Powers & Irish Times Short Story Comp

MOONlit · 09-05-2012 4:33pm

thanks for thoses ecs. enjoyed reading them.I liked Joe's, but a happy ending,
it does not have. Yes I would believe that Ms Deegans is a published writer as her story is very polished.
My money is still on Mr Devlins story - he puts the whiskey and friendship together at the end. His story reminds me of filling in a crossword puzzle - it ticks all the boxes.I googled Mr Devlin. I'll bet he is the journalist from Ulster. If so, he has published a (very witty!) cookery book and other stories.

psicic · 09-05-2012 6:02pm

hous wrote: »

I've been thinking about this and I would expect that the short list and likely winner are not in the list on the website yet.

Aha! That's it. I was pretending to myself that my name wasn't up there because I only submitted an hour or so before the deadline and they hadn't reached the later entries yet, but I like your explanation so much better!

Madammoiselle · 09-05-2012 7:28pm

Does anyone know if more names are going to be added? Or is that the end of it??

psicic · 09-05-2012 8:53pm

Madammoiselle wrote: »

Does anyone know if more names are going to be added? Or is that the end of it??

They've added names around 2pm to the list every day (including weekends and bank holidays) for the past 9 days. They say they'll keep on adding to the longlist until they publish the shortlist - I'd say we'll easily see the longlist continue until the weekend.

EDIT: didn't see that competition winner is to be announce on 19th May; To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it kept going past that until next Wednesday - but it ain't over as long as they keep posting "Check back soon – the longlist continues" after each iteration of the list.

Madammoiselle · 09-05-2012 9:07pm

Thanks for the info. The list wasn't updated today, so I was curious. I thought I had a good chance of being on the list but reading the stories so far I've changed my mind! There is still hope though so fingers crossed!
Do they cut the longlist into the shortlist or is the shortlist a brand new list of names? Sorry for all the questions, my first time entering a competition like this so I'm absolutely clueless!

psicic · 09-05-2012 10:09pm

Apologies - now I look quite the ass! I could have sworn I saw longlist number 9 this afternoon - I think I need to go lie down before my hallucinations become more specific and I start imagining my name appearing on the longlist!!!

Madammoiselle · 09-05-2012 11:03pm

I'm gonna crash the Irish times website I've been on & off it so much! Patience is a virtue that I do not possess. Obsessed! Really not a good thing. Best of luck m'dear! :-)

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 10-05-2012 11:48am

Still no additions to the longlist. I wonder have they started shortlisting from the selection published? Or is the shortlist going to be kept separate and posted after the general longlist??

To be honest, with such a generous prize, I would have expected a few more wow! type stories. Most of the stuff selected is nicely written but quite safe and traditional. I would love to have seen a few more quirky punchy stories.

middaydemon · 10-05-2012 12:06pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

Still no additions to the longlist. I wonder have they started shortlisting from the selection published?

Looks like the longlist has shortened and there's no longer any invitation to "check back later"

Madammoiselle · 10-05-2012 12:28pm

Looks like the longlist has shortened and there's no longer any invitation to "check back later"[/Quote]

Awww :-( that's it then!

middaydemon · 10-05-2012 12:49pm

Madammoiselle wrote: »

Looks like the longlist has shortened and there's no longer any invitation to "check back later"

Awww :-( that's it then![/QUOTE]

Actually it's just been updated - hope remains!

psicic · 10-05-2012 1:09pm

Up to longlist #17 as I type....

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 10-05-2012 1:10pm

Yaaaay. I'm on it!

(Although maybe that means I'm definitely not on the shortlist!)

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 10-05-2012 1:13pm

Longlist 17 is headed 'Short List' when you actually go into it. Is that it then?

psicic · 10-05-2012 1:20pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

Longlist 17 is headed 'Short List' when you actually go into it. Is that it then?

Good spot! I didn't notice that myself. And that 'longlist continues' message isn't at the end of 17 either.

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 10-05-2012 1:25pm

I'm actually on list 17, so now I don't know if I'm longlisted or shortlisted. It's not really clear.

Madammoiselle · 10-05-2012 2:15pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

I'm actually on list 17, so now I don't know if I'm longlisted or shortlisted. It's not really clear.

Congrats! I think that list 17 must be the final list and the winner is in there- so best of luck! :-D

D-FENS · 10-05-2012 2:22pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

I'm actually on list 17, so now I don't know if I'm longlisted or shortlisted. It's not really clear.

Well congratulations to you, Bella and everyone else who didn’t get "Sorry about your damn luck!” or words to that effect when you put your name in.

I presumed the shortlist would be the top 50 i.e. the winner and the 49 other people who will make the book , but it’s only got 29 names?

Bit demoralising not to the make the approx. 400 names on the longlist, but i guess I should still be proud of the fact that I finished the story and enjoyed doing it. Nothing else for it but head to the pub for a...Jack Daniels & coke

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 10-05-2012 4:00pm

Thanks guys, but still not sure it's the short list. If it is the story by Killian O Hanlon deserves to win. I loved it (damn him!)

De Dannan · 10-05-2012 5:00pm

In fairness there are so many entries to read that they may be still doing just that !

