Emerging Writer

Mslexia Short Story Competition

2009-12-07T19:00:00.000Z

Another Mslexia Short Story Competition.

Judge: Tracy Chevalier

1st Prize £2,000
plus a one-week writing retreat at Chawton House Library and a day with a Virago editor
2nd prize £500
3rd prize £250
3 other finalists will win £100 each

All winning stories will be published in Mslexia magazine.

Deadline: : 25 January 2010

Maximum 2,200 words.

You have to be a woman.
Rules here:

Ropes

2009-12-06T19:00:00.002Z

Call for submissions:

ROPES is the annual literary journal produced by the MA in Literature and Publishing at N.U.I. Galway. It features all forms of modern fiction, poetry, drama, screenplays, photography, and illustrations.

While all themes and subjects are welcome, we are particularly interested in any ideas and responses relating to the first decade of the 21st century.

Submissions should not exceed 2,500 words, with a maximum of three works per author.

Deadline: 4 January 2010.

Email to ropesgalway at gmail dot com

Today's surfing suggestions

2009-12-05T19:00:00.002Z

5 Rules for Better Blogging (or whatever) from mashable, like don't write really, really long, rambling paragraphs. You know who you are...

Getting Unpublished by Matthew Hill - a salutary tale.

Related - publisher reneging on paying a charity, Caroline Smailes.

Neil Gaiman's crusade to make writers make a will. Have you?

Mashable 100+ best literary twitters to follow.

You have see this Awkward Family Photos and take inspiration for creating the stories behind them.

Imagine writing a book which people love so much, they tattoo quotes or images from it. Twilight Tattoos.

Uproar about US publisher Harlequin starting up a self-publishing arm, morally questionable? From Janet Reid.

Gotta Shock the Broca marketing skills from Jimmy Roubart via Rachelle Gardner.

Writing Spirit short story competition

2009-12-04T19:00:00.000Z

Here's a short story competition that's free to enter. They recently moved the deadline date.

Deadline: 31 December 2009

But will still have the shortlist of 10 by 10th January 2010 (quite short to go through what will probably be a tall pile)

You can see current entries here to judge the standard. This means your story will be shown to all online, if you have a problem with that.

You also have to join the writing4all online group. Make sure 'Writing Spirit Competition' is selected as the category for your work. Then remember to mail a hardcopy to Writing4all, c/o Spade Enterprise Centre, North King Street, Smithfield, Dublin 7, Ireland.

Prizes: First: €1000, Second: €300, Third: €150.

Maximum 4000 words and minimum 750 words,

# Short list of 10 pieces (chosen by the Editing Team) will be announced on 10th January and featured on the site. This short list will be adjudicated by Nadine O' Regan and winner and runners-up will be announced on February 15th.

Bridport Results

2009-12-03T19:00:00.000Z

The Bridport short story and poetry results are out. There are a few Irish addresses for those who are interested. I didn't recognise any names except Carolyn Jess-Cooke shortlisted for short story and Michael Farry for poetry - congrats! The first prize in the short story section was the first Jenny Clarkson had submitted.

I recommend reading the judges reports. They can be very insightful and you may take notes on how to stand out in a pile of entries.

Ali Smith on Short stories

Not many asked much of the form when it came to structure; ... A fair few were about marital break-up and gender anger. An awful lot were about death, or dying, or hospitals. This isn't surprising: it's a matter of life and death, after all, the short story. Its nature concerns itself with the shortness of things; by its very brevity it challenges aliveness with the certainty of mortality, and vice versa too, which is why I got very excited when I read anything which leaned towards the story form as a force and source of life. I wish there had been more of these.

I don't completely follow the comment on story form as a force and source of life. Is she refering to challenging or non-standard story structures? Ali, if by any chance you read this, please explain.

The wonderful Jackie Kay said

I read all my favourite poems aloud to see how they lived off the page, and each of my choices make a good sound read as well as a paper one, the test of a good poem.

So true. Read your poems AND your prose aloud.

IWC Open Day

2009-12-02T19:00:00.001Z

The IWC keeps on thinking outside the box. Good ideas here.

