Bailieborough Poetry Competition

The second Bailieborough Poetry Festival will take place on the weekend of Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 October. 

As part of the festival there is a poetry competition. Full details are on the website.

Briefly
Closing date for entry is Friday 26 September 2014.
First prize of €250 for winning poem with 2nd and 3rd prizes also to be awarded.
Each poem must not exceed 50 lines, and should be typed, single-spaced.
Up to three poems may be submitted per entry. You may submit as many entries as you wish. A fee of €5 per entry (3 poems) is payable. Payment should be made via the PayPal button on the website.
Submissions can be emailed or posted.

The judging panel this year is chaired by Michael Farry, assisted by Máiréad Donnellan and Paddy Smith.

All shortlisted poems will be featured at a reading at Bailieborough Poetry Festival on Saturday 11 October 2014, and authors will be invited to attend.

Last year's winning poem by Annette Skade, and the shortlisted poems are on this page.

Oxfam Sligo Poetry Reading and Book Sale

Oxfam Sligo shop invites you to their book sale and poetry reading on Wednesday 30th July. Book sale from 10am with an open mic poetry reading session from 12 noon.

The open mic is an invitation for people to share their own poems or read their favourites from the greats. Poets and novices are welcome!

They promise that the sale will include some real gems and interesting books spanning many genre including Poetry, Irish interest, Old books, Literature, Non Fiction; Memoirs, Science, Natural History and more.

The 55th Annual Yeats International Summer School, will be in full swing in Sligo and events on Wednesday include:

09.30 Lecture: Herbert Tucker - Incantatory Yeats. Hawk’s Well Theatre.
11.15 Lecture: Michael O’Neill - Yeats’s Endings. Hawk’s Well Theatre.

1.00pm: Open Mic hosted by Young Yeats. The Yeats Memorial Building

8.00pm Gallery Press Poets Reading: Ciaran Carson, Ciaran Berry, Andrew Jamison. Methodist Church, Wine Street.

9.00pm  Seisiun: Fred Finn Branch Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Eireann. The Glass House Hotel.

Cavan Writing Workshop

A two day writing workshop will be facilitated by Kate Ennals on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th August in Cana House (behind St Felim’s School) Farnham St, Cavan Town from 10.00am – 3.30pm The two day workshop will include discussion on writing and poetry and set a range of different exercises: poetry, free writing, character development, dialogue. The poems/writing of each participant will be work shopped by the group.

The aim of the weekend is to stimulate different writing ideas and to work together. The workshop will be varied and hopefully challenging.

There will be a limit of 10 places allocated on a first come, first served basis. Cost €45. (Light home made lunch included). The weekend is intended to be fun and constructive, providing local writers with ideas and characters that can be developed.

For further information and to register, contact Kate Ennals on facebook or email kateennals@live.co.uk.

Kate Ennals completed the MA in Writing at NUI Galway in 2013, receiving First Class Honours.  She has lived in Ireland (Dublin, Cavan, Galway) working with local communities and writing for the last 20 years.

Kate Ennals was highly commended in the Desmond O’Grady Poetry competition in 2012, won 3rd Prize in the Dead Good Poetry Competition, run by Over the Edge and the Galway Rape Crisis Centre in May 2013. This year, she was shortlisted in the Claremorris Theatre Fringe Festival, in the Doolin Short Story competition in 2014 and the Swiftsatire Battle of the Books competition.

She has been published in the Skylight 47 (2013/2014), in Crannog (2013), Boyne Berries, ROPES, and Burning Bush 2 (2014). She also has poems and short stories published in The Galway Review.
Kate also set up and co-ordinates AT the Edge, Cavan

Sentinel Poetry and Short Story Competitions

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry and Short Story Competitions: Closing Date: 31 August 2014

Poetry:
For original, previously unpublished poems in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 50 lines long. This competition is open to all poets regardless of nationality, living anywhere in the world. Judge: Will Daunt.

Prizes: £200 (First), £75 (Second), £50 (Third), £20 x 3 (High Commendation). The winners and commended poems will receive first publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.

