The Arts Office, Waterford City & County Council is pleased to announce details of the Waterford Poetry Prize 2017. The Waterford Poetry Prize is open to all writers currently living on the island of Ireland. There is no age limit and no entry fee. The closing date for receipt of entries is 12 noon on 26th June 2017.

For more details view PDF

To commemorate the Francis Ledwidge Centenary 1917 – 2017 Meath County Council Cultural Services are pleased to announce the establishment of the Francis Ledwidge Creative Writing Award. This award is open to practitioners of all creative writing genres on the island of Ireland over 18 years of age.

For details view PDF

Waterford City & County Council’s Arts Office is pleased to announce that it is currently accepting entries for the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award 2017.

The late writer lived, until her death in 1996, in Ardmore, Co. Waterford. Her first ten novels and four plays were published under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981 ‘Good Behaviour’ became a publishing sensation for which she was short listed for the prestigious Booker Prize.

Annually since 1998, to celebrate this rich literary life, the Waterford Arts Office, by kind permission of the Keane family has invited entries for a previously unpublished short story to a maximum of 2000 words. There is no entry fee, no age limit and no restriction on the subject matter. A prize of €500 will be awarded to the winner at a special ceremony during the IMMRAMA Literary Festival in Lismore, Co. Waterford in June 2017.

The closing date for receipt of entries is Tuesday 14^th March 2017 at 12 noon.

Full details and an entry form can be downloaded from www.waterfordcouncil.ie or by contacting the Arts Office on 058-41416.

Roscommon County Council is delighted to announce details of the 2016 New Roscommon Writing Award. This is the third year of what has already become an important event in the literary calendar of the county.

The NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2016 is organised as part of the county’s literature development programme. It is funded by Roscommon County Council and The Arts Council, and supported by the Roscommon Herald and by Shannonside FM.

The winner will receive a monetary prize of €500 and will have their winning entry printed in the Roscommon Herald. It will also be broadcast on Shannonside FM. (Four runners-up will receive €50 each).

Closing date for entries is 30 November 2016

Enquiries to ghoare@roscommoncoco.ie

View PDF Flyer

Competition Rules

• Entries, in English, on any theme, in any literary form, will be accepted.
• The competition is open to anyone over 18. All entrants must have a connection with the county of Roscommon (born in, living in, currently working in, went to school in, etc).
• Typed entries (handwritten entries cannot be accepted) must be no more than 500 words. Mark the number of words in your entry on the bottom of the page. Entries over the 500 word limit will be automatically disqualified. There is a limit of two entries per entrant.
• Include your name, address and contact details, plus your connection to the county. Include these on a separate page, not on your entry.
• There is no entry fee. All entries must be received by 30 November 2016.
• The competition will be adjudicated by Brian Leyden. The judge’s decision is final.
• Post your entry to: NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2016, Aras an Chontae, Roscommon Arts Office, Roscommon. You may also email your entry to: ghoare@roscommoncoco.ie. Title your email NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2016.
• The names of the shortlisted writers will be announced in local media and online at http://www.roscommoncoco.ie/en/Services/Comm_Ent/Arts_Office/literature.htm
• The awards ceremony will take place early in 2017, on a date and at a venue to be announced.

Metro Éireann, in collaboration with the Duke University Kenan Institute for Ethics, is hosting an intercultural writing competition for young people in Ireland. The competition, as well as the optional one-on-one writing workshops associated with the contest, is completely free. Cash prizes will be offered to the winners. We would greatly appreciate the Longford County Arts Office promoting this event to the young people with which it engages. I am attaching an image of a flyer for you to peruse. Perhaps you would consider highlighting this event on social media pages? We would love your help getting the word out about this national competition amongst those passionate about the arts!

The competition is a great chance for young people to improve their writing skills, develop their understanding of interculturalism, and try to earn cash prizes!

The following contains the details of the writing competition and workshops:

The 2nd Annual Metro Éireann-Kenan Institute for Ethics Intercultural Writing Competition seeks to simultaneously enrich Irish intercultural life and foster the development of the next generation of Irish writers. All Irish residents, immigrants and non-immigrants, are encouraged to enter, and no submission fee is required.

Submissions of original fiction that illuminate the ethical challenges of intercultural diversity in Ireland are invited in the following genres:

• a short story (2,000 words maximum)
• a novel extract (2,000 words maximum)
• a selection of poetry (5 poems maximum)

All submissions must be previously unpublished. Our panel of judges will pay attention to the following criteria:

Engagement with Themes of Ethics and Interculturalism

• Creativity/Originality
• Organization/Structure
• Impact on Reader
• Initiative of Beginning Writers

€3200 will be awarded in total to the winners!
Age 14-17 winner (€800) and runner-up (€400)
Age 18-21 winner (€800) and runner-up (€400)
Age 14-21 Spirit of Intercultural Ethics winner (€800)

All submissions must be typed using 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and sent to info@metroeireann.com with the entrant’s full name and the word ‘Submissions’ in the subject line. Submissions should also include a cover page that provides the entrant’s personal information (name, age, address, telephone number) and details about their work (age category, title).

Submissions are due by Midnight on July 31; winners will be announced on August 5.

