Submission call for Issue 4 of North West Words magazine

This time last year Eamonn, Nick  and the rest of us on the North West Words team were planning our second NWW Writing Weekend and to coincide the launch of our website. We planned to host a magazine of writing and art on that website. We invited Denise Blake to join us on an editorial team and put a call out for submissions.

Writers who had read at our events, writers who were winners in the Donegal Creameries NWW Poetry Prize, writers who were to facilitate at our July weekend gave us their work, Lisa Bond gave us her art. Editing was a matter of selecting the strongest from a very strong submission.

We are a year on and we have had three issues, each featuring a local artist and writers from far and near. The second and third issues had to stand on their own two feet so to speak. Again strong writing arrived in the inbox, and Rik Walton's beautiful photography and Renata Visser's art set off the written work.

The magazine is widely shared, the website viewing figures are steady and rising. The magazine is the most time consuming NWW project  I'm involved with, the most far reaching and the one that is most out of our control.

We rely on readers liking and sharing the magazine link, we rely on writers choosing to send us their precious work. It's the call out now for the fourth issue, volume two if we want to get picky about it, and my heart is in my mouth again. Send your  best poems, stories and memoir to editornww@yahoo.com. For full submission details see our submission page

Happy Easter, and the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2015

From: Freeimages http://www.freeimages.com/home

Happy holidays to all those on an Easter break. 

For anyone wanting to use some free time to write, why not look into the RTE Radio 1 Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2015. It has a later deadline than previous years (01st May 2015), but thankfully it's still up and running.  The winning and shortlisted stories are broadcast on RTE Radio 1, and so it's a great opportunity for short story writers to showcase their work.  Rules for submission are available here (to enter you need to be born or resident in Ireland).  It seeks hardcopy postal submissions only with a strict word limit of 1,800 - 2,000 words.

Be mindful of audience in writing this type of story. A story for audio broadcast, needs to follow some conventions to help the listener. Here are some online resources that give advice on writing short stories for radio:

Radio New Zealand Writing for Audio Drama

Sue Moorcroft writes Writing....stories for radio 


Good luck if you are entering.

Theme me up (and Ciaron and Karen's poem a year on)

I've been idling on the theme of ‘Take Me Home’, the Abridged call out that just closed today, for the most of the month of March. I don’t write to a theme very often, although I have written in response to images and to other poems now and again. Now that I think about it I have written poems ‘to order’ for births, birthdays, for my brother’s wedding and to commemorate a dear friend and that’s similar I suppose. Still for those ‘public’ poems there are responsibilities and parameters inside of which I need to find a hook, an image or other access point to the theme. It’s a real challenge then to say something true to myself at the same time.

It shouldn't be that hard to write to a theme; I expect my students to do it and they do. My husband John's working to a brief all the time, managing to satisfy not just the client and planner but his own creative impulse too. Carol Ann Duffy never ceases to impress me, not least by her ability to write to themes as diverse as the Hillsborough tragedy and Richard III. If you haven’t read her poem Richard written for the re-interment of his remains at Leicester Cathedral last week and read by Benedict Cumberbatch, then do so here.

Creative Writing Competition 2015 - from Read DL, ETB and Wonder - deadline Friday 13th March

 

Entry is free 

 

Criteria for the Creative Writing competition :

·         It must tell a complete story—with a beginning, middle, and end

·         It must have a setting

·         It must have at least one identifiable character

·         It must contain a situation/conflict and a resolution

·         It cannot be a descriptive passage, a literary reflection, an essay or a poem

Please do not put name or personal contact details on the same page as the creative writing entry itself.

Cover letter accompanying entries should include:

          Name, address, email address and phone number of author.

          Title(s) of each entry submitted.

No alterations can be made to the entry once it has been submitted, and no entries can be returned (so please remember to keep your own copy).

The committee will select the three winning entries from a shortlist submitted to them by the Judging Panel.   All decisions of the Judging Panel are final and no correspondence or discussion can be entered into regarding those decisions.  Any attempt to contact the judges in regard to the competition will result in immediate disqualification.

Copyright will remain with the author, but the READ DL committee reserves the right to arrange first publication or broadcast of selected entries as it sees fit.

The 1^st Prize winning author will be invited to read their selection at the READ DL Closing Ceremony

The three winning entries will be published in North West Words Magazine.   Authors of the three winning entries will be invited to read their selections at a North West Words event.

Submission of an entry implies the author’s acceptance of the conditions set out above.

Prizes

                             1st Prize                  €50 in book vouchers

                             2nd Prize                €30 in book vouchers

3rd Prize               €20 in book vouchers

Closing Date

All entries must be received by 5pm, Friday, 13^th March 2015.

All entries should be sent or delivered to:

Bríd McIntyre

Adult Education Centre

Ard O Donnell

Letterkenny

or sent by email to:

bridmcintyre@donegaletb.ie

 

Fat Fox Books

My Sunday evening activities are a classic example of why I seem to struggle to get anything written these days...I sit down with the best of intentions of writing, then I come across a really useful website on publishing for children's writing and before I know it, three hours later, I may have a little further insight into the publishing industry...but have I actually written anything?...no, of course I haven't. So, to make myself feel a bit better I am sharing with you the lovely website I came across for Fat Fox Books. It is a new independent publishing company and publishes books for children aged 3-14. They are one of few publishers that accept unsolicited material - submission details are here. The website also has links to other useful sites for children's writing that you can spend hours (yes, hours) browsing. Time for bed. Tomorrow I will write something BEFORE I switch on the computer.

The Bath Children's Novel Award

Find details here on this new award for children's and YA novels. It is open to unpublished and independently published novelists. The closing date is 11th october 2015. Full details will be published on April 2nd. The competition link also has a useful Q&A with the judge Sallyanne Sweeney....October is only seven months away...get writing...no pressure...

North West Words Arts Night 29th January 2015

Next week is the last of January, and that means North West Words Arts Night on the last Thursday. Nothing warms the heart in winter like a night of winning poetry and some good food in Cafe Blend, Letterkenny. It's a night for the winners and shortlistees from the Donegal Creameries and North West Words Poetry Prize 2014.

 

Two free short story competitions

Most writing competitions do charge an entrance fee, and as long it's reasonable, that's understandable. Still, sometimes they're expensive, and they do start to add up if you are entering a few. So, here are two free to enter short story competitions. They are both well known annual competitions and are run by County Councils in Ireland. The deadlines are in late February and early March.

From the Well  Short Story Competition 2015 Cork  County Library and Arts Service - deadline 20th February 2015. There is a theme of 'Light' and a maximum word count of 2,000. The judges for the 20 shortlisted entries are Claire Kilroy, Declan Meade and Billy O’Callaghan. For further details, rules, and an entry form see here


Molly Keane Creative Writing Award 2015 - deadline Friday 6th March 2015. Maximum word count 2,000. For full details, rules, and the entry form see Waterford City and County Council website here   

Happy writing.

Writing opportunities in January 2015

What better way to start a writerly New Year than to send out some submissions. There are quite a few opportunities listed below - all open in January 2015. And, for competitions, see our competitions page. Happy reading and writing through 2015 from the Garden Room Writers.

North West Words - hurry, hurry, the deadline for submissions to issue 3 is 01st January 2015. An online magazine seeking poetry, short story (max 2000 words), non-fiction (max 800 words), flash fiction (max 500 words) and jpegs of photography/art. For more details see here 

Happy Christmas from the Garden Room Writers

Image from: http://all-free-download.com/