Boyne Berries submissions for 1916 theme

The submission period for Boyne Berries 19, which will be a special issue commemorating the centenary of the 1916 Rising is open. The magazine will  be published in late March of 2016.

Deadline: Sunday, 03rd January, 2016. 

From Orla Fay, the editor of Boyne Berries:

What does 1916 mean to you now? Can you picture life one hundred years ago? Is romantic Ireland dead and gone? What would those figures, those celebrated heroes of our past make of Ireland today if they could step out from the shadows? Is this a time to truly reflect? I don't want to put words in your mouth but I'd love to know what you think, what you feel, what you imagine...

I am keen to read work from writers in the Meath area but national and international submissions are also welcome.

• Send up to 3 poems per poetry submission. 
• Poems should be no more than 40 lines long. 
• Fiction and prose submissions should be no more than 1500 words. 
• Please use Times New Roman 12 and single spacing. 
• Please include a short biographical note about yourself. 
• Submissions should be placed in the body of the email and attached as a word document attachment. 
• Submit to orla.a.fay@gmail.com only.

Submissions which fail to adhere to the above criteria will be ignored.

Magma revolution

Magma poetry Magazine are looking for submissions on the theme of Revolution.

They say:

For Magma 65 we’re looking for poems that respond to the idea of revolution in the here and now. Perhaps your poem will show a new form breaking though or reflect on politics and conflict. Or perhaps you will focus on the strangeness of living in the 21^st century, on “the revolutionary potential of everyday life” as Michel de Certeau and Henri Lefebvre put it, writing squarely in the tradition of Baudelaire, the first poet to see daily life in the streets of Paris as revolutionary.
We’d be delighted to receive poems in which the revolutionary intervenes in daily life whether politically as in Heaney’s The Toome Road or even A Constable Calls; or personally as in Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me”, Frost’sThe Road Not Taken, Bishop’s Invitation to Miss Marianne Moore or Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman; or stylistically as in Paul Stephenson’s poem in Magma 58 where all 25 lines end perfectly logically with “beetroot”.

Please send us your poems by Submittable 
Deadline: 31^st January 2016 

Magma Poetry Competition

The Magma poetry competition is open for entries. There's very sound advice here from the judge Dalgit Nagra about this competition but on entering competitions in general. Read it.

Deadline: 19 January 2016

Daljit Nagra is the Judge for the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines.
First prize £1,000, second prize £300 and third prize £150.

Magma’s Editors’ Prize is also open over the same period for poems of up to ten lines:
First prize £1,000, second prize £300 and 10 special mentions £15.

In addition to receiving attractive cash prizes, winners will be invited to read at Magma’s prize-giving event in Spring 2015. The five prize winning entries will be published in the magazine.

The entry fees are £5 for the first poem, £4 for the second and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees: £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second, and £2.50 for the third and each subsequent poem.

More info here

3rd Ó Bhéal Five Words Poetry Competition

If you are looking for some inspiration and/or writing exercise, have a look at this competition.

The 3rd Ó Bhéal Five Words Poetry Competition runs until the end of January 2016. 

Each Tuesday at noon (GMT), five words are posted on the competition page at http://www.obheal.ie/blog/?page_id=2371.

Entrants have one week to compose and submit poems that include all five words given for the week. 

A prize of 500 euros will be awarded to one winner, and if available, invited to read at Ó Bhéal’s ninth anniversary event in April, 2016 (an additional travel fee of 100 euro plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this).

The shortlisted poems and winning entry will also be published in Five Words Vol IX – the next annual anthology of five word poems, launched at the same event.

This year’s judges are Marie Coveney and Colm Scully. 

Call for Submissions - the pickled body

Those super artistic, off kilter people who run the pickled body are looking for submissions for issue 2.1 on the theme of quantum.

Deadline: 30th January.

Link here

They say:

In Ian Fleming’s short story, ‘a quantum of solace’ is the least amount of comfort and fellow feeling required for a relationship to survive.

In the classic television series Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett had to jump into other people’s lives, repair them, and move on. 

Quantum physics we all know about – because it’s what makes our world tick/not tick. Remember too that quantum means ‘very small’ not ‘very big’. 

For issue 2.1 of The Pickled Body we’re looking for work on the theme of ‘quantum’. You decide what that means.

Send up to three poems on the theme to thepickledbody@gmail.com. 

Work submitted must not have been published elsewhere, and should be included in your email as an attached document, preferably Word or Pages. 