Fees: £4/1, £7/2, £9/3, £11/ 4, £12/5, £16/7, and £22 for 10 poems.

Enter online and pay securely by PayPal or print out an Entry Form for postal entries here. 

Short Stories:
For original, previously unpublished short stories in English Language, on any subject, in any style up to 1500 words long. This competition is open to all writers regardless of nationality, living anywhere in the world. Judge: Brindley Hallam Dennis.

Prizes: £200 (First), £75 (Second), £50 (Third), £20 x 3 (High Commendation). The winners and commended stories will receive first publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly magazine.

Fees: £5 per story, £8 for 2, £10 for 3, £12 for 4.

Or send your poems/stories with a cover note titled ‘Sentinel Literary Quarterly Poetry/Short Story Competition August 2014’, together with a cheque/postal order for the applicable payment in favour of SENTINEL POETRY MOVEMENT to: Sentinel Poetry Movement, Unit 136, 113-115 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AB, United Kingdom

The Stony Thursday Book

The Stony Thursday Book is seeking submissions from local, national and international poets for its next issue, to be published as part of CUISLE, Limerick City's International Poetry Festival in October 2014.

The Stony Thursday Book was founded by Limerick poets John Liddy and Jim Burke in 1975 and is one of the longest-running literary journals in Ireland and celebrates its 39th Anniversary Edition in 2014. This year's editor is Peter Sirr.

Peter Sirr has published eight collections of poetry with Gallery Press, including The Thing Is, 2009, winner of the Michael Hartnett Award, and a Selected Poems, 2005, also published in the US by Wake Forest University Press. Currently, as well as writing, he teaches Literary Translation in Trinity College Dublin. He is a member of Aosdána.

Submissions are being sought in both English and Irish.
How to Submit:
- Each poet should send no more than 6 poems.
- Submitted poems must be previously unpublished.
- Submissions are being accepted by email and by post.
- When submitting poems in hardcopy please write your name and address on
each page. Please mark envelopes: ‘The Stony Thursday Book 2014’.
- When submitting by email please reference ‘TSTB 2014’ in your subject line.

Send poems to: The Stony Thursday Book 2014, Arts Office, Limerick City and County Council, City
Hall, Merchant’s Quay, Limerick or by email to: artsoffice@limerick.ie

Closing Date for Submissions: Friday 8th August 2014.

CUISLE, Limerick City International Poetry Festival will take place in Limerick from 15th - 18th October 2014 and is funded by Limerick City of Culture 2014, The Arts Council; Limerick City and County Council.

North West Words Magazine

I'm delighted to have a poem included in the first issue of North West Words, a new online magazine from the team based in Letterkenny which organizes poetry readings, workshops etc.

The editorial team of Maureen Curran, Eamonn Bonner and Denise Blake have done a wonderful job and the online publication is very attractive with a mix of poetry, prose, interviews and images.

My poem is called Fish and Chips, written after a meal of same in a hotel in Liverpool some years ago. I wasn't there for a Liverpool football match (No way!) but a Bob Dylan concert.

They will publish three issues a year Autumn-Winter, Spring, and Summer. Submissions are open for the next issue. Send up to three poems, or up to 2000 words of fiction, or up to 800 words of memoir to
editornww@yahoo.ie by September 1. Include an up to date bio and a photo.

If you are an artist or photographer, or reviewer who would like to submit work please contact the team at
editornww@yahoo.ie

Swift Satire Festival, Trim 2014

The 2014 Swift Satire Festival draws to a close. A slimmer version, but hugely enjoyable. Well done to all involved.

Congratulations to the winner of the Battle of the Books competition winner, Angela Finn from Dublin. The ten shortlisted entries were read last night and the judge, Niamh Boyce, commented on each and announced the winner. Niamh and Angela pictured above.

