Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Prize

The Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Prize is in its third year.

Judge: Kate Newmann of Summer Palace Press 

Deadline: 14 November

Prize: €250 and perpetual Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Cup
Fineprint here

The maximum number of poems per entrant is 3. 

Entry fee: €5 (covers maximum entry of up to 3 poems)

I think an entry of 3 poems is a very good idea. One poem is such a lottery.

Send your poem(s) along with a cover letter with name, address, and phone number and/or email address, and title(s) of each poem submitted. 

Post entries to North West Words Poetry Prize 2014, 54 Thornberry, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. 

No on-line submissions so I would imagine the number of entries will be lower, greater chance of winning? A shortlist but only one prize.

A shortlist will be published on www.northwestwords.com on North West Words’ Facebook page and at North West Words’ Christmas event in Café Blend mid-December. 

The winning poet will be notified on Thursday, 15 January 2015

The winner of the competition will be announced and prize awarded at North West Words in Café Blend, Letterkenny, on Thursday, 29 January 2015. 

Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

Deadline: November 5th 

Plough Prize

Liz Lochhead, the Scots Makar, will judge the 2014 Plough Prize. 

Deadline: 30 November 2014.

• Entry fee: £5 per poem
• Forty lines or under, no theme

 1^st prize £1,000

2^nd prize £500

3^rd prize £250

Details  and entry forms downloadable from www.theploughprize.co.uk

dlr Arts Grants 2015

The deadline for applications for both the Arts Grants 2015 and the Arts Access Grants 2015 is Monday the 3rd of November 2014.

For application forms and guidelines please go to: www.dlrcoco.ie

These forms are not easy to fill in and it's hard to know sometimes what they are looking for and what will knock you over the line. DLR are trying to help with a support session but you can always call your local arts officer if you have a question.

On Wednesday the 8th of October, there will be an application writing support session faciltiated by Kevin Murphy of Voluntary Arts Ireland from 2.30-3.30pm in County Hall, Dún Laoghaire for active retirement associations and for groups that work with older people in the county. Please contact Roisin O'Grady on 01 2719530 or rogrady@dlrcoco.ie for further details.

dlr Artists Network is hosting a talk on funding, proposals and opportunites on Saturday 4th of October at 11am in the Kingston Hotel. Please email artnetdlr@gmail.com for further details and to register your interest in attending this free event.

IV edition of international award for "Museum of Words" microfiction

The César Egido Serrano Foundation and the Spanish ‘Museum of Words’ ‘microfiction’ competition has a first prize of $20,000. For a 100 word story, that's ...that's $200 per word.

Open to international writers, entries can be submitted in English, Spanish, Arabic or Hebrew.
Entries must be sent exclusively by filling in the entry form that can be found on the website www.museodelapalabra.com.

All stories entered must be original, unpublished in all means (paper, electronic publications, network…) and have not been awarded in any other contest. Check out the website for the full details.

As one of the objectives of the organising César Egido Serrano Foundation is the value of the word and dialogue as a tool for uniting peoples, so the slogan of this contest is Mandela: Words and Concord. However the rules state that your story can be on any subject.

The three remaining finalist stories in the remaining language categories will receive a $2000 runner up prize each.

Deadline: November 23^rd 2014.

Last year there were 22.571 entries received from 119 countries. You can read the winners here

Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Prize 2013

Deadline: 15th November 2013.

The prize is open to anyone over 18 years of age as long as the poem is the original work of the author submitting it.
Entries must not have been previously published or have won a competition and only poems in English are being accepted.

The max number you can send off is three!

No entry fee is being charged as North West Words is a non profit organisation run on a voluntary effort. However a small contribution towards the admin costs would be gratefully appreciated. (e.g. €5)

Name and personal contact details on separate page and not on poems.
Send your entries to North West Words Poetry Prize 2013, 54 Thornberry, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. 

Judge is Kate Newman
Online submissions are not accepted (so I'm guessing they won't have so many submissions)

One prize €250 and a cup

Cafe Writers Poetry Competition

Deadline: 30th November 2013

PRIZES
1ST  £1000        2nd £300 3rd £150   Six Commended Prizes of £50
Funniest Poem not winning another prize £100Norfolk Prize  £100awarded to the best poem from a permanent Norfolk resident not winning another prize

Entry Fee : £4 per poem; or £10 for 3 poems and £2.00 per poem thereafter
 SOLE JUDGE Deryn Rees-Jones

Maximum of 40 lines (excluding title) on one side of A4.

Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any web-site or broadcast.

Entries should be sent to:  Café Writers Poetry Competition, 168a Silver Rd, Norwich NR3 4TH with a cheque payable to Café Writers or enter and pay online at www.cafewriters.org.uk

Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award

The winner of this award gets a Ledwidge plaque for the mentalpiece. I don't have a mentalpiece. Perhaps you do.

1st Prize is the Ledwidge plaque (a keepsake) inscribed with the winner’s name & cash prize.
Cash prizes and books for second and third and merit certificates for finalists.

The first 3 poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK

In addition, the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2014.

Poems should not exceed 40 lines of type.
€ 4 per poem, 3 for €10. Maximum 6 poems (€20) payable to the Inchicore Ledwidge Society

Name and address and telephone number on a separate sheet.

Deadline: 5th November 2013 

Snailmail only:
The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2013, c/o 20, Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8

Winners will be notified and results will be announced at the annual awards night.

check out the Inchicore Ledwidge Society Facebook page. 

iOTA shots Awards for Short Poetry Pamphlets

Deadline: 18th November 2013: 
Results announced February 2014

Two, and up to three poets will have their shorter 'poetry shots'  published by Templar Poetry in 2014 and publication will be accompanied by launch events as well as the opportunity to appear at live Templar Poetry events and other venues.
An iOTA shot will be whatever you make it as a poet. It may be a series of sonnets, haiku, a sequence, a single narrative poem, a mini-epic or a short collection on a theme; it is both an invitation and an opportunity to produce an innovative, original and imaginative short piece of work.
Templar Poetry  is a publishing house with a reputation for developing new audiences for poetry through its fresh and unfettered approach to discovering excellent new writers and presenting their work to a wide range of readers and listeners.

• Each winning poet receives £100 and fifty copies of their iOTA shot pamphlet
  

• Each winning poet will be offered the opportunity to record their work for our forthcoming online poetry carousel
  

• Each winning poet will be issued with a Templar Poetry publishing agreement which will include the option to submit a full collection for consideration
  

• All poets who submit receive a complimentary Templar Pamphlet

• READER – Alex McMillen: Managing Editor, Templar Poetry
• 
  The cover, title and contents pages are not counted in the twelve to sixteen pages of poetry.

 

Postal Submission Fee: £14.50

                                       
Online Submission Fee: £15.50

 Link here

Dublin City Council - Arts Funding

Dublin City Council invites applications for funding towards arts projects and programmes in the city which are complementary to the following objectives:

• Achieving quality provision of the arts and cultural services
• Supporting the established and emerging artist
• Ensuring equality of public access to and participation in the arts, particularly through the city neighbourhoods
• Encouraging awareness, education and research in the arts
• Supporting the sustainable and strategic development of arts initiatives

Application forms, guidelines and criteria may be obtained from:
City Arts Office, Dublin City Council, The LAB, Foley St., Dublin 1
Tel: 222 7843 
or E-mail: victoria.kearney@dublincity.ie

OR DOWNLOAD CRITERIA & APPLICATION FORM HERE:

Deadline: Monday 4th November at 5pm.

Walking on Thin Ice

A short story competition to promote mental health awareness.

“Talk about depression” – But what if you can’t – because institutions of power or stifling, culturally-enforced shame have made it unsafe to do so?

Theme: Mental illness, stigma and oppressive institutional power

Deadline extended to: November 15

Prizes: €500, €250 and €100. Publication in an e-anthology for the final shortlist.

bof final shortlist: Dave Lordan, poetry and prose writer and facilitator, author of Invitation to a Sacrifice and First Book of Frags.

The Walking on Thin Ice short story competition has one aim: to produce powerful, new, high-quality short fiction (500 – 4000 words) on the topic of mental health, stigma and power by means of an open blind-submission short story contest. The intention is also to fundraise as much of the prize money as possible.

Entry is open to anyone, anywhere in the world – but entries must be in English.