They have an open day:

When: 5th December
Why: to discover what we have planned for 2010. Staff will be on hand to answer your questions. There will be readings throughout the day and live music.

12.00pm Tiger Tales: Literary Coffee Morning

Bring along your favourite stories and poems to our literary coffee morning. The theme is Tiger Tales – whether you interpret it as animals, economy, speed, or violence is up to you! Bring along a piece you think fits the theme and partake in our informal readings and refreshments.

1.00pm Readings by guest poets Eileen Casey and Kieran Fury

The Irish Writers' Centre is delighted to welcome guest poets, Eileen Casey and Kieran Fury, to our Open Day. All are welcome to attend this free reading.

3-4pm The Rag and Bone Shop, Creative Writing Hour

An informal writing session hosted by the Irish Writers' Centres interns over tea and coffee. The hour will include writing exercises and prompts to get ideas flowing. It is open to everyone and is suitable for all levels of experience.

4.00pm Opening Address and information

Opening address by the IWC chairman, Jack Harte. Jack will introduce the focus of the Writers' Centre, its history and direction for the future.

One of our experienced creative writing tutors will also be on hand to lend their insight as to why a course in writing could kick start a new world of creativity. New course information and timetables will be available throughout the day.

4.45pm Presentation on Alice Milligan
Catherine Morris, the Irish Writers' Centre's Writer in Residence, will give a presentation on Alice Milligan. Alice Milligan was a poet and playwright who was a well-known figure in the literary revival movement of the early 20th Century and very respected among her peers.Catherine is currently writing a biography of the life and work of Alice Milligan, due to be published next year.

5.00pm Open Mike
We are opening the podium in our reading room to anyone who wishes to partake. We encourage you all to bring your musical instruments and your best poems and stories.

7.00pm Table Quiz
A literary themed table quiz. Entry is €16 per table. Up to 4 people may enter as a team, with the chance to win some amazing literary prizes.
9.00pm

Raffle
Prizes include a signed Seamus Heaney and John Banville book, tickets to take part in the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl and much more.

Gregory O'Donoghue Poetry Competition

2009-12-01T19:00:00.000Z

This competition is Cork based and don't be surprised if many of the shortlisters have US addresses. I don't know why this is but it often is. The first prize includes a trip to

Cork, Ireland.

But why not have a go anyway?

Prizes: 1st Prize €1000, publication in Southword and a trip to Cork Ireland.
2nd Prize €500 publication in Southword
3rd Prize €250 publication in Southword
Ten runners-up to be published in Southword and receive €30 publication fee.

Note Southword is now an online publication.

Deadline: Tuesday December 15th 2009

Judge: James Harpur who will read each and every entry himself, which is a positive.

Per George Szirtes, Harpur's poems are 'melancholy, monastic, mystical, like prayers shaped out of despair with the hearsay of some small light just over the horizon.'

I'd suggest no humour then.

Sample poems here.

Fee: €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five.

More details on the website.

Write This

2009-11-30T19:48:00.000Z

This is a paying market ... but only for short stories. They say

We are now paying our writers - except for the poets who might be the only good thing in the issue (i don't know) but the poet always gets screwed. They accept this as the blessing of their profession and we wouldn't want to deny them.

Sorry, mate. That's not even funny. That's pathetic.

If you want to submit a short story, here's the latest theme.

the blasphemy issue - issue 4.8
Opening Date: October 22nd
Closing Date: December 1st
Publication Date: December 21st

Summation: You love God. You hate God. We won't judge. Come to us to with your devotions, your confessions, or your proclamations. Or come to us with your disdain, your warnings. Bring us your Goddesses and Nymphs. Jesuses. Or your Darwins. Your Hubbardwacks. Your when you're dead you're dead. We don't care. And join together, one and all, in what shall be a heartwarming dialogue of "Fuck God." "Fuck God? No. God is Great. Fuck you." We will choose fairly from the pro god and anti god camps. No agnostics please.

