybooks: Interview with Celine Mescall

maryhealybooks: Interview with Celine Mescall:               Celine Mescall Graces and Blessings From Ireland. My guest is Celine Mescall who has recently launched her book Graces an...

Interview with Celine Mescall

              Celine Mescall Graces and Blessings From Ireland.

My guest is Celine Mescall who has recently launched her book Graces and Blessings from Ireland.
Thank you Celine for sharing your writing journey.
Celine blogs at 
                   gracesandblessings.wordpress.com

and her book is available in shops and online at
                    gracesandblessings@tictail.com

Questions
Your book Graces and Blessing from Ireland has been evolving for quite some time-can you remember when you had the idea originally and what prompted it?
The graces have been in my head and on pieces of paper for close to thirty years. The first one I consciously wrote (in my head) was the blessing for breastfeeding when my I was feeding my infant daughter but the notion of publishing my collection of Graces and Blessings is relatively recent and the final year of my creative writing course gave me the push I needed to do it.

Would you describe your book as spiritual?
I suppose graces and blessings come from that part of me which is quiet and reflective and appreciative of life. Maybe that makes it spiritual.

You have lived and worked abroad for a number of years –does this experience influence and appear in your work?
Absolutely Mary. My time in Brazil though it was many years ago had a huge impact on the person I am today. I had lived a fairly sheltered life at home and in the UK but Brazil  was a different story. With no electricity, no water and no roads everything was a challenge and trying to be effective as a voluntary worker took its toll physically. But far more importantly my time there opened my eyes to injustice and inequality and the daily struggle of the poor and disenfranchised for a decent life.

How do you structure your writing time-daily, weekly, so many words per day/week?
Structure, I’m afraid is not a word that pops up too often in my writing life. I often write on a whim or when a thought occurs to me. During the Maynooth course I had structures and deadlines which I managed to make for the most part but my writing these days could be four lines of a poem one day and a grace or blessing the next.

What are you most grateful for in your life?
I do believe that I am blessed with my children, my family and friends and my surroundings. I am grateful that my mother is well and still reciting monologues at eighty-nine and a half and that my children sleep safely at night.
I live on the banks of the Kings River in Kilkenny surrounded by hills, trees and birds. I am thankful for the heron I sometimes see, the ripples made by leaping fish which I usually miss, the colourful finches at the feeder, the tinkle of dry falling leaves and the smell of new-cut grass. I am grateful when I dig up beetroot or pick apples or bite into juicy corn which I've just cooked and slathered with butter.
I thank God for all of those thing and much more..



Are difficult life /childhood experiences good for a writer?
That’s a question which makes me stop and think. So many of the “How to” books will advise you to write about what you know and so I suppose if you’ve had difficult or traumatic experiences in life you may want to write about them. On the other hand you may never want to write of your experiences but having had them you may be better able to understand the characters you are creating in your writing and give more depth to them.
I wrote a short story about an  experience in Brazil which was published in the “Moths Against Glass” anthology and in the RTA quarterly magazine. Since then friends have suggested that I write some more about Brazil and certainly I would love to write about some of the wonderful people I met there and the effect their life stories had on my life.

What’s the best thing about seeing your published /finished work on sale?
How can I explain the feeling. When I held my little book for the first time and rubbed my hand over the pages and smelled that new book smell it was like holding a baby for the first time and smelling that new-born smell and counting fingers and toes….magical!
Now when I see it in book shops I am mightily pleased.

What made you a writer? Family/ childhood/ background /life experiences?
When we were little my mother knitted all our jumpers and socks, made our dresses and petticoats on the sewing machine while my father mended our shoes, fixed our bikes and designed all sorts of wonderful contraptions on paper, so I grew up in a house that was creative by necessity. All eleven of us have followed their example to some extent or other from creating wonderful gardens to making quilts, painting pictures, designing interiors, baking cakes or building motorbikes. We have songwriting too and monologue reciting and poetry writing so I guess it's in the blood.