Readers Digest 100 word story competition

Write a story exactly 100 words long.

Submissions must be original and not previously published.

Note: Contributions become world copyright of Vivat Direct Ltd (t/a Reader’s Digest).

Entry is open only to residents of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland. 

Link to website here for online and other forms of submission here.

Free to enter, which is quite rare.

Prize: win £500 and see your work published in the magazine 

Honest Ulsterman Submissions

The HU is inviting you to submit poetry, prose and critical writing and art to its February issue. Up to 3 poems can be submitted and prose can be up to approx. 3000 words. Art can be any medium. There is no theme.
Deadline: 31st Jan 2015.
Please note HU is an online publication. Link here 

Send submissions to hueditor@theverbal.co
The editor is Gregory McCartney, also the editor of Abridged, a stonkingly good poetry and art magazine based in Northern Ireland.

Basil Bunting Award poetry competition

The Basil Bunting Award poetry competition is open internationally to any poet writing in English.

Each poem should be no longer than 40 lines.  The title is not included in the line count, nor are any blank spaces to indicate stanza or section breaks.

All entries are judged anonymously: do not include your name on the document.

Fee: £6 for one poem, £10 for two poems, and and extra £5 per poem beyond that. The maximum number of entries per poet is 10.

Deadline: 15th January 2015.

Entries will be judged by W. N. Herbert.

First prize: £1000

Second prize: £750

Third prize: £250

Entry online or by post.

Link here

Magma poetry Prizes

The rather good poetry magazine Magma has a different editor every time so you can't get complacent about what will appear.

They hve two compeitions for a short and a medium poem

Magma Judges Prize 2014

Poems of 11 to 50 lines. 1st prize £1,000, 2nd £300, 3rd  £150. In addition to receiving cash prizes, winners will be invited to read at Magma’s prize-giving event in Spring 2015. All winning entries will be published in the magazine.
Entry: £5 for the first poem, £4 for second, £3.50 for third and each subsequent poem, reduction for Magma magazine subscribers.

 Closing Date: 19-Jan-15

Magma Editors’ Prize 2014

Poems up to 10 lines. 1st prize £1,000, 2nd £300, plus 10 Special Mentions £15 each.
Entry: £5 for the first poem, £4 for second and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees.

Closing Date: 19-Jan-15
More information: http://magmapoetry.com/competition/

Angry Manifesto - Political Poems sought

Subtle or in your face? The Angry Manifesto is looking for political poems.

The Angry Manifesto is a brand new poetry magazine, aimed at protest and the current political world we live in today.

They want to hear your words of dissent: why we should vote? why we should'nt vote? why you feel alienated from the current political parties today? They want your bile, your angry, your  words of protest, they want poems that will change and mould peoples views at the next general election in May 2015.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Send no more than five poems with no more than thirty lines each, they don't want poems about London, Religion, Love, and Sparrows.

All poems most be on a political theme, as this is a political / protest magazine.

Please send your poems theangrymanifesto@gmail.com with a short bio, because the poems should do the talking.  

Deadline: 1st Jan 2015.

Each issue will have a guest editor, so get writing.  

Read more: www.the-angry-manifesto0.webnode.com

The Bristol Poetry Prize

1st Prize:  £600 plus an invitation to read your poem at Bristol Spring Poetry Festival 2015 

2nd Prize: £300 plus an invitation to read your poem at Bristol Spring Poetry Festival 2015 

3rd Prize: £100 plus an invitation to read your poem at Bristol Spring Poetry Festival 2015 

Judge: Penelope Shuttle (All poems will be seen by Penelope Shuttle)

Entry fee: £6.00 per poem

All profits generated by the Bristol Poetry Prize will directly fund Bristol Poetry Festivals 2015.

By post

To enter the competition by post, download the instructions and rules as a doc or instruction and rules as a pdf.

and download the entry form as a doc or download the entryform as a pdf.

Postal entries postmarked no later than Friday 8 January 2015 will be accepted.

Online

To enter the competition online, download the rules as a doc or download the rules as a pdf, read them and fill in the form below and attach your poems.

You will then be taken to a payment page where you can pay by PayPal or debit/credit card.

Online entries must be received no later than midnight 9 January 2015. 

2nd Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition

Every Tuesday at midday five words are posted on the Ó Bhéal competition page at www.obheal.ie.

You have one week to compose and submit poems that must include all five words for the week. At noon the following Tuesday, these words will be replaced with five new words.