MOONlit · 10-05-2012 5:01pm

Yes well done for getting to the short list.
So who is gonna win? I dont agree about the ball of wool story.Personally I thought it was a bit annoying. I love, the one about the cats - very startling and very polished,. Also the one about father and daughter in the solicitors office very nice., tender really.
Fair play - no mentions of powers whiskey necessary to win. Any more recs to read?

hous · 10-05-2012 5:08pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

Longlist 17 is headed 'Short List' when you actually go into it. Is that it then?

Reference to short list has now been removed.....more to come?

Madammoiselle · 10-05-2012 5:22pm

Longlist 17 has disappeared so maybe it really is the short list and they are updating it as we speak!

MOONlit · 10-05-2012 5:45pm

Someone made a mistake during the uploading today?.......

Madammoiselle · 10-05-2012 5:51pm

MOONlit wrote: »

Someone made a mistake during the uploading today?.......

Maybe so, maybe so.
There's still a whole week before the winner is announced so I think the longlist may not be over with yet.
Also, a few weeks ago they said the winner will be announced on the 12th, then changed it to the 19th.
They obviously enjoy wrecking peoples heads!

hcass · 10-05-2012 6:54pm

Ha ha I made it too! Its def a set up thing cos my story was embarrassingly bad!

heebeejeebees · 10-05-2012 7:10pm

I don't think Longlist 17 was the shortlist because none of the names I checked from Longlist page 17 showed up in the previous 16 pages. That would mean they'd have to have decided on the shortlist 5 days ago. Otherwise they would have known the shortlist for the last 5 days. That seems kinda unlikely.

Kinski · 10-05-2012 8:30pm

MOONlit wrote: »

Fair play - no mentions of powers whiskey necessary to win. Any more recs to read?

Are there no stories mentioning Powers? I'd be very surprised, considering last year's winner.

psicic · 10-05-2012 8:32pm

Ha - now I don't feel quite so crazy for thinking I saw part 9 of the longlist yesterday.

I've noticed as well as removing reference to a shortlist/longlist entry number 17 in the blog, they've added back in the 'Check back soon – the longlist continues' tag at the end of the most recent entries.

In all fairness, with the 4,200 entries you couldn't blame them for taking this long and - I might be naive on this one - I wouldn't write off any story in the longlist just yet by saying they aleady know the winner. I mean, there are 7 judges going through nearly 4,200 stories - that a minimum of 600 stories each - certainly doable, but I doubt judging this competition is going to be the full time pursuit of any of the judges.

Also, while the blog says winner will be announced on 19th May, the competition entry page said 26th May - which may well end up being the more realistic prospect.

D-FENS · 10-05-2012 9:48pm

Well, here's to a few more days of hope, folks
Good luck

echo beach · 10-05-2012 11:05pm

I can stop checking as I've made it onto the (very) longlist with what I thought, and still think, is a fairly weak effort. Maybe I'm just too critical of my own work.

It isn't that easy to produce a coherent story in 450 words so this longlist may include everything reasonably well written that fits into the theme and didn't have any spelling or grammar mistakes and it will be what the judges tackle to draw up the shortlist. I can't see the judges reading all 4,000+ entries. Somebody will have been tasked with weeding out the truly awful.

hous · 10-05-2012 11:41pm

They seem to be releasing in batches of 8, and it's now back to long list 16, maybe tomorrow will bring us up to 24???

Madammoiselle · 11-05-2012 10:10am

hous wrote: »

They seem to be releasing in batches of 8, and it's now back to long list 16, maybe tomorrow will bring us up to 24???

Who knows what today will bring! I'd like an update from the Irish times tbh, just a lil statement telling us what is happening.

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 11-05-2012 10:31am

I emailed the Irish Times yesterday to ask why short list was written at the top of longlist 17. They said it was an admin error and part 17 was part of the longlist. I thought it was very strange that they would announce the short list in such a low key way.

MOONlit · 11-05-2012 11:39am

Kinski wrote: »

Are there no stories mentioning Powers? I'd be very surprised, considering last year's winner.

well Kinski, I was referring to the now erroneus short list. I believed they were the winners and the ones that I skimmed through didnt seem to mention it whiskey.
I dont think it matters at all whether its mentioned or not mentioned. Otherwise they would have said so at the beginning, one way or another. I think they are looking for the best story regardless. They are very clear in what they want. They gave clear guidlines, just like they did last year. I notice that some people have integrated its mention into their story, in a sort of artful way,so that it doesnt stick out like a sore thumb. Thats cool! But personally, its all down to the best story with or without, I believe.

pickarooney · 11-05-2012 11:47am

Has anyone a direct link to some of the better stories?

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 11-05-2012 12:19pm

MOONlit wrote: »

well Kinski, I was referring to the now erroneus short list. I believed they were the winners and the ones that I skimmed through didnt seem to mention it whiskey.
I dont think it matters at all whether its mentioned or not mentioned. Otherwise they would have said so at the beginning, one way or another. I think they are looking for the best story regardless. They are very clear in what they want. They gave clear guidlines, just like they did last year. I notice that some people have integrated its mention into their story, in a sort of artful way,so that it doesnt stick out like a sore thumb. Thats cool! But personally, its all down to the best story with or without, I believe.