What was the most difficult part of getting your book to the publishing stage?
Because I published Graces and Blessings myself I was able to manage the process and any difficulties were ironed out in-house. Helena Duggan who illustrated the book, designed it and did the lay-out  had most of the headaches but we worked as a team and were both present when the first pages came off the press. We didn’t pop champagne then but went for a good cup of coffee.

What surprised you most about the process?
I hadn’t realised the amount of work that is involved in the design and lay-out but the big surprise was the editing and word checking and spelling. We read and checked and read and checked and yet ended up with a mistake in the text. I try to ignore it!


Who/what has helped you most along your writing journey?
What has helped me most along my writing journey is the great writings I have read, not necessarily the classics but books that excited me and books that saddened me and books that made me stay up all night. We got a school library when I was in sixth class and could borrow books on Fridays, I hardly ever slept a Friday night after that because of Anne of Green Gables and Little Women and all the other books which opened doors to different worlds.
Of course the people who tutored me and nurtured me and encouraged me also played a big part both in my writing and in my life back as far as my schoolteachers. I’m thinking now of Gerry Moran and Suzanne Power and John McKenna who were my most recent teachers but before that there was David Rice and Kathleen Thorne in Killaloe and many, many others. I also think of my writing group and how we depend on each other's good will and the confidence we have in knowing that we want only the best for each other. My writing group gently tended my seedling graces, watered and fertilized them and rejoiced with me when Graces and Blessings was harvested.


Do you need to write?
A big yes to that. I’ve always written, whether letters or diaries or musings on life or angry outbursts to politicians or trying to clear my head. I've avoided some tricky situations which I might have regretted by writing it all down and then throwing it in the fire.
Putting it on paper is my way.

Advice for anyone writing?    You will do it when the time is right.



Does writing make you happy?
Absolutely, particularly poetry, be it two lines or twenty. I love to read poetry. I’ve written in the middle of the night because some words woke me and when my anthology poem “A Thinking Walk in the Woods” wrote itself in my head, I couldn’t wait to get home to put it on paper. That was an extremely happy moment.


Are you a thinker or dreamer or do’er?
 I love projects and am constantly looking around to see what I will do next. It might be knocking down a wall or putting up a polytunnel or making a batch of tomato sauce but all the while I am creating scenarios in my head or reliving scenes from the past. Doing and thinking go hand in hand but not so much dreaming, unless I include those "what if" moments.

What do you like to do to relax?
I love the garden especially growing anything we can eat and am relaxed and happy out there, much more relaxed than doing housework.
I read most days, however since doing the Maynooth course I am a bit more circumspect about my reading material and find myself being critical of things like sentence length or poor editing or over-use of exclamation marks!! (I blame Suzanne for that)
I love music and though I'm not musical myself there is music in my family and my own two are very musical. When Michael, my son, is home he will sometimes sit at the piano and play all my favourites while I'm preparing dinner or at night Kate will pick up her guitar and sing away quite contentedly for an hour or more. What more could a body ask for?

The book has been very well received and needless to say I am delighted. There was that awful moment of doubt before publication when I asked myself what I was at and was it foolish to think anyone might read my little book but thankfully I have been proved wrong. Wallowing in that good feeling is enough for the moment.

Blog at gracesandblessings.wordpress.com

Available in shops and online at gracesandblessings@tictail.com

Celine Mescall Graces and Blessings From Ireland

Monday 21 October 2013

Poetry Competitions November 2013

WOW! Award

Deadline: 31st Oct 13

National Poetry Competition 2013

Deadline: 31st Oct 13

Pighog Poetry Film Competition

Deadline: 31st Oct 13

Desmond O Grady Poetry Competition 2013

Deadline: 31st Oct 13

Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Prize 2013

Deadline: 15th Nov 13

15th Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award

Deadline: 5th Nov 13

Rubies in the Darkness Annual Poetry Competition 2013

Deadline: 1st Nov 13

Childrens Story Competition Specsavers, Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2013,