The competition is running for a total of forty-one weeks, until the last week of January 2015.

A single prize of €500 will be awarded to one winner, who will also be invited to read at Ó Bhéal's seventh anniversary event, on Monday 13th of April 2015 (an additional travel fee of €100 plus B&B accommodation will be provided for this).

A shortlist of twelve poems including the overall winner will be announced during the first week of March, 2015. The shortlisted poems and winning entry will be published in Five Words Vol VIII - the next annual anthology of five word poems, launched at the same event.

Judges for this year's competition are Jennifer Matthews and Billy Ramsell.

Further details about the competition can be found on the Ó Bhéal website: click here  

The Today Show RTE's "Publish your Novel" competition in conjunction with New Island

We are looking for works of fiction, any genre including Literary Fiction, Crime Fiction, Short Stories, children’s and YA. Please do NOT submit non-fiction, Drama or Poetry.

We ONLY accept submissions if they adhere to the following guidelines:

1) Submissions are sent by email to: editor[AT]newisland.ie with “competition submission” in the subject line

2) Attach the first 50 pages of your novel, PLUS a synopsis of the novel (no longer than 500 words) as two separate Word documents (.doc or .docx)

3) Printed manuscripts will not be accepted, nor will manuscripts contained on CDs or other storage devices sent by post

4) Entries will only be accepted between 16:00hrs on Friday 10th January and Midnight Sunday 25th January 2014

5) Shortlisted authors will be contacted before Friday 21st February 2014.

This is a Story Flash Competition

This is a Story invites entries of all original unpublished work of up to 500 words and the cost is €5 per entry (3 entries for €10). There is no theme or subject limitations and entries will  be judged anonymously by author Mike Mc Cormack. You can enter by post, by e-mail or by Facebook and the deadline is January 14th 2014. Prize: €300.

Send entries to GRCC, "The Lodge" Forster Court, Galway with cheques/postal orders made out to Galway Rape Crisis Centre.

Overseas entries:

a)    enter via website using a credit card

b)    enter by sending a paypal payment to coordinator@galwayrcc.org

c)    enter by post 

Competition winners are informed around late Febuary but the official announcement is made at the time of the prizegiving – this year it will mid March 2014.  Check the website after this date or send an SAE for the list of winners and judges’ reports.

More info: Aoife Ní Laoi - fundraiser@galwayrcc.org

Francis Macmanus Short Story Award

Gradually later and later until it missed 2013 all together. The next deadline is Friday 31st January 2014. This is a short story for the radio so the ear is everything.

Submissions for the 2014 RTÉ Francis Mac Manus Radio Short Story Competition are now being accepted. 

 

The competition is free to enter. 

 

Applications forms and guidelines can be found Here  

 

Apply by post to-

 
The Francis Mac Manus Short Story Competition,
RTÉ Radio 1,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.

 

The three judges for 2014 are Christine Dwyer Hickey, novelist and short story writer, Julie Parsons, and author and former radio producer, Eoin Purcell, Editorial Director, New Island Books.

Cork Spring Literary Festival - Emerging Poets Reading

I read here last year. I was very good. In fact, I made at least one member of the audience cry, but in a good way. They didn't invite me back yet though, despite my strong Cork links.

Details here

15 February at 4pm at the Cork Arts Theatre.   A selection of emerging poets reading at the
Gregory O'Donoghue Prizegiving Ceremony.

The Prebooked Poetry Reading will involve up to five individuals who have yet to publish a full-length collection of poems. Each poet will have the opportunity to read three poems of 40 lines or under. If you would like a chance to partake in this event you must have at least two magazine publishing credits. 

Submit three poems with a biographical note. 

Deadline: January 7th 

Submit to: munsterlit(AT)eircom(DOT)net . Submissions must have the subject heading “Prebooked Poetry Reading 2014”.

The list of chosen poets will be posted on www.munsterlit.ie by January 20th and later
on www.corkpoetryfest.net

Pighog Poetry Pamphlet

I am hesitant to suggest this as there is only one winner. There are runner up prizes of courses but they are in the UK and not much use to me.
But there aren't that many pamphlet competitions so....

FIRST PRIZE:
Publication by Pighog, and 40 complimentary copies of the pamphlet
4 Runners up:
a free place on a Poetry School activity
Judges:
Catherine Smith and Simon Barraclough
Closing date for initial entries:
31 January 2014

About
Pamphlet publishing is vital to poetry. For a second year The Poetry School and Pighog have come together to promote this pamphlet competition, encouraging poets to explore the potentials of the genre and create innovative and imaginative new work.

