Some opportunities in writing for children

If you write for children, here are a few things that might be of interest.

The Looking Glass - this is an online magazine from of Trinity College, Dublin. It is currently looking for submissions for children's or YA writing, deadline 26th September. See here  and past issues. They will accept poetry, short stories, plays, novel extracts, and also illustrations and comic strips. 

The Caterpillar - this is a hard copy, quarterly magazine of children's writing (7 -11 years apporoximately) from the same publishers as The Moth. They accept poetry and short story, see submission details here

The Caterpillar also have a poetry competition running currently with a deadline of 31st March 2015. There is a prize of €1,000 for the winning poem for children aged 7 - 11. And, on the topic of children's writing, here are some tips from the writer Sheena Wilkinson at the writing.ie website

Oh, and I've just noticed another competition on the website Writing.ie A.M. Heath Irish Children's Prize 2014 deadline 20th October, win €1,000 and an agent.

Free online courses (MOOC's) on writing related matters this Autumn

I've posted before here on MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) in higher education, and other open resources. Below are details of a number of upcoming courses. They are free and online, or some provide accreditation if you pay a course fee. You can follow the course and all activities in the timescale set, or you can simply dip in and out of the resources given.

 

From edx - The Art of Poetry see here  This starts 30th September 2014 from  Boston University.

Another from edx - English Grammar and Style here  This one starts 22nd September 2014 and is 9 weeks in duration from University of Queensland.

Open Courses at University of IOWA  has a homepage here  They have a MOOC called How Writers Write Fiction details here  It starts 26 September and is  6 weeks long.

So, some good opportunities.

Allingham Arts Festival 2014

This year, the Allingham Arts Festival in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal runs from 6th-9th November 2014. It has a website and a facebook page with programme details, and there are lots of differing events across the four days on the theme of Creativity Across Borders. To name but a few, there is a literary evening on Saturday 8th with Theo Dorgan, Paul Lynch, Donal Ryan, Winifred  McNulty, and the Poetry Divas. For those interested in workshops, there are a diverse range including poetry, creative writing, animation, felt making and epublishing.

I'm proud to say that I won the Allingham Arts Festival Short Story Competition in 2011 with a story called With Matchsticks Not Money (now published  at The Linnet's Wings, Winter 2013). And this year again, they are running a number of adult and child art and writing competitions. See their competition page for full details. There are free to enter children's poetry, fiction and art competitions with the deadline 10th October 2014 (primary and secondary school). And, adult poetry and flash fiction competitions with a deadline 30th September 2014. The judges for the adult flash and poetry competitions are Donal Ryan and Monica Corish.

I must say, there are plenty of opportunities and events for all age groups - a real community effort.

Culture Night 2014

Next Friday, 19th September, is Culture Night. This is an annual event with free cultural activities all around the country. The website shows a list of what is going on in various cities, towns and villages. There are lots of events to choose from, wherever you live. 

In Letterkenny, North West Words is running an Arts Night in Cafe Blend from 8pm. There are readers and music. See NWW website and below.

My flash fiction 'Only Words' in The Incubator Journal issue 2

I'm delighted to say that I have a flash fiction story in issue 2 of the new journal, The Incubator.

It's an ezine edited by Kelly Creighton with a website here which publishes fiction and other media. In various submission calls it also seeks essay, poetry, review and memoir. See their submission policy for more detail. The next call for submissions opens during the month of September for issue 3. So, brush up that work and send it on in.

Happy First Birthday to the GRW Blog

Today is the first anniversary of our public blog for the Garden Room Writers Donegal. Thank you so much to all of our readers out there, and to the members of our writing group.

Here's to many more years of reading and writing and sharing!  

North West Words Arts Night August 2014

Next week is the last of the month, so that means North West Words Arts Night on the final Thursday 28th August. It's at 8pm in Cafe Blend, Letterkenny with a line up of writers in both poetry and fiction, and  an open mic afterwards. There's also music too as usual.  

The featured writers are Edward O'Dwyer and Lisa Burkitt. See North West Words Website or Facebook North West Words

North West Words Magazine seeks submissions

North West Words (NWW) is a voluntary run organisation that promotes the arts in the north west of Ireland. It has been running a very enjoyable arts night in Cafe Blend, Letterkenny since 2010, and has just finished its second year of the North West Words Writing Weekend. It also runs both adult and school poetry competitions.  Two of the members of Garden Room Writers, Maureen Curran and Nick Griffiths, are on its organising team. 

NWW has had a hardcopy magazine for a while, but has very recently moved to a softcopy and online version in addition to launching a new website. They have a Facebook site and the newly launched website    

The new magazine issue 1 is available on the website, have a look here  It contains poetry, fiction, non fiction, feature articles and an interview with the acclaimed writer Jon McGregor. I'm proud to say I have a non fiction piece included in Issue 1. It really is a beautifully produced magazine. Well done to the editors Maureen Curran, Eamonn Bonner and Denise Blake, and all the contributors. 

And, now for more good news. NWW magazine seeks submissions of  poetry (3 max.), fiction (2000 words max.), and non fiction for issue 2. See further details within issue 1 of the magazine or here

Deadline for submissions to issue 2 is 01st September. So send those lovely poems, stories and memoir pieces to editornww@yahoo.com as soon as possible, and good luck

NUI Maynooth Summer Writing Institute

For a week at the end of July, I had the good fortune to attend the first ever Summer Writing Institute at NUI Maynooth. It was organised by the university Writing Centre at Maynooth, and so a huge thank you from me to Alison Farrell. 

The facilitators for the week were two staff members from BAWP (Bay Area Writing Project) University of California, Berkeley, Greta Vollmer and Kirstin Land; so, more and massive thanks to these two women. They have years of experience in both the teaching of writing, and in community building towards the teaching of writing at all educational levels. 

August - some submission opportunities

       Freeimages.co.uk here                   

Gee, I can't believe it's late summer already. So, what the are the writing opportunities that might tempt you this month? Here are a few ideas and deadlines.

The Stony Thursday Book - a poetry journal published annually, and this year's deadline is 08th August.  For more details see here

 

Abridged - accepts poetry and art for themed issues, the current call is for 0-37 Torquemada. The deadline is 31st August, see their website  for further details.