As it wasn't mentioned as a requirement under the conditions of the competition it would be very unfair to use it as a criteria when judging, in my opinion. I think Powers have already got a good deal for their €10,000, - their logo and a mention of them in the Irish Times practically every Saturday for the past few weeks plus the publicity that will surround the announcement of the winner and the publication of the book.

Kinski · 11-05-2012 12:22pm

Given that last year's winner was less a story featuring Powers than a Powers advertisement featuring a story, it will be interesting to see what they plump for this time around.

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 11-05-2012 12:28pm

Kinski wrote: »

Given that last year's winner was less a story featuring Powers than a Powers advertisement featuring a story, it will be interesting to see what they plump for this time around.

True, but they made it clear last year that they were looking for an advertisement slant to the story and that Powers had to be mentioned. This year they seem to be just the sponsors in the way that Hennessy Brandy sponsors the New Irish Writing competition.

kilternan · 11-05-2012 12:43pm

I've spent the last hour reading through your comments - really enjoyed myself - am glad I'm not the only one in this situation!

Madammoiselle · 11-05-2012 3:16pm

No update today!

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 11-05-2012 3:27pm

And longlist no 17 has still not been re-instated. Curioser and curioser.

tis a fine line · 11-05-2012 6:56pm

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

True, but they made it clear last year that they were looking for an advertisement slant to the story and that Powers had to be mentioned. This year they seem to be just the sponsors in the way that Hennessy Brandy sponsors the New Irish Writing competition.

I didn't realise that they specified advertisement type stories last year...

So, unfortunately i submitted my entry with a few shameless references

(anything for €10,000)

Haven't made the longlist yet anyway, to be honest i'm not proud of my submission, (having read some of the others!) but enjoyed the process none the less

Wooly Woo · 11-05-2012 11:44pm

Now, I searched for one of the names that was on longlist 17 and it's nowhere to be found. So I reckon no. 17 is actually the shortlist and was posted too early because they want to build it up for another week before announcing the winner, which they probably know already!

I'm not on any of the lists - boo-hoo!

Madammoiselle · 12-05-2012 10:29am

There will surely be an update of some sort today! Only a week to go before the winner is announced! :-)

MOONlit · 12-05-2012 10:35am

Well ,pickarooney a few stand out for me, if for no other reason, than their relative spice.
One is in the first couple of lists where a right strap gets her bside grazed against a stone wall for the pushin and shovin with a dubious mills and boon type.Its great fun amidst the endless stories mentioning death of loved ones and references to the ma and the da etc - actually it looks like an excerpt from a novel the author has written/is writing.
The other one is the one about the cats on the infamous shortlist 17. which does not reveal all until the end. That said an 18 year old read it and told me she had to run to throw up after it....so I dont know if its what they are looking for!!!!!
Yes re the short list -why did the words Short List appear on top of that list. Its not for no reason. Its is certainly a short list for something. One of the list has already appeared on the previous lists.

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 12-05-2012 10:51am

Who wrote the story about the cats? I'd love to read it.

Madammoiselle · 12-05-2012 11:10am

Thing is - isn't there 40 of the top stories going into the book? So imo the short list will be the top forty and longlist 17 (short list) only had around 15 or so names. I would give anything to make it into the book!

MOONlit · 12-05-2012 1:01pm

Bella bella, the one about the cats was on list 17, since removed as you know. However I googled an authors name from that list, which im fairly positive was the author of the cats story, Brendan sayer. The only one I could find is the person who wrote a history of orchids in Ireland book. So I just googled the book now to recall the name.

guy83 · 12-05-2012 1:11pm

There were 29 names on List 17. I happened to have it open in a separate tab and was following the Boards.ie discussion when someone mentioned that the list had been pulled so I saved a copy locally.
My feeling is that it might have been a work-in-progress shortlist. Two of the 29 names on List 17 had already appeared in previous lists. Twenty-nine is an unusually large number to have just been the next installment of the longlist. It's also a strange number for a complete short list - which I imagine would be around the 40 mark to tie in with the proposed book of 40 to be published later in the year.
The whole thing was a bit of a fiasco and the subsequent silence from "The Powers Short Story Team" has not helped. I'd guess they're still working through the 4000+ entries. From these the obvious non-runners can be discarded and potential shortlist candidates can be identified. List 17 was possibly the working list of potential shortlist candidates so far.
The longlist is essentially a publicity exercise, I'd guess any story mentioning Powers gets automatically "long listed". It's all about generating a bit of buzz - for the competition and for Powers - and in fact the mysterious list 17, you could argue, just adds to this. If it had been my errror, that's how I'd argue it when the time came to answer questions.
If they stick to the 19th as the official publication date of the winning story, we're looking at a shortlist announcement early next week, after which the winner would soon have to be notified as there will have to be a presentation and photographs in time for whatever deadlines are in force for Saturday's Irish Times Magazine.
Otherwise, the announcment of the winner could be pushed out maybe another week - the 26th was the original date publicised a few weeks back.

Powers & Irish Times Short Story Comp

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