The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over, writing poetry in English anywhere in the world. Initially, entrants are invited to submit ten poems (or ten sides of poetry on A4). Each entry should be a collection of exciting work that refreshes and challenges the poetry pamphlet genre. Submissions should be no more than 300 lines in total, averaging 30 lines per poem over 10 poems.
The judges will select a shortlist of up to twelve poets by 28 March 2014. Short-listed poets will be asked to submit complete pamphlet collections by 26 May 2014 for final judging. Shortlisted poets will also be invited to read at an event in Brighton on 26 June 2014, when the winner will be announced.

How to enter
Enter online via the Submittable website. Enter by post by completing the attached entry form which can also be downloaded in Word or PDF format from the Poetry School and Pighog websites.

A maximum of 10 poems should be submitted. Poems should be typed on single sides of A4. Each submission should be no more than 300 lines in total.

Entry fee
Entry costs £10 per entry for:
A) Poetry School Students who have attended a course or workshop since 1 January 2011 or who have attended or booked a course by the competition closing date (31 January 2014)
B) Anyone who has purchased a Pighog publication from the Pighog website (www.pighog.co.uk) since 1 January 2013
Entry costs £15 for anyone not in Category A or B.

Richard & Judy are looking for a new Bestseller

Richard and Judy are launching a national competition to find a new bestselling author alongside their Autumn Book Club.

The ‘Search for a Bestseller’ competition will be looking for first time authors to submit the first 10,000 to 12,000 words of a novel, of any genre, aimed at adults. Richard and Judy want something brand new and are asking entrants to submit their novel via their Book Club website along with a synopsis of the rest of the book. More information

Richard and Judy will lead the selection process, along with editors at the book’s future publisher Quercus, plus experts from literary agency Furniss Lawton. The winning writer will receive a publishing deal worth £50,000 from Quercus for the rights to sell their novel around the world.

The Richard and Judy Book Club website  which launched this summer, will continue to offer readers a forum to exchange thoughts with both Richard and Judy and the authors themselves.
To help inspire budding authors to enter their competition, Richard and Judy have also asked some of their favourite writers to share the lessons they’ve learnt over the years on the website – on the news section, for further tips and advice and follow the Book Club’s Twitter and Facebook pages for regular updates.

Deadline: 1 January 2014. For full terms and conditions please visit: www.richardandjudy.co.uk/beabestseller

Brontë Society - Creative competition

The Publications and Conference Committee of the Brontë Society is pleased to announce the opening of the new Creative Competition.

Categories and Judges:
Short story - Dame Margaret Drabble
Poetry - Simon Armitage, CBE
Illustration - Victoria Brookland

In the first category, short stories, the challenge will be to create a story around one of the minor characters in one of the seven Brontë novels; for example, in 'Jane Eyre', Helen Burns’ life before she came to Lowood School.

In the poetry section we are looking for unusual personal responses to one of the Brontës' novels or poems.

For the illustration section, a new visual strand, we are looking for black-and-white illustrations of a specific scene, as described in one of the novels.

Prizes
£500 first prize, £250 second prize, and £100 third prize will be awarded in each category.

Entry fee is £10. (Steep? Especially for a single poem)

Entries are to be sent to the Brontë Parsonage, Haworth, West Yorkshire, BD22 8DR.

Deadline: 31 January, 2014.

Link here

Waterford City Grants

Waterford City Council Arts Grants 2013 cover quite a lot of ground.

Deadline 30 January 

Production of quality Arts Programmes:

Professional Theatre / Performance Production
Professional Creative Collaboration Production
Amateur / Voluntary Group Production
Youth / Pre-professional Production
Marching / Concert band programme
Concerts Programme
Hospitals/Disability Arts Programme

Audience Development/Inclusion:

Primary Schools Exploring Arts Performance Programme
Secondary Schools Exploring Arts Performance Programme
Transition Year Exploring Arts Programme
Youth Social Inclusion Arts Exploration Programme
Intergenerational Inclusion Arts Programme

The Artist and the City:

Professional Development Grants
Tyrone Guthrie Artists Awards (Creative residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre)
Publishing Purchase Scheme
3rd Party Support Scheme
Specific Bursaries: Youth Choir Bursary, Youth Orchestra Bursary, Music Network Bursary, AIMS Bursary, All Ireland Drama Festival Bursary

Link here