Category Archives: Literary Events

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

Writerly Events at the Allingham Festival, on-line and on-stage

Literary Events,

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:

Nets of Wonder: Stories on the Wall

Nets+of+Wonder.jpeg

Abbey Centre, Wednesday, November 3, 8:30 PM

A creative collaboration between writer Olive Travers, of frequent Sunday Miscellany fame, artist Barry Britton, and musician/composer Eamon Travers.

Readings by Lepus Authors

 

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.

Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards

Literary Awards Adult.pngOnline, Friday, November 5, 2021, 18:00 – 19:00

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. 

Loughshore Lines – Book Launch and Readings 

 

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.

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.

Invitation to submit Stories and Poems inspired by the River Erne

Literary Events,

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 Launch of The Cursing Stone, May 28, 8 pm

Literary Events

Reserve your free ticket for the on-line launch of the Irish historical novel The Cursing Stone by Tom Sigafoos at www.allinghamfestival.com. Sponsored by the Allingham Arts Association, the launch (8:00 pm Fri 28 May) will feature journalist Michael Daly and History Ireland editor Tommy Graham, with video by Emer O’Shea and trad music by Bella Nethercott. 


Sign up for a free subscription to The Cursing Stone at www.tomsigafoos.com

The Cursing Stone, a free serialized novel from Tom Sigafoos

Literary Events, Miscellaneous

Many people who follow my blog will have met my partner – my beloved, my editor, my co-facilitator – Tom Sigafoos.

In the spirit of Charles Dickens, Margaret Atwood and Stephen King, Tom has serialized his novel “The Cursing Stone” and is making it available online for free – click here to subscribe. Here’s Tom’s message:

www.tomsigafoos.com

I’ve published The Cursing Stone, an Irish historical novel, and I’d like to invite you to read it at no cost.

County Donegal, Ireland, 1884. Your island home is threatened with evictions. How far would you go to stop them?

The fates of two men – Ruari Mullan of Tory Island, and Sub-Lieutenant William Gubby of HMS Wasp – intersect in the disastrous arc of the Irish Land Wars.

If you’ll sign up to my mailing list, I’ll send you The Cursing Stone in weekly instalments. I’ll also send Bonus Materials – photos, maps and unusual background information.

There is no cost to sign up or read the instalments. If you enjoy the novel, I’ll appreciate it if you’ll write a review. That’s the entire proposal – no strings attached.

To subscribe to The Cursing Stone, please follow this link and sign up at www.tomsigafoos.com. If you change your mind, you’ll always have the option to un-subscribe.*

Paperback and ebook versions of The Cursing Stone are also available from Lulu and Amazon.

If you know others who’d enjoy reading a lively historical novel, please forward this invitation to them as well. Questions? Please contact me at tomsigafoos@gmail.com.

Thanks and best wishes,

Tom Sigafoos

*You’ll receive an email in your primary inbox within an hour of your subscription. Others will follow every 3-4 days. If you don’t see them, please check your alternate email folders, like Social, Promotions and Spam. If you can’t find the emails, please let me know.”

The Border Between Us

Literary Events, ,

Tune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel https://bit.ly/3cdFExe at 7pm on Tues 23rd Feb 2021 to view eleven micro-films on the theme of “the border between us”.

These micro-films / visual-poems / digital-stories were created during a twelve week online programme facilitated by Rachel Webb and Monica Corish, supported by Across the Lines and the International Fund for Ireland.

Episode 4: Lunasa

Literary Events,

Lugh – Brian Froud – cropTune in to the Glens Centre YouTube channel on Friday, June 26  at 8 PM, to hear poems, stories and songs inspired by Lunasa. The cycle of the year that began with the dark of Samhain is crowned by the brightness of Lugh, and by the harvest festival held in his name. As part of our Lunasa workshop we visited the Shannon Pot and the Cavan Burren, an extraordinary landscape of weathered limestone and megalithic monuments crafted by Ireland’s first farmers.

This episode will feature writing from Tom Sigafoos, Paula Lahiff, Shane Leavy, Dermot Lahiff and Monica Corish; and singing from Tara Baoth Mooney and Maggie Kilcoyne. This event is a fundraiser for North West STOP Suicide Prevention, which provides counselling support for people at risk of suicide. Donations can be made through their website, or through Facebook.

Image credit: Lugh, Brian Froud