The Phantom Tollbooth

2009-11-29T19:00:00.000Z

My favourite children's book, full of wit and wordplay. Have you ever read it? I adore it. I reread it often as a child ann now often use it when teaching. Author Norton Juster and illustrator Jules Feiffer and now, after 49 years, they are getting back together again. The book is called The Odious Ogre. An brutish Ogre who meets a kindly girl who teaches him a lesson he is not likely to forget.

Ever Tried Englynion?

2009-11-28T19:00:00.000Z

It's a British/Anglo Saxon type of Haiku. See this interesting post from Billy Mills in the Guardian. Writing in form is a challenge but I think every poet should try it.
Anglow Saxon/Viking forms are big into syllable counting. There are some variations but why not try the englyn cyrch. It's four seven-syllable lines of which lines one, two and four rhyme and the end of line three has an internal rhyme in line four:

_ _ _ _ _ _ a
_ _ _ _ _ _ a
_ _ _ _ _ _ b
_ _ _ b _ _ a

I didn't win the Patrick Kavanagh Award

2009-11-27T12:07:00.006Z

AGAIN.

Where are these people going to see sense? Do I have to abandon the plan to win the Kavanagh before I get my first collection out there?

Have not even been shortlisted for the Troubadour Poetry prize nor Poetry Can. Back to the drawing board.

Don't think I've been shortlisted for the Varilux short story competition either. I just saw a twitter from 2 days ago from someone who was. No news is bad news.

And while I'm on the subject, I sent some really good poems to a minor poetry journal, thinking I was doing them a favour. Really. That's the kind of headspace I was in. Guess what? They rejected them. All of them. As if! That's the last time they get offered my fantastic work. More fool them, that's what I say. More fool.

And while I'm off subject somewhat, don't you think Robert Pattinson's hair has an unfortunate resemblance to Jedwards? Scary.

I'm off to eat chocolate...

Writing of a Medical Nature

2009-11-26T19:00:00.000Z

Do you have any pieces of a medical nature, having an illness, having someone close to you with an illness, perhaps you work in the medical profession? Here's a journal you may find interesting, from the University of Toronto press, Ars Medica (link from Paperback Writer blog.)

Payment in contributor copies, electronic submissions preferred.

iad-T in the Park

2009-11-25T19:00:00.003Z

Starting on Sat Nov 28th, IADT and the lovely people at DLR Arts Office are starting ad-T in the Park, a series of literary happenings taking place once a month at the Tea Rooms in the People's Park, Dun Laoghaire.

Writers, readers and booklovers of all ages are invited to drop in and join Mia Gallagher, writer-in-residence at the IADT, for an exciting mix of literature, cakes and hot drinks. iad-T in the Park offers you the chance to share your work in public, chat with other writers, meet some of Ireland's brightest literary talents - or just talk about the books you love reading.

The events are free of charge, open to all and will run from midday to 4pm.

Saturday 28th November Opening Lines 12noon: Open Mic. Poetry, fiction, spoken word, music, comedy all welcome, with a 3-minute time limit per act! Time is tight so turn up early if you want your slot guaranteed.

3 minutes!

2pm: Readings & discussion by writers-in-residence Mia Gallagher and Paul Perry

Saturday 30th January Murder on the Bookshelves (crime fiction) 12noon: Writing the Dark Side (workshop). A fun workshop exploring how to get the most out of your dark side, structure suspense and play with horror and thriller motifs.

2pm: Readings & discussion by crime writers Declan Hughes and Arlene Hunt.

Saturday 27th February Exquisite Fictions (literary fiction) 12noon: Fiction Slam. Calling all fiction writers! You are challenged to go head-to head in an epic battle of literary performance. Numbers for this will be restricted. Contact arts@dlrcoco.ie for details.

2pm: Readings/discussion by two of Ireland's most exciting young writers, Claire Kilroy and Kevin Barry

Love Kevin Barry. Do yourself a favour and read some of his short stories.

Saturday 20th March Stranger than Fiction (non-fiction & poetry) 12noon: Poetry Coffee Morning. Share your favourite poems with other lovers of the artform? Poems can be by yourself or another. Max two poems per person.

2pm: Readings & discussion by memoirist Lia Mills and historical writer Neil Hegarty.