The ten shortlisted authors were Caroline Carey Finn, Meath, Kate Ennals, Cavan, Darragh McManus, Clare, Emma Mascarenhas, UK, Peter Goulding, Dublin, Briony Hey, London, Karen O’Connor, Tralee,
Caroline Bracken, Wicklow, Angela Finn,  Dublin and Mark Doyle, Navan.

Angela Finn has had some of her writing published in the Irish Independent’s Hennessy Irish Writing Today magazine, New Planet Cabaret anthology, RTE TEN website (Penguin short story 2012) and Fish Anthology 2013. She was short-listed in 2012 for the RTE Francis MacManus competition.

There were two extra judges, Peter Higgins and myself, (above) whose irrelevant and irreverent comments on the entries were designed to confuse rather than to assist the audience in their vote for their favourite entry. One of my choices, Mark Doyle's entry, was chosen as the audience prize winner.

The Kevin Higgins reading and open mic was held in the open air at the Old Rectory, Trim. This was well appreciate by the attendance. Kevin's read from his latest poetry collection and said that he has chosen those which most seemed in keeping with the savage satiric spirit of Swift. The audience loved them.

More photographs here on Facebook.
The Festival website.
Kevin Higgins' blog and his Facebook page.
Blogs by shortlisted author, Kate Ennels and and by competition judge, Niamh Boyce.

Swift Satire Festival, Trim. 2014

The Swift Satire Festival celebrates the life, works and legacy of Jonathan Swift. The seventh Swift Satire Festival will take place in Trim, Co Meath, this weekend, July 12-13, 2014.

Click here for the full programme of events

What's On in Brief.

SATURDAY:
Poetry in Motion. Starts: 10:30. 
Stand on a box on the streets of Trim and read poetry aloud. Books supplied.

The Feat of Clay. Start: 11:30
Stand in the footsteps of Swift during a fun outdoor reading of his wicked satire on religion, A Tale Of A Tub. You’ll have one foot on the sod of Co Meath, one foot on the clay of Straid Dam lake, Co Antrim, where Jonathan Swift famously killed time on a Sunday morning while waiting for his congregation to turn up for Service during the period he was ministering at the parishes of Kilroot, Templecorran and Ballynure, Co Antrim. Participation is free.

Registration takes place from 11.30am! Please email Paddy Smith at paddysmithtrim@gmail.com or text/ring 086 1577526 to book your place.Venue: Trim Castle grounds (opposite Garda Station)

Here’s a video about the task of bringing Co Antrim soil to Co Meath for the big occasion!

Official Launch. Start: 12:00. 
The official launch of the 7th Swift Satire Festival in Trim. All welcome – come along for a few brief speeches on the grounds of the spectacular Trim Castle grounds (opposite Garda Station)

Guided Tour of Swift's Trim: Start: 13:30. 
Historian Richard Haworth brings you on a walking tour of the town of Trim including visits to St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral and Talbot’s Castle/St Mary’s Abbey, the house once owned by Stella and, later, by Jonathan Swift. €5 per person. Limited to a maximum of 50. Starts Trim Castle grounds (opposite Garda Station)

Poetry in the Parlour - Open Mic. Start: 16:00 
featuring poet Kevin Higgins from Galway. Tickets: €5. Venue: The Old Rectory on Loman Street

The Battle of the Books: Start: 20:00. 
Judgement night in this €500 international poetry and prose writing competition. The 10 shortlisted writers (or their stand-ins) will read their entries, which judge Niamh Boyce will then comment upon before announcing her winner at the end of the night.

The audience will vote for their own winner, who will receive the €100 Audience Prize, and helpful advice (and some fun) will be delivered by two Mentors, Peter Higgins and Michael Farry. (How do I get involved in this sort of thing!) Tickets: €5. Venue: Trim Castle Hotel.

View the Battle of the Books shortlist here.

SUNDAY

A Bite of Satire: Start: 12:30. 
A two-course lunch featuring a one-man show on the life and literary legacy of Flann O’Brien/Myles na Gopaleen, Flann’s Yer Only Man, written and performed by Val O’Donnell.