Our 2013 Children’s Story Competition

16-10-2013
Should've gone to Specsavers moment
‘I told you not to pedal so fast!’
Do you love writing stories?
Specsavers, together with the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2013, invites you to write a short story inspired by our 'Lost pedalo' picture.
Enter the Specsavers Children’s Story Competition 2013 and you could win all the shortlisted books entered in the Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award 2013.
All you have to do is write a short story based on our cartoon (pictured) and see where your imagination takes you!
How to enter
  • Choose your age category: junior (under 12 on 29/11/13) or senior (12 – 16 years old on 29/11/13)
  • Make sure your story is no longer than 500 words; or 250 words if  you are under 12 years old.
  • Give your story a title
  • Write your story (preferably type it) on a sheet of A4 paper
  • Add your Name, Age, Telephone number, Address and your Parent or guardian’s phone number to the entry. If we don't have your contact details, we won't know where to send your prize.
  • Groups of entries from schools are also very welcome
  • The closing date for the competition is Friday 29 November 2013.
Send your entry to:
Specsavers Short Story Competition
c/o WHPR
6 Ely Place
Dublin 2
Prizes
The two winning entrants will receive all of the books shortlisted for the Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award 2013 and their school libraries will receive a donation of some of the best Irish books from the last year.
Competition Rules
The competition is open to entrants up to the age of 16, who are resident in Ireland.
Please obtain your parent’s/guardian’s or teacher’s permission to enter.
Specsavers does not accept any responsibility for late or lost entries. Proof of posting is not proof of receipt. Only one entry per person. Winners will be contacted personally. No purchase required. Winners’ names can be obtained upon request in writing from WHPR, 6 Ely Place, Dublin 2.
Entrants must be willing to take part in all competition publicity and agree to have their story published. Entries will not be returned. Winners will be elected by a panel of judges whose decisions will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Winners of junior (under 12) and senior (12 – 16 years old) categories will each receive all books shortlisted for Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year Award 2013. Their school libraries will each receive a donation of selected Irish books from 2013. Prizes are non-transferable, cannot be exchanged and no cash alternative will be offered. Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and agree to abide by them when entering this competition. This competition is promoted by Specsavers Optical Group Limited, La Villiaze, St Andrew’s, Guernsey, Channel Islands GY6 8YP Data Protection Act 1988. The information you provide will only be used in connection with your entry in this competition. The information is held by Unique Media, either manually or electronically and may be processed by them. The information will be restricted to authorised users only and is treated in the strictest confidence. The winners’ details will be passed to Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards for the allocation of their prize.
Good luck!

Thursday 17 October 2013

Eleanor Catton Man Booker Winner 2013

And the winner is...
So, Eleanor Catton with The Luminaries it is. The youngest Man Booker winner in the prize's history (she is 28 but completed The Luminaries aged 27) has triumphed with the longest ever Man Booker winning novel (832 pages). Catton is just the second New Zealander to win the prize. Earlier in the year an extraordinary 151 novelists submitted for the prize and from this rich field hers is the one head that remains standing. Life for Eleanor Catton will never be the same again. 

The Luminaries, set in 1866 during the New Zealand gold rush, contains a group of 12 men gathered for a meeting in a hotel and a traveller who stumbles into their midst. The multiple voices take turns to tell their own stories and gradually what happened in the small town of Hokitika on New Zealand's South Island is revealed. 

The chair of judges Robert Macfarlane described the book as a “dazzling work, luminous, vast”. It is, he said, “a book you sometimes feel lost in, fearing it to be 'a big baggy monster', but it turns out to be as tightly structured as an orrery”. Each of its 12 chapters halves in length which gives the narrative a sense of acceleration. It is not, however, an extended exercise in literary form. Macfarlane and his fellow judges were impressed by Catton's technique but it was her “extraordinarily gripping” narrative that enthralled them. “We read it three times and each time we dug into it the yields were extraordinary, its dividends astronomical.” The Luminaries is, said Macfarlane, a novel with heart. “The characters are in New Zealand to make and to gain – the one thing that disrupts them is love.”

