Announcing the Inaugural Winner of the New Writing Prize

We are delighted to announce Ellen Flanagan as the winner of the 2025 Irish Writers Centre New Writing Prize in partnership with The Stinging Fly. Ellen has won the prize for her short story, ‘A Typical Barbie’, which is available to read on the Stinging Fly website today.

Ellen Flanagan is from Cork and is currently working in New York. In 2023, she joined a Brooklyn-based writers’ group and was encouraged to begin reading her work at open mics across the city. This led to her completing the first draft of a novel about women taking life and religion into their own hands in an 1980s Irish seaside town. She often draws inspiration from the places she has lived during her career in international relations, including Strasbourg, Brussels, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington, D.C. She speaks French and Italian and holds an MA in Diplomacy.

The New Writing Prize is a new annual literary award, a collaboration between the Irish Writers Centre and The Stinging Fly, which aims to discover, promote and encourage the talents of new, undiscovered voices in Irish writing.

The 2025 prize recognises a beginner/emerging writer – specifically a writer working in either fiction or non-fiction who has yet to publish their first short story or essay (in print or online).

Accepting the award, Ellen commented: “I was completely stunned to hear that I would be the inaugural winner of this award. I am delighted and a little terrified to have my first-ever published piece appear in The Stinging Fly. At this point in my writing, having a mentorship through the Irish Writers Centre and drawing on the experience of a community of writers will make all the difference. This award is a once-in-a-career opportunity to refine the type of fiction I want to create and to consider next steps for my longer-form projects.”

Publisher and founding editor of The Stinging Fly Declan Meade had this to say about Ellen’s story: “This is a remarkably accomplished and delicate piece of writing that beautifully captures the extent to which we depend on story-telling and the imagination to carry us through difficult times.”

As part of the prize, Ellen will receive mentoring with an established writer, selected by the Irish Writers Centre.

Close to 300 entries were received for the prize from writers working towards their first publication.