Plus the World Premiere of a 10-minute play, Ah Feckett, written and performed by two graduates of the Gaiety School of Acting, Brian Burns and Owen Martin.

Then, over your coffee at the end of lunch (at about 3pm, we reckon), listen to a prominent national figure delivering a 40-minute talk, The Swift Lecture. This year’s speaker is John Lonergan, the former Governor of Mountjoy Prison who will talkon Would Jonathan Swift be proud of Modern Ireland?

€25 per person. (Includes lunch, the two stage performances and The Annual Swift Lecture). Venue: Trim Castle Hotel

Trim Swift Festival - Poetry in the Parlour

Trim Swift Festival event, Poetry in the Parlour takes place on Saturday 12 July at 4pm in the Old Rectory on Loman Street, Trim. This is a two-and-a-half-hour session of poetry, with an Open Mic, with featured poet Kevin Higgins from Galway.

The parlour in The Old Rectory has been kindly made available by Martina Quinn. It has space for less than 40 people. Time is also limited, so the Open Mic readers will be the first 25 readers to arrive. The poetry of Jonathan Swift will also be featured during this session. If the weather suits, we will move from the parlour to the grounds of the Old Rectory.

Tea/coffee and biscuits served at the interval. Tickets: €5

Kevin Higgins’s poetry features in the generation-defining anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010) and one of his poems is included in the recent anthology The Hundred Years’ War: Modern War Poems (Edited by Neil Astley, Bloodaxe, April 2014). The Ghost In The Lobby (Salmon, Spring 2014) is Kevin’s fourth collection of poems.

More information including ticket details on the festival website.

Trim Swift Festival - The Feat of Clay

Swift Satire Festival, Trim has featured a novelty reading of one of Swift's works each year. This year has possibly the most novel reading of all with The Feat of Clay reading at 11:30am on Saturday 12 July.

This is a fun outdoor reading of Swift’s wicked satire on religion, A Tale Of A Tub, simultaneously by 125 people. Each reader will have one foot on the sod of County Meath and the other foot on the clay of Kilroot, County Antrim, where Jonathan Swift ministered before coming to Laracor, Trim. How will it be done? Come along and see!

The fact that this takes place on the twelfth of July is especially significant.

Participation is free. Registration takes place at 11.30am! Email Paddy Smith at paddysmithtrim@gmail.com to book your place. Venue: Trim Castle grounds (opposite Garda Station)

Swift Festival, Trim - Battle of the Books

The Swift Satire Festival in Trim takes place on Saturday July 12th and Sunday 13th, 2014.

The satire battle between the Boyne Writers Group and Meath Writers Circle has been discontinued and in its place, retaining the name, is judgement night in the €500 international poetry and prose writing "Battle of the Books" competition.

The 10 shortlisted writers (or their stand-ins) will read their entries, which judge Niamh Boyce will then comment upon before announcing her winner at the end of the night.

The audience will vote for their own winner, who will receive the €100 Audience Prize.

Helpful advice will be delivered by two "Mentors" who will champion or denigrate each of the shortlisted writers. I seem to have been persuaded to play the part of one of these, Peter Higgins is the other. A press release says "Any similarity between Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets and our two Mentors, Peter Higgins and Michael Farry, is not entirely coincidental". Indeed!

Niamh Boyce is from Athy and won the overall Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year and the Emerging Poet Category for her poem “Kitty”. Her unpublished poetry collection has since been highly commended in The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2013. Her novel, The Herbalist (Penguin Ireland) won Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2013. She also writes short fiction and is working on a new novel.

This takes place at 8pm on Saturday 12 July and tickets to this event are : €5.

At The Edge Reading, Cavan

The new Cavan literary evening, At The Edge, Cavan takes place on Tuesday 1 July in the Johnston Library, Cavan town
between 6.30pm and 8pm.

There are three very different readers: Cavan poet, Paddy Halligan, member of LitLab will be followed by Galway Poet, Rachel Coventry, who recently took part in Poetry Ireland Introductions, and Leitrim performance poet, Stephen A Murphy is the third featured reader.

