Irish Times Short Story Competition

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Competition

As part of our Legends of the Fall series, readers are invited to submit a piece of original short fiction of between 1500 and 3000 words inspired by the events of the last five years in Ireland. Your story does not have to refer directly to political, economic or social events but should aim to connect imaginatively with the private or public consequences of the end of the boom. The form of the story, whether realistic, satiric, intimate or epic is up to you. The competition is open to previously published writers as well as to new writers, but the submitted story should not itself have been published in any form.
The competition will be judged by Fintan O'Toole literary editor for The Irish Times and writers Donal Ryan and Eilis Ní Dhuibhne. The winning entry will be published by The Irish Times as the last story in the Legends of the Fall series and will also receive a prize of €400 along with the original artwork by Sean Hillen that accompanies the story's publication.
Prizes

• The winning story will be printed in The Irish Times as the last story of the series Legends of the Fall
• The winner will receive the original artwork illustration that will accompany their work
• €400 cash will also be awarded

Anyone thinking of entering this? The prize money doesn't have the wow factor of their Powers Short Story competition but I'd imagine it would be a high calibre competition to win.

Wabbit Ears

Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/legends-of-the-fall

Antilles

Do you know what the closing date is? I don't see it on the website.

HeidiHeidi

From the IT on Saturday

"entries must be received no later than 9am on Tuesday September 3rd"

Antilles

Also, I found it on the website just now, oops!

echo beach

Layne Full Trench wrote: »

Anyone thinking of entering this? The prize money doesn't have the wow factor of their Powers Short Story competition but I'd imagine it would be a high calibre competition to win.

Is it a sign of the end of the boom that not only will people get out of bed for less than €10,000 they will pick up their pens in the hope of €400?:)

The longer format does give more scope and it shouldn't be too hard to think of something on topic.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

echo beach wrote: »

Is it a sign of the end of the boom that not only will people get out of bed for less than €10,000 they will pick up their pens in the hope of €400?:)

The longer format does give more scope and it shouldn't be too hard to think of something on topic.

True, but I imagine a lot of people will go for the same topics (people losing their jobs, their house, loved ones emigrating etc.) I'd love to think of a really imaginative approach but am still racking my brains......

Das Kitty

The recession is such a writing-boner-killer of a topic.

I'd hate to be doing the longlisting judging for this without anti-depressants. :P

I think I'll try something simple, non-depressing, and write it as well as I can.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

It'll be interesting to see how the professional writers handle the subject over the coming weeks.

Antilles

Das Kitty wrote: »

The recession is such a writing-boner-killer of a topic.

...I just use a pen.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Anyone enter? I wrote something in a rush over the weekend and sent it in but it was pretty crap.

sergeantgrover

Layne Full Trench wrote: »

Anyone enter? I wrote something in a rush over the weekend and sent it in but it was pretty crap.

@emreapy said on Twitter yesterday she has been shortlisted for this. Didn't know they were announcing a shortlist. Anyone else hear?

c68zapdsm5i1ru

I haven't heard anything. Ah well!

Mr E

I had something half written, but it fizzled out. It was a post-boom story told from the POV of two 7 year old children, caught up in recession/austerity but not fully understanding it...

The_Minister

The first two finalists are up.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/speaking-without-words-by-stephen-fitzpatrick-1.1537192

Phantasos

I'm finding it hard to read "Speaking without Words", what with the never-ending sentences littered with commas.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

I preferred 'Garlic Fingers'. Really well written. I found 'Speaking Without Words' a bit flat and prosey, it just didn't grab me.