To learn more or book an individual meeting, please visit www.facebook.com/MetroEireann, call Catherine Ward at 087 401 3414 or Chinedu Onyejelem at 01 878 3441, or 
e-mail info@metroeireann.com.

The Caterpillar has announced its inaugural poetry prize – for a single poem written by an adult for children (aged 7–11).

What they are looking for is a stand-out poem to which they can award a prize of €1,000 to celebrate the richness of children’s writing.

The Prize is open to everyone. The work must be original and previously unpublished. The entry fee is €12 per poem and you can enter as many poems as you like.

More details on www.thecaterpillarmagazine.com

The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize is now open for submissions! This is a prize for single poem, named in honour of a late Irish poet long associated with the Munster Literature Centre. First prize is 1,000 Euro (on 7 October 2014 approx. USD 1263 or GBP 784), a week-long writer’s retreat at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and publication in Southword Literary Journal. The MLC will subvent travel costs for the winner up to 600 Euro and provide hotel accommodation and meals for three days during the Cork Spring Poetry Festival. The author who takes first prize will have the chance to read the winning poem at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival in February 2014. There will be a second prize of E500, third prize of E250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published and receive Southword’’s standard fee of E30. Southword Journal has previously published Billy Collins, Sinéad Morrissey, Martín Espada, Greg Delanty, Tess Gallagher, Matthew Sweeney and Brian Turner amongst many other respected literary figures.

The deadline is 30 November 2014 and this year’s judge is poet Matthew Sweeney.

More information, including submission guidelines, may be found on the Munster Literature Centre website or their Facebook group.

Entrants may contact info@munsterlit.ie with any queries they may have.

View PDF

Download Entry Form & Rules

The culmination of the County Arts Office Writers Mentoring Programme carried out in the Spring of this year under the excellent stewardship of Noel and Alan, will be the launch of a collection of poetry and prose work submitted by many of you.

In a slight departure from normal procedure we have decided to ask the programme participants to decide the title of the collection and to add a little incentive, we will offer €50.00 prize and a naming credit for the winning submission.

Once we have decided upon the title of the collection we will ask artists living in or originally from Longford to design the cover.

The collection will be launched in The Canal Studio, Backstage Theatre, Longford at 7.30pm on National Poetry Day, October 2^nd.

Rules of Entry:

1. All submissions must be by e-mail to fkennedy@longfordcoco.ie and must be marked; Collection Title 

2. Each writer should submit no more than three suggested titles.

3. A suggested title cannot be more than six words.

4. All submissions should be received by the Arts Office by e-mail no later that 5.00pm  on Monday 28^th July . 

We look forward to your proposals.

Windows Publications in association with Cavan Crystal present the 22nd National Student Poetry Competition 2014

Adjudicated by Heather Brett & Noel Monahan

€100 1st Prize in each category With several runner-up prizes and over 50 highly commended certificates

Closing date Friday 18th April 2014

Entry to this competition is free and no entry form needed. Entrant details (name, age, school or contact number) must be clearly marked on the BACK of each entry if posting work or at the end of the work if sending by email. Poems should NOT have been published before or won a prize in any other competition, and must be the student’s OWN work.

Entries will also be accepted on line as well as by post and from individual students as well as school entries. For email entries please send to: heatherbrett22@hotmail.com or by post to Windows/Cavan Crystal Poetry Competition, Cavan Crystal Hotel, Dublin Rd. Cavan, Co. Cavan, Ireland on or before FRIDAY 18th April 2014 (Extended closing date) Please state which category you are entering. Award ceremony held in Cavan Crystal Hotel on Sunday 25th May at 3pm. It is a condition of the award that prize winners must present themselves at the ceremony before a prize can be awarded.

Junior Category- Open to all students throughout Ireland and the U.K. in primary or national school education or equivalent. Senior Category- Open to all students throughout Ireland and the U.K. in second level education or equivalent. Irish Language Category – Open to all students between 10 – 18years old.

We are now accepting entries for the 2014 awards. The closing date is 28th. February 2014.

Category 1 – The Strokestown international Poetry Prize

1st prize – €1,000

2nd prize – €500

3rd prize – €200

3 x shortlisted readers fees of €100 each

Category 2 – The Percy French Prize for Comic Verse

1st prize – €300

2nd prize – €200

5 x runners up prizes of €100 each.

Visit strokestownpoetry.org for more information.

Mentoring is one of the most effective supports artists can receive as they struggle to develop their talents and their crafts. In the tradition of the master craftsman and his apprentice the aspiring artist learns at first hand how to develop and hone his or her talents directly from an established artist.

Longford County Arts Office is currently offering the opportunity for a small number of poets and prose writers to participate in a ten week mentoring programme with writers Noel Monahan and Alan McMonagle. [Read more…]

The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition is now open for entries!

First prize: €1000, a week’s residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, publication in Southword Journal, and the chance to read your work at the Cork Spring Poetry Festival.

Two more cash prizes will be awarded, plus publications for 10 runners up in Southword Journal.

 Judge: Patrick Cotter

Deadline: 15 December 2013

http://www.munsterlit.ie/Gregory%20ODonoghue%20International%20Poetry%20Competition.html

The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition is now open for submissions. Prize for single poem will have a first prize of 1,000 Euro and publication in Southword Literary Journal. [Read more…]