Rules, submissions and more info here

The Plough Prize for Poetry

The Plough Prize 2013 is now open for online or postal entries.

Full results for all previous contests are available under 'past years', as are the winning poems and judges' comments and I recommend you have a read so you know what kind of thing they are looking for. I think they pre screen so the judge, this year Andrew Motion, only reads a selection.

Entry fee: £5 (Cheque or Paypal)

Open Poetry (up to 40 lines)

Prizes: 1st £1000, 2nd £500, 3rd £250

Link here

Deadline 30 November

I have a soft spot for the plough as I won first prize for a short poem a couple of years ago, thought this category doesn't seem to be running this year.

Mumsnet/Walker Short Story Competition

Writing for children?

Write a story for the Walker Books/Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories:
Enter the Walker Books/Mumsnet writing competition and your story could be included in an illustrated gift book of Bedtime Stories for the under-sevens. For your chance to be considered, submit your original manuscript of up to 1,500 words

Deadline: 30 November 2012

All entries will be read and a shortlist of 20 stories will be compiled by a panel of leading industry experts, including former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. The shortlist will be announced on 28 January 2013 and available online for Mumsnetters to vote for their favourite stories and determine the ten winning stories.

The winning authors will each receive £500 and the winning stories will be illustrated and included in a book of bedtime stories published by Walker Books in October 2013. 

The competition is open to you if you are:
(a) a resident of UK or Republic of Ireland;
(b) 18 years old or over at the time of entry;
(c) a registered member of Mumsnet or Gransnet (free to register);
(d) free to enter into the terms and conditions set out in the rules of entry;
(e) happy to have your story edited;
(f) happy to take part in reasonable marketing activity and publicity

More info here: http://www.mumsnet.com/competitions/bedtime-stories

The 2012/13 Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition

The 27th annual Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition is now open for entries.

JUDGE: Simon Armitage.  (A personal hero of mine)

DEADLINE: Last post on 29 November 2012, or online by midnight on 1 December.

ENTRY FEE: £25, or £20 for North subscribers and Friends of the Poetry Business. A £1 surcharge is applied to online entries.

The Book & Pamphlet Competition invites entrants to submit a collection of 20-24 pages of poems for the chance to win a cash prize and publication by Smith/Doorstop Books.

Four first stage winners are selected and given the opportunity to submit a full-length manuscript to the second round of the competition, in which one of them can win book publication. The three first-stage winners receive pamphlet publication. 

All four winners will receive an equal share of £2,000, and have a launch reading at The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere (Spring 2013) and read alongside Simon Armitage at the 2013 Off The Shelf Festival in Sheffield. 

The winning collections are beautifully produced, widely promoted, reviewed in high quality poetry magazines and nationalnewspapers, and entered for all eligible awards and prizes. The collections are also launched at high profile readings and distributed via bookshops across the UK.

Consequently, many previous years’ competition winners have gone on to achieve glittering careers; including Mimi Khalvati, Michael Laskey, Patrick McGuinness, Allison McVety, Pascale Petit, Kathryn Simmonds and Catherine Smith. 

Link here

Silversmith Poetry Competition

Christmas shopping early? Why not write a poem?

Competition from Maison Vee and The Journal/original plus. Theme is 'Earrings'.

The winning earring poem will be published in The Journal and its author will get to choose a pair of Maison Vee earrings.

Deadline: 12 November 2012

Free to enter

Entries marked 'competition' to Sam Smith at The Journal: smithsssj@aol.com

http://thesamsmith.webs.com/index.htm#830323055

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaisonVees

Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award

Deadline: 5th Nov 12
Submissions are now being accepted for the 14th Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award. Poets may submit a maximum of six poems, which must be original, unpublished and 40 lines or less.

The first place winner will receive a cash prize and plaque as well as an invitation to read at the Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2013. The second and third place winners will receive cash prizes and books.

The entry fee is €4 per poem or 3 poems for €10. For more information on submissions, click here.

Iota Shots

Iota Poetry is delighted to announce the 2013 iOTA shots Awards for Short Poetry Pamphlets.

Two, and up to three poets will have their shorter 'poetry shots'  published by Templar Poetry in 2013 and publication will be accompanied by launch events as well as the opportunity to appear at live Templar Poetry events and other venues.