Will readers be put off by the book's bulk? “No”, was Macfarlane's emphatic response. “Length never poses a problem if it's a great novel. The Luminaries is a novel you pan, as if for gold, and the returns are huge. 
What impressed the judges almost as much as the book itself was that it could have been the work of someone so young. Catton was just 25 when she started work on it yet, said Macfarlane, “Maturity is evident in every sentence, in the rhythms and balances. It is a novel of astonishing control.” It will be fascinating to see what she writes next but whatever it is may have to be put on hold: Catton is now sitting at world literature's top table and everyone will want a piece of her. 
In the end Macfarlane neatly summed up the book and Catton's achievement: “awesome”, he said, “or should that be oresome?”

Wednesday 16 October 2013

Fish Short Story competition now open

Summary Short Story Competition 2013/14

OPEN
Judge: Claire Kilroy
Closes: 30 November 2013
Results: 17 March 2014
Anthology published: July 2014
Max length: 5,000 words

Monday 14 October 2013

Desmond O'Grady Poetry Competition 2013

Desmond O'Grady Poetry Competition 2013
Deadline: 31st October 2013
Open to poets around the world.
Fred Johnston will judge the entries.
Entries must be previously unpublished and in English or Irish.
Entry Fees: €3 per poem, or €8 for three poems.
Prizes: First: €1,000 - Second: €300 - Third: €100
A longlist of poems will be selected (45 in total) and the poets will be invited to read the poems at the White House Limerick Poetry Open Mic in November and December.

Troubadour International Poetry Prize

Troubadour International Poetry Prize
Judges: Deryn Rees-Jones & George Szirtes.
Closing: 21st October 2013
The first prize is £2,500, 2nd is £500 and 3rd is £250. There will also be 20 prizes (£20 each). All winners will receive a spring 2014 coffee-house-poetry season-ticket and a coffee-house poetry reading with Deryn Rees-Jones and George Szirtes.
They will accept poems of no more than 45 lines each. Open to writers over 18 around the world.
Entry Fees: £5 per poem

Friday 11 October 2013

Over The Edge Fiction Slam tonight

THIS FRIDAY
Mary Costello Featured Reader & Judge at Fifth Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam

After the event’s huge success in the past four years, Over The Edge presents its fifth annual fiction slam with Featured Reader, Mary Costello, at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, October 11th, 8pm.

Mary Costello is originally from East Galway and now lives in Dublin. Her stories have been widely anthologised and published in New Irish Writing and in The Stinging Fly. Her debut short story collection, The China Factory, was published last year by The Stinging Fly press and has received a very warm critical response internationally. Long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award, The China Factory has been described by The Sunday Independent as twelve perfect stories.” Mary Costello is a rising Irish literary star.

Poetry slams have provided many emerging poets with an important platform over the past decade, but now it’s the fiction writers’ turn. The first twelve fiction writers to make it to The Kitchen @ The Museum on the evening of Friday, October 11th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. All participating writers should bring two pieces of their own fiction, as there are two rounds. The time limit in both rounds is five minutes. Extracts from longer stories are admissible. Stories do not have to be memorised. The Fiction Slam will be judged by a three person jury made up of two audience members and Mary Costello. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is a bottle of wine.