There will be an open mic session afterwards where budding writers and poets from Cavan and further afield will have an opportunity to read a short piece of work.

This is the second event in this series. All welcome.

iYeats International Poetry Competition 2014

The iYeats International Poetry Competition 2014 is now open for submissions. There are two categories: General (for adults) and Emerging Talent (for poets aged between 16 and 25).

Deadline: Wednesday 9 July 2014. Prizes are usually presented at a reading during the Yeats Summer School which takes place this year 27 Jul - 8 Aug.

The judges for 2014 are Peter Sirr and Catherine Phil McCarthy.

Prizes: First Prize - €500: Emerging Prize  - € 300: Commended x 2 - €50

Entry fee: €5 per poem, or €12 for three poems.

Entries can be made online at www.hawkswell.com/iyeats/poetry/enter

Bloomsday 2014

A very good year for the garden!

"I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning . . . "

James Joyce, Ulysses: Episode 18, “Penelope”

Circa Words 2014! Bloomsday Celebrations

Circa Words 2014! Bloomsday celebrations at the Irish Writers' Centre 14 June

Circa Words 2014! – a two-day experimental writing festival taking place over Bloomsday weekend, paying homage to James Joyce as 'godfather' of experimental fiction by providing a space for contemporary experimental fiction writers, publishers and readers to meet, experience new forms of writing and even share their work.

Full details on the Irish Writers Centre website.

Boyne Berries Journal is delighted to be part of the Bloomingle and the Boyne Berries stand will be attended by the editor, Orla Fay, assisted by the previous editor, Michael Farry. By the way submissions for the next issues of Boyne Berries are now open, follow the link.

10.30am–12.30pm: The Bloomingle

The festival begins on Saturday morning with a marketplace where teams from progressive journals will meet and 'sell their wares' to interested writers and readers. Budding writers will equally get the chance to pitch to journals in this give and take environment. We're expecting a bustling morning with lots of networking and sharing of information. Prepare to unearth the hive of activity that is the Irish journal scene.

Free event, all welcome.

Other events for Circa Words 2014!

2–4pm: The Big Ol' Yap: Talk-shop moderated by Dave Lordan, experimental fiction writer and teacher. Expect discussions, disagreements and just a bit of chaos. Free event, suggested donations: €5. All welcome.

7–8.30pm: Dubliners 100 with John Boyne, Evelyn Conlon and Thomas Morris: Authors John Boyne and Evelyn Conlon, and Thomas Morris who devised and edited the collection, discuss the challenges of picking apart Joyce's stories and reinventing them as contemporary and individual. Cost: €7/€5

London Magazine Poetry Competition

The London Magazine has launched a worldwide poetry competition which is be open for all ages.

This will be a chance to get published in one of the oldest and most prestigious literary journals in the UK which has been home to Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Christopher Reid and many more, along with winning a cash prize.

Opening date: 1st May 2014.  Deadline: 30th June 2014
Entry fee: £5 per poem. Judges: Hugh Dunkerley and Michael O’Neill.

1st Prize: £200 (and published in a future issue of The London Magazine)
2nd Prize: £150 (and published on The London Magazine website)
3rd Prize: £100 (and published on The London Magazine website)

For further details visit the website.

Poetry/Prose Competition - 500 Euro prize

The Battle of the Books is an international writing competition (open to poetry and prose) organised by the Swift Satire Festival in Trim, Co Meath. A prize of  €500 will go to the winning entry.

Closing date for entries is Tuesday 1st July, 2014. Poems: minimum 40 lines, maximum 60 lines. Prose: minimum 800 words, maximum 1,000 words. Entry fee is basically €5 per entry, though there is a bargain offer of €10 for three entries.

Travel is the theme of the competition, but the interpretation of ‘travel’ will be very wide indeed.

The competition is being run by the Festival, which will take place on Saturday/Sunday 12th/13th July. Shortlisted competitors will be invited to read their entries at a function in the town on the Saturday night. Writers who cannot attend will have their pieces read for them by actors or other writers.

