Category Archives: Competitions

LeafLight Moon wins at the CAP Awards!

Competitions, Literary Events, Miscellaneous, , , , ,

LeafLight Moon has won the 2025 CAP Award for Fiction, and the Golden CAP for best independently published book. CAP Awards patron Paul Lynch announced Monica Corish as the overall winner at the award ceremony in Chapters Bookstore on October 10.

Judge Alan Ryan said of LeafLight Moon – a novel of prehistoric Ireland: “One story in particular stayed with me long after I put it down. It was multi-layered yet simple, occasionally quirky yet completely believable. I could easily imagine the events and time it told of happening exactly as written. I’d love to see it as a film. I reckon it would make a stunning Irish version of The Mission.”

LeafLight Moon is available in-store from Chapters Bookstore and Books Upstairs in Dublin, Liber Books in Sligo, A Novel Idea in Ballyshannon, and The Four Masters in Donegal town; online from Lulu Bookstore, Bookshop.org in the US, Waterstones in the UK, and other online outlets; and as an e-book from Amazon UK.

The Carousel Aware Prize for Independently Published Authors (The CAP for Indies) aims to provide a platform to showcase the cream of Irish Self-Published authors, bringing them to the attention of book shops, distributors, and the media in Ireland and abroad, with all money raised going to the charity Aware.

Watch the awards ceremony here (fiction prize at 1:14:44)

Monica Corish with Carolann Copland – photo credit Christine Higgins

Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions open for entries

Competitions, Literary Events

Poet and Summer Palace Press publisher Kate Newmann will judge the 2024 Poetry Competition entries, and the winner will also receive the Francis Harvey Poetry Award. Acclaimed author Nuala O’Connor will judge the Flash Fiction entries, and the winning entries will be published in the e-zine Splonk.

The 2024 Allingham Festival will take place from 6-10 November in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards will be presented and the winning entries will be read at the Allingham Literary Lunch on Saturday, 9 November. First-place winners will receive prizes of €300.

Deadline for entries is Sept 29. Details at  https://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions

Allingham Festival Francis Harvey Award for Poetry, James Keane Award for Flash Ficiton

Competitions, Literary Events, ,

The 2023 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions are open for entries until 22 September. Competition rules and entry forms are detailed on the Festival website www.allinghamfestival.com. The Festival will take place on 8-12 November in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.

This year’s Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards Ceremony will feature a new award – the Francis Harvey Award for Poetry. This annual award has been created to highlight the life and legacy of Donegal poet Francis Harvey, 1925-2014. The winner of the 2023 Allingham Poetry Competition will also be declared the winner of the Francis Harvey Award. The poetry competition will be judged by poet and publisher Kate Newman.

If you’re not familiar with Francis Harvey, look into his Collected Poems. In her introduction, Moya Cannon writes that ‘…Francis Harvey’s work combines the passion for precision of a naturalist and the yearning for grace of a poet, except for the fact that a passion for precision, for naming, is also part of the bedrock of poetry. In [his] poems there is a vivid sense of how we are all moving, “free but tethered, through time’s inexorable weathers.”’

As in past years, the winner of the Allingham Flash Fiction Competition will also be declared the winner of the Keane Family Award, honouring the memory of Ballyshannon writer and arts patron James Keane. The flash ficiton competiton will be judged by Alan McMonagle

Allingham Festival Flash Fiction and Poetry Competitions

Competitions

The 2023 Allingham Festival Flash Fiction and Poetry Competitions are now open! This year’s entry period runs from June to September 22. International entries are welcome! Winning entries in recent years have been crafted by writers in Canada, Australia and Dubai.

Kate Newmann, poet and Co-Director of Summer Palace Press, will judge the 2023 poetry entries. Novelist and short-story writer Alan McMonagle (Ithaca, Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame) will judge the flash fiction entries. The Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards Ceremony is scheduled to be webcast on Friday, Nov 10.

This year’s submission deadline is 22 September 2023 for both on-line and postal entries. First Prize in both Flash Fiction and Poetry is €300. Full competition rules and details are posted on the Allingham Festival Website 

The 2023 Allingham Festival will take place in Ballyshannon from November 8-12. Festival guests will include novelist Liz Nugent, broadcaster-broadcaster Sinead Crowley, soprano Regina Nathan, children’s author Shane Hegarty, actor Sean McGinley and author / Sunday Miscellany favourite Olive Travers.

Path to Publication workshop at 2021 Allingham Festival – plus competitions

Competitions, Literary Events, Writing advice, ,

Lepus Print, a new Sligo-based publisher, will offer an on-line Path to Publication Workshop at the 2021 Allingham Festival.

The workshop will help writers clarify the nature and direction of their writing, improve their craft, and develop publication-worthy manuscripts. Writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s books are invited to apply.

Led by Lepus Print publishers and authors Brian Leyden and Mary Branley, the on-line
workshop invites applications from writers worldwide. Scheduled as a fully-interactive
webinar from 10 am to noon GMT on Thursday, 4 November, the workshop will be limited
to 12 participants.

Workshop applicants are asked to provide a 50-100 word summary of their experience in
writing and publishing, a 150 word description of their goals and their work-in-progress,
and copies of five poems or two chapters of prose (up to 7,000 words) by October 1.

Application documents and work samples should be attached to an email addressed to allinghamfest@gmail.com by October 1, including the words LEPUS PUBLICATION
WORKSHOP in the subject line.

Applicants who are selected for the Lepus Path to Publication Workshop will be asked to
confirm their attendance by purchasing a €15 ticket on-line. For additional information contact Tom Sigafoos, PRO, Allingham Festival, tomsigafoos@gmail.com.

The deadline for entries in the Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions is Sept 17. Entry forms for the competitions are found at www.allinghamfestival.com.

Deadline Extended for Allingham Flash Fiction and Poetry Competitions

Competitions, ,

Dig out your best work, there is still time to enter. Up to 5 poems, max 40 lines; up to 5 flash fiction pieces, max 800 words.  Moya Cannon will judge the poetry competition, Paul Lynch the flash fiction, and Monica Corish will be the filter judge for both competitions. Read all about it at http://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions/

And keep an eye on the Allingham website for news of lots of splendid writerly events, including a poetry masterclass from Moya, a book launch from Paul, and readings from all three judges.

Paul Lynch, Irish writer.