There is no entrance fee. All welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council. http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

Thursday 10 October 2013

Big Smoke Writing Factory - October 2013

Upcoming courses


BEGINNING TO WRITE CLASSES (weekly)

Beginning To Write (10 weeks)
TUESDAYS, starting October 8th 2013, 7pm-9pm, €240 [full]
SATURDAYS, starting October 5th 2013, 2pm-4pm, €240
Write The Play - Playwriting for Beginners (8 weeks)
THURSDAYS, starting October 3rd 2013, 7pm-9pm, €200
Beginning To Write Fiction (6 weeks)
WEDNESDAYS, starting November 6th 2013, 6.30pm-8.30pm, €150 
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SPECIALIST COURSES AND WORKSHOPS (weekly)

Dublin Young Authors (6 weeks) For teenagers
SATURDAYS, starting October 5th 2013, 11am-1pm, €150

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DROP-IN CLASSES

Creative Writing (drop in)
MONDAYS (until mid-December), 6.30pm-7.30pm, €15 per class (payable on the night)

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ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS

Beginner's Poetry Writing: Fundamentals and Beyond (half day)
SATURDAY, October 5th 2013, 2pm-4.30pm, €35

Introduction to Screenwriting (1 day)
SATURDAY, October 19th 2013, 10am-4pm, €75
Intermediate/Advanced Poetry Workshop (half day)
SATURDAY, October 5th 2013, 10am-12.30pm, €40
SATURDAY, November 16th 2013, 10am-12.30pm, €40
Revising Your Work (half day)
SATURDAY, November 23rd 2013, 10am-1pm, €40
Writing Children's and Young Adult Fiction (1 day)
SATURDAY, November 23rd 2013, 10am-4pm, €75
Getting Published (half day)
SATURDAY, December 7th 2013, 10am-1pm, €40


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ShortWrites competition

Competitions

ShortWrites has relaunched with a brand new look and to celebrate this, we have decided to run a new competition for the best Short Story submitted to us. So, if you think you have what it takes to write a prize winning short story, then see details below as to the prizes, terms and at the bottom of the page you can submit your story to us.
We plan to run competitions on a regular basis, so make sure you check back monthly to see what our latest competitions are.

 Prizes for the competition will be:

1st Place: £200 and an eBook publishing package**
2nd Place: £100
3rd Place: £50
  • Entries are free, but Entrants need to be a member of shortwrites.com in order to enter.
  • We will accept up to 3 entries per member
  • Closing date for entries is midnight on Saturday, 30th November 2013
  • Results of the completion will be posted on the site on Wednesday 18th December and the winners will be contacted on that day.
  • All entries have to be original and cannot have been previously published in any form.
  • The minimum number of words per entry is 500 and the maximum number is 5000.
  • Stories can be from any category
  • All entries may be posted on shortwrites.com
** The eBook publishing package will include design and layout of a book of up to 200 pages of text, one round of corrections, design of book cover, conversion into PDF, ePub and Mobi files, listing on appropriate websites.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Man Booker Shortlist 2013

Man Booker Shortlist 2013
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)
Harvest by Jim Crace (Picador)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)

When Robert Macfarlane, the chair of this year's Man Booker Prize judges, announced the longlist he called it the most diverse in recent memory. The 151 novels they started with represented a  grand vista that encompassed everything from the epic to the miniaturist. The longlist distilled the numbers but kept the flavour and now the shortlist has intensified it further.

The six books on the list could not be more diverse. There are examples from novelists from New Zealand, England, Canada, Ireland and Zimbabwe – each with its own highly distinctive taste. 
The judges Messrs Macfarlane, Douglas-Fairhurst, Haynes, Kearney and Kelly have now read each of the books at least twice. Any book that bears re-reading has merit. A book that then stands out above its peers is special indeed. The shortlist is a consensus: it is one that shows that the judges have wide-ranging tastes; that they are unswayed by reputations (many big names didn't make the longlist let alone the shortlist); that they have no predilection for one particular genre; or books by one gender (there are four women and two men on the list); that they like new voices as well as familiar ones; that historical fiction has no more precedence than modern; that form is less important than quality.

And what does the list say about the writers? It is clear that the perennial complaint that fiction is too safe and unadventurous is a ridiculous one; it shows that the novel remains a multi-faceted thing; that writing and inspiration knows no geographical borders; that diaspora tales are a powerful strand in imaginative thinking; and that human voices, in all their diversity, drive fiction. 
The winner will be announced next Tueday.