The festival celebrates the life and works of the writer Jonathan Swift, who lived at Laracor, just outside Trim, for many years. This writing competition celebrates Swift’s wonderful talent as a storyteller.

A Prompt for the competition has been suggested by the organisers (although, like all prompts, it can be totally ignored). This comes from the very first page of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The Prompt is:
‘You prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels’. 

In other words, anything goes – as long as it has some mention/whiff/suggestion of travel. It can be pure fiction or memoir or any other genre of writing. Humour is not essential but it certainly won’t do an entry any harm. Entertainment is highly desirable.

Note: previous publication elsewhere does NOT disqualify. The material must, of course, be the entrant’s own work.

Judging will be by Niamh Boyce who has blogged about it here.

Full details of the competition are on the Festival website here or may be had by emailing  paddysmithtrim@gmail.com
Postal and online entries are welcome. Online payment by PayPal is being set up on the website.

Tom French New Poetry Collection

The Gallery Press in association with Meath County Council Library Service is hosting a reception to celebrate the publication of a new collection of poems by Tom French, Midnightstown,  in Dunboyne Library, Castle View, Dunboyne, County Meath at 7.00 p.m. on Thursday 5 June 2014. All welcome.

From the Gallery Press website:
Tom French’s third collection opens with the poet alone with his newborn son in a delivery room. Through what North described as ‘a heartbreaking quality of understatement’, he confronts and stares down extreme experience and praises the everyday.

An oncology diary is simultaneously dispassionate and moving. In language of calm power he registers a brother’s suicide and fraught relationships. He offers glimpses of a battle in World War I, while other poems observe saplings as they prosper and actors preparing a play. They record incidents in barbers’ shops and salvage materials from old newspapers.

Tom French is a custodian of family and local histories, a caring, careful celebrant of
‘our loved and unloved, living and dead . . .
the rest of the road home, the night ahead.’

Meath and the Decade of Commemoration

Meath History Workshop presents a public seminar: 

Meath and the Decade of Commemoration 1913-1923

on Saturday 31 May 2014, 2 – 5.30pm in Kells Peoples Resource Centre 

at the corner of Carrick Street and Moynalty Road, Kells.

Speakers and Topics

Peter Connell: Terrible Beauties? An Overview of a Turbulent Decade.

Pádraig Yeates: The Sympathetic Strike in 1913 – Myth or Reality?: the lockout and after.

Geraldine English: Strangers in their own land: the RIC in south Meath 1910-20.

Danny Cusack: Doing your own research: Class, labour and the case of Thomas Harten.

Tracey Holsgrove: More than Just Bandage Rollers?: Women in Meath in the Decade of Centenaries.

Plus: Panel discussion chaired by Myles Dungan. I'm one of the "experts" on this panel. Looking forward to a good discussion.

Admission: €5 waged, €3 unwaged (no booking required). All Welcome.

Recommended Reading:
Oliver Coogan, Politics and War in Meath 1913-23 (Second edition, 2014) Available for €15 from all Meath branch libraries.

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award: Call for Entries 2014.

The Creative Writing Award is a fantastic opportunity for existing and aspiring writers and poets to showcase their work to a wider, international audience: previous entrants have gone on to achieve success and recognition across the world. There are two categories for entry: Poetry and Short Fiction.

Fiction entries should be no more than 2,000 words each and poetry entries should be no more than 40 lines each. Both short fiction and poetry entries should be written in English. Submissions previously published elsewhere are accepted.

Prizes include:

Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual, a compelling anthology of new writing loved by audiences internationally

£500 prize money for Poetry winner: £500 prize money for Short Fiction winner

A selection of inspirational books from Bloodaxe Books and Vintage Books

A complimentary copy of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual

Entries close 31 August 2014. For more information and to submit visit the website

Entry is £10. One entry permits the submission of two works into any one category. You may enter as many times as you wish.

Looking for literary inspiration? CLICK HERE to pick up a copy of last year’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.