Why not with poets?

Saturday 24th April Play 4 Today (drama) 12noon: Improvisation and Storytelling (workshop). A playful workshop exploring ways to create, build and improve your stories.
2pm: Presentation by Annie Ryan and Michael West of The Corn Exchange, the ground-breaking theatre company behind Dublin Theatre Festival hit 'Freefall'.
Emerging writers can also set up a one-to-one session with Mia to talk about their work. Space for these is limited to two per month and will need to be booked in advance.

Guess the first line

2009-11-24T19:00:00.001Z

Here's a (old) competition from Betsy Lerner's blog. She who wrote the classic book on writing call The Forest For The Trees. Get it out the library now.

Match the first lines with the author's pictures. And identify the (American) authors too. Don't peak at the comments until you've had a go.

Read some more of BBetsy's blog for an good insight into agency work.

Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition

2009-11-23T19:00:00.001Z

This is the 2nd outing for this short story competition run by Interact.

Any Genre (not just crime)
The length of each story must not exceed 1000 words.
Deadline: 21st December
Fee: £10

Prize: The winner will receive £2,000 and become InterAct Reading Service’s Writer in Residence for a period of one year. In that capacity the winner will be expected to produce five further short stories.

While the copyright of any story submitted to the Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition will remain with the author, the submission of a story is done with the understanding that InterAct Reading Service has the right to copy and distribute the story to its actors for use in hospital and stroke club readings.

I would think that a story for use in hospitals and stroke clubs must be uplifting, probably humourous (shick, horror)

It sounds like a worthy cause anyway.

If you have won a prize in a competition you saw on my blog, please let me know. We should share succes stories.

Travel Writing Competition

2009-11-22T19:00:00.000Z

Want to try travel writing but never been published and paid? This one's for you.

The British Guild of Travel Writers has announced that as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, it is launching a new travel writing competition for unpublished travel writers in partnership with Traveller magazine.

The competition is open to all writers aged over 18, both UK and non-UK residents, who have not been published [paid work] in the travel field. Entrants should submit an 800-word article with the theme: A Very Special Place.

Deadline: 31 December 2009.

The prizes:

First prize comes courtesy of Travellers' Tales, the training agency for travel writing and travel photography, and the winner will enjoy a four-day travel writing holiday in the intoxicating city of Istanbul.

More on the website.

You will discover the city while practising your writing skills with a small group of fellow writers under the expert tuition of tutors such as Anthony Sattin, the distinguished Middle East expert, and Jonathan Lorie, former editor of Traveller and founder of the Travellers' Tales Festival (the next one takes place in London on 19-21 February 2010). See www.travellerstales.org

Second prize is a trip to Berlin courtesy of WEXAS, The Traveller's Club, in association with Hotel Berlin and Lufthansa. The prizewinner will enjoy a two-night stay in a double or twin room at the Hotel Berlin on a B&B basis, plus two return economy flights from the UK with Lufthansa.

Third prize is the winner's selection of 10 travel guides from award-winning publisher Bradt.

No More Hot Air

2009-11-21T17:55:00.002Z

Poetry/Ready/Panel/Discussion/Information/Session

Where: Tallaght Library

When: Monday, November 23rd at 7pm

Poets include:
Theo Dorgan
Iggy McGovern
Eileen Casey
& Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill

in discussion on climate change with
Niamh Garvey &
Mary Shine Thompson

Bad Sex Awards

2009-11-20T19:00:00.001Z

As in written about Bad Sex. I've personally written sex badly and written bad sex quote badly too. Here's the nominees for this year.

Paul Theroux’s A Dead Hand (Hamish Hamilton)
Philip Roth’s The Humbling (Jonathan Cape),
Anthony Quinn’s The Rescue Man (Jonathan Cape),
Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Chatto),
Amos Oz’s Rhyming Life and Death (Chatto),
Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro (Canongate),
John Banville’s The Infinities (Picador),
Simon Van Booy’s Love Begins in Winter (Beautiful Books),
Sanjida O’Connell’s The Naked Name of Love (John Murray)
Richard Milward’s Ten Storey Love Song (Faber).

