Wordsmiths, Songwriters, Troubadours – I am delighted to be sharing the stage at the Glens as the guest of the multi-talented musician, singer and songwriter John Hoban, and the award-winning Irish-Peruvian poet Isabela Basombrío Hoban.
I will be reading from my award-winning novel “LeafLight Moon – a novel of prehistoric Ireland”, set in Sligo, North Leitrim, and a little bit of Tyrone, Fernamagh and Donegal…
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.”
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
… and Tom Sigafoos’s novel ‘Pool of Darkness – Raymond Chandler in Ireland’, also published by Púca Books. Paul Lynch, patron of the CAP Awards for Indies, will announce the winners at an event in Dublin in October.
LeafLight Moon is available for pre-order and postal delivery from Liber Books in Sligo and A Novel Idea in Ballyshannon; as an e-book from Amazon UK; and from multiple online retailers over the coming days.
Please spread the word and sign up to receive our newsletter Púca News & Story Extras, for updates on future events and to explore the intriguing background to our stories.
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.
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
Interesting happenings at this year’s Allingham Festival, 3rd to 7th of November 2021, taking place both at the Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon, and online. Here’s my personal selection of writerly events – click on the links to go to the relevant page on the Allingham Festival website:
Brian Leyden will introduce readings by poet Mary Branley and novelist and filmmaker Johnny Gogan. Brian will also talk about Lepus Print, the new independent publisher of fiction, poetry and non-fiction based in the North West, dedicated to the discovery and curation of exceptional Irish and international literature.
The finalists in the Poetry and Flash Fiction competitions will be joined by the judges, Afric McGlinchy and Nuala O Connor, to read their entries before the winners are announced. This year’s record number of entries will ensure that the standard of writing will be as high as ever.
An anthology of stories and poems inspired by the River Erne. Contributors to the collection include Colin Dardis, Kate Ennals, Monica Corish, Tom Sigafoos, John McIntyre, Pat Joe Kennedy, Trish Bennett, Teresa Kane, and Jenny Brien.
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.
Fermanagh Writers are looking for short fiction (max 2000 words) and poetry (max 40 lines) to include in a new anthology, Loughshore Lines. Full details on their Facebook page. Submission date Sept 1 2021.
Wearing my Landscape and Myths Hat, here are a few links that might set the ink flowing: Boa Island Janus on Lower Lough Erne; Inis Saimer at the mouth of the river in Ballyshannon; and the many wonders of the Marble Arch Geopark. There’s lots more – about the name, the folklore and the legends of the river – on Wikipedia and in Ireland’s Own.
Online, Friday, November 5, 2021, 18:00 – 19:00
Monica Corish 