29 May, 2024
Opportunities and Competitions May / June 2024
Photo description: In 2024 we are spotlighting all the amazing independent bookshops and booksellers in Ireland simply because we love them and we think you should too! Just around the corner from the Irish Writers Centre on Parnell Square is the renowned Chapters Bookstore located on Parnell Street. Scroll down to find out more about this iconic Dublin bookstore and on your next sunny Sunday morning in Dublin why not pay them a visit!
Each month we update our Competitions, Submissions & Opportunities webpage, along with our Bursaries & Funding, to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. There are some wonderful opportunities coming up over the next few days so we have an extra blog to bring us into June:
Submissions:
Sonder
Deadline: 31 May, 2024
Sonder is all about bringing different perspectives together. Everyone is wildly and magically different, yet there is still a universality that draws us all together. We are about reflecting those differences and, ultimately, what it is that brings us together. Thanks to the generous support of Arts Council Ireland, all contributors this year will receive a complimentary copy and a contribution fee of €300.
Abridged
Deadline: 31 May, 2024
Abridged 0-101 ‘Rebecca’ invites poetry and/or art submissions on the conflicting themes of haunting, convention, repression and resistance. You may submit up to three poems to abridged@ymail.com which must be in a Word or PDF format. Unusually formatted poems we prefer in an PDF format, material that is more straightforward in Word. Art should be in JPEG or similar format and at least 300dpi. Please note that this issue is A5 landscape shaped. Please also send a short bio and put your name and address on the email or it might get lost in the Spam folder. We can’t send proofs so please send the final version of your poem.
Profiles
Deadline: 4 June, 2024
Profiles is a Dublin based literary journal that publishes character-driven fiction and non-fiction — both original works and works in translation — under 5,000 words. They’re interested in publishing character studies. They love writing that channels the author’s insatiable curiosity about other people (or their talent for self-reflection), is empathetic without bordering on apologia, and shows human nature as it is, not necessarily as it should be. They produce lovely work and they also pay their contributors so definitely submit if you have something that you feel might suit them.
Broken Sleep Books
Deadline: 31 May, 2024
Broken Sleep Books are a working-class, small, innovative press, who publish a range of poetry and prose, from a range of writers. Our primary focus is in increasing access to the arts, in ensuring more people are able to engage with creativity regardless of their socioeconomic status. They are open for submission of Open for submissions of poetry collections (40 pages+) until 31 May, 2024. They have no definitive preference for what they are looking for but enjoy a variety of genres and styles and consider anything.
Chapters Post-it wall of waiting for your message, May 2024
Bursaries:
The Arts Council – The Markievicz Award
Deadline: 06 June, 2024
The Markievicz Award is a bursary scheme for artists. Up to 10 artists from all backgrounds, artform and arts practice areas will receive an award of €25,000. The award is designed to buy time and space for artists, working alone or in collaboration, to develop new work that reflects on the role of women in Ireland in the 20th century and beyond. The award is administered by the Arts Council on behalf of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The Arts Council Literature Bursary Award Round 2
Deadline: 20 June, 2024
The objective of the English Language Literature Bursary Award is to enable professional writers and picture book artists (working mainly through the English language) to spend more time on their creative work. The award seeks to provide writers and picture book artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect, create and write. It enables writers and picture book artists to concentrate on their creative work for a period of time, usually by releasing them from their financial commitments.
Chapter is famous for its aisles of second hand books, May 2024
Competitions:
PEN Heaney Prize
Deadline: 3 June, 2024
Launched in April 2024, the PEN Heaney Prize recognises outstanding poetry with a focus on social engagement. The prize, delivered as a partnership between English PEN, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and the Estate of Seamus Heaney, recognises a single volume of poetry by one author, published in the UK or Ireland, of outstanding literary merit that engages with the impact of cultural or political events on human conditions or relationships. The PEN Heaney Prize is open to original English language collections and those translated into English. The inaugural prize will be judged by poets Nick Laird, Paula Meehan and Shazea Quraishi. The three judges will be joined by Catherine Heaney, representing the Estate of Seamus Heaney, who will act as non-voting Chair of the judging panel. Submissions are now open for publishers from the UK and Ireland
Humour is harmless, for Shoplifters there is Ulysses, May 2024
About Chapters Bookshop
Chapters Bookstore began on Wicklow Street in 1983 when Willie Kinsella first opened its doors and since then it’s made its way slowly to its current location via St. Stephens Green, Henry Street and Abbey Street before settling down on Parnell Street in 2006. As they say themselves – we don’t realise what we value till it’s gone and Covid saw them say goodbye to us until a literal outpouring of grief encouraged Mick Finucane and Kevin Neary to reopen the store and today they are as strong and sustainable as ever. They hold books longer than most bookstores, have an incredible second hand section and a wall of post it notes so why not pop in, loose time, leave a message and buy a book to treasure for life.
Please get in touch with Damien at info@irishwriterscentre.ie if your organisation has a competition, submission, bursary or funding opportunity for writers that you would like us to include in our monthly round-up blog post.