All men except for Dr Sanjida O'Connell who I'm pretty sure is a woman. Strange that.

The lucky winner will be announced on 30th November.

Rachel Johnson won last year for Shire Hell (Penguin), while John Updike was awarded a lifetime achievement, having been nominated four years in a row.

P.S. I'm hoping for an increase in hits for this post!

Cork gets it on

2009-11-19T19:00:00.000Z

Cork flashmob - Mr Blue Sky to publicise the National Campaign for the Arts. Looks like they're all having fun. There's another planned in Wexford town, next Saturday 21 November at 12pm. (Apologies if you've seen this before.)

Surfing links

2009-11-17T19:00:00.003Z

Fifty-Two Poets - a blog about reading one collection a week and commenting on it.

Melancholy post about having to choose between writing, making money and family time from Declan Burke. Buy one of his books, if you haven't already, and cheer him up.

Bookwitch - blog worth reading.

Litdrift has Writing prompts.

How royalties work by Rachel Gardner, Literary Agent.

Hivemind. All your characters talk alike. Plain talking from i09.com.

Bards in the Bog from Shetland. We should SO do this here. Any takers?

International Writing Contents from Arts Grants Finder.com

Paul Durcan Fans

2009-11-16T19:00:00.004Z

Dermot Bolger will be in conversation with renowned Irish poet Paul Durcan in Deansgrange Library on Tuesday 17th November at 7.00pm.

Famous for his electrifying poetry readings, this autumn Paul Durcan marks four decades of writing with a magnificent collection, Life is a Dream: Forty Years of Reading Poetry, 1967-2007.

Admission is free but booking is essential Call (01) 285 0860

Presented by dlr Place and Identity Per Cent for Art Programme in association with dlr Libraries.

Willesden Herald

2009-11-15T19:00:00.001Z

The Willesden Herald Short story competition is now open.

Deadline: 18 December 2009.

Judge: Richard Peabody is a distinguished poet, author, lecturer on creative writing and editor of Gargoyle magazine. Shortlist chosen by Steve Moran.

How to enter here.

Word limit is a generous 8,000 words.

Fee: £3

The prizes for 2010 are:

1st place: £300 plus a one-off Willesden Herald mug inscribed "The Willesden Short Story Prize 2010"

2nd: 2 x £150 (two runners-up)

All ten short-listed stories will be included in "New Short Stories 4" to be published by Pretend Genius Press.

Author compensation for inclusion in New Short Stories is limited to 2 complimentary copies of the anthology.

Tony Doyle Bursary

2009-11-14T19:00:00.001Z

Not much notice for this one. First I've seen of it.

Deadline: 4th December 2009

The Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing is currently accepting submissions. The aim of the bursary is to promote, assist and develop writing for television from Irish writers who are new to the medium and to create links between broadcasters and writers in Ireland.

Entrants are asked to send in either a 60 or 90 minute script for an original television, theatre, film or radio drama in the form of a single drama or the first episode of a two-parter, serial or series. The chosen finalists will then participate in a residential seminar where they will undergo concentrated script sessions with members of BBC Northern Ireland Drama’s development team and various script writers and producers.

The winner of the bursary competition will receive a cash prize of £2,000.

Hemingway

2009-11-13T19:00:00.000Z

I met a man who met Ernest Hemingway once, or he said he did. He met Marilyn Monroe too and Mike Tyson too. The world's a small place.

You too can meet someone who met Hemingway. There is a lecture on 18th November by Valerie Hemingway in the RDS,

Free.

Advance booking by emailing lectures@rds.ie.

Valerie is a writer, living in the US but originally from Dublin, who met a certain Ernest in Spain in 1959. Their first meeting was as interviewer and subject, however the subject then hired Valerie as a personal secretary. She spent two years following him and his wife around France, Spain and Cuba as confidante and secret keeper. She even managed to pick up a husband along the way in the form of Hemingway’s son Dr. Gregory Hemingway.

Pop down to the RDS and hear these tales of a true adventurer. It’ll perk you up during the midweek slump and you might even learn a thing or two about one of America’s best writers.