An Iota shot will be whatever you make it as a poet. It may be a series of sonnets, haiku, a sequence, a single narrative poem, a mini-epic or a short collection on a theme; it is both an invitation and an opportunity to produce an innovative, original and imaginative short piece of work.

Templar Poetry  is a publishing house with a reputation for developing new audiences for poetry through its fresh and unfettered approach to discovering excellent new writers and presenting their work to a wide range of readers and listeners..

• Two, and up to Three submissions selected for publication by Templar Poetry
  

• Each winning poet receives £100 and fifty copies of their iOTA shot pamphlet
  

• Each winning poet will be offered the opportunity to record their work for our forthcoming online poetry carousel
  

• Each winning poet will be issued with a Templar Poetry publishing agreement which will include the option to submit a full collection for consideration
  

• All poets who submit receive a complimentary Templar Pamphlet
  

• CLOSING DATE for sending submissions – 19th November 2012
  

• READER – Alex McMillen: Managing Editor, Templar Poetry
  

Link here 

Magma magazine Poetry Competition

I have a soft spot for Magma as they published one of my poems last year. It's the only poem I've written in a Clondalkin accent (I can never read it out loud)

Anyway, they've a competition, two competitions.

Deadline 30th November

Magma's Judge's Prize
Judge: George Szirtes
Up to 80 lines (unusually long)

First Prize £500
Second Prize £200
Third Prize £100

and

Editors Prize for a short poem
Up to 10 lines
Judged by a panel of Magma Editors
(I would love to be a guest editor on a magazine. Offers please)

First Prize £500
Second Prize £200
Plus 10 Special Mentions £10 each

As part of the prize, all 15 winners will have their poems published in our Spring Issue 2012 and be invited to read alongside George Szirtes at Magma’s prize-giving event on Monday 13 February 2012 in London.

Monday. Hm, London Hm

Competition Entry Fees: £5 per poem or £15 for four poems, except for Magma Poetry magazine subscribers who pay £3 per poem or £9 for four poems.

 More here

Call for Submissions to Mxlexia

Mslexia is looking for (women) writers. Current themes are:

The Year 2212.
What will it be like. What could it be like? Will it be Star Trek or Bladerunner? Battlestar Galactica.

Up to 4 poems up to 40 lines each
or
2 short stories up to 2,200 words

Email only from overseas writers otherwise snailmail from UK writers.

Deadline: 28 November 2011

Details here

Also
Monologue
I catch myself doing that sometimes (daily probably)
(When I'm old(er), I'll be one of those old ladies you see who are a little scary.)

Send up to 200 words on any topics in a single characters voice.

Deadline: 16 January 2012

And
Pen Portrait
Convey a characters in up to 120 words. This quarter, a teenager.

Deadline: 16 January 2012

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office 2011 Bursary

Grants season is upon us for some county councils. Check with your local arts office to see if yours is one. Remember many will also give grants to people who are FROM there, not just LIVING there. The only county council I know who give grants to people who only WORK there is Dublin South, who graciously gave me one when I was working there.


Kilkenny County Council Arts Office is now inviting artists working across all art forms (e.g literature) to apply for its Arts Office 2011 Bursary. 

Applications will be accepted from individual creative practitioners working in any art form to enable them to pursue their practice, to develop within their chosen discipline, including research and development, professional development, collaborative projects and activities, multidisciplinary projects and equipment. 

Individuals seeking assistance must be involved in arts activities which, in the opinion of the Arts Office, develop knowledge of the arts and arts practice, their own practice and that of others. They must seek to promote the arts and artists practice to the public and develop an appreciation of the arts and their own practice and that of others. Undertakings should also assist in improving the standards of the arts and arts practice. The Arts Office is encouraging individuals seeking assistance to involve others in their project, to assist and develop collaborative practice and engage with others in the execution of their activity or project.

Dealine: 4pm, Monday 14 November 2011.For all application forms regarding the Bursary please contact:
Niamh Finn, Arts Administrator, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, No. 76, John Street, Kilkenny.
T: 056 779 4138
E: niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie / mary.butler@kilkennycoco.ie
Application forms can also be downloaded from www.kilkennycoco.ie/eng/Services/Arts/Grants_Awards/ or from www.artlinks.ie.