29 January, 2025
Opportunities for Writers: February 2025
Check out the current opportunities available for writers. See a list below of late January/February deadlines for submissions, competitions, bursaries, residencies and other opportunities. For the full list of opportunities, check out: Competitions, submissions and other opportunities and Bursaries and funding
Irish Writers Centre Opportunities
Deadline: 9th February 2025
Irish Writers Centre/Cúirt Young Writer Delegates Programme
The Irish Writers Centre invites ambitious writers aged 18-26 to apply for this extraordinary opportunity to attend and contribute to Cúirt International Festival of Literature 2025 as Irish Writers Centre/Cúirt Young Writer Delegates.
For writers aged 18-26 resident on the island of Ireland.
Award: Spend five days (four nights) at the festival and receive free entry to events, mentoring support from local writer, Alan McMonagle, and an opportunity to read your writing at a public showcase. Accommodation is provided for three delegates from outside the Galway area, with a fourth place dedicated for a delegate living in Galway.
More Information here:
Deadline: 10th February 2025
The Ten by Ten Workshop (Presented by the Irish Writers Centre and The Stinging Fly)
The Ten by Ten is a new in-person, intermediate-level workshop for fiction writers organised jointly by The Irish Writers Centre and The Stinging Fly. The workshop will be led by Nicole Flattery and Cathy Sweeney. The workshop will provide a group of ten writers the opportunity to push forward with their writing over ten Saturdays (March 15 – May 24, 2025)
For fiction writers
Workshop fees: The tuition fee is €450 (€405 for IWC members). Two concession-rate places (€360) and one free place will be available for writers who are unwaged or on a low income.
More Information here: irishwriterscentre.ie
Deadline: 19 February 2025
New Voices: North 2025 (with Stephen Sexton and Jan Carson)
The Irish Writers Centre (IWC) is delighted to invite applications for New Voices: North – a new, online development programme funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. New Voices: North will give five emerging writers living in the North of Ireland the opportunity to avail of the sustained mentorship of an experienced writer-mentor – in the fiction strand, novelist Jan Carson, and in the poetry strand, poet Stephen Sexton.
Who’s it for? Emerging writers over the age of 18 who live in Northern Ireland.
More Information here:
Deadline: 2nd March 2025
Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme
Looking for feedback on your writing? We are thrilled to announce that we are offering over 35 mentorships as part of the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme 2025. Each mentorship consists of three meetings with an experienced writer over a period of approximately 6–8 months. The mentor reads up to 10,000 words / 180 lines of poetry in advance, and will give creative feedback at each meeting. They may also provide professional information and advice. All mentees will avail of the relationship for free. Applications will open on Friday 31 January and will close on Sunday 2n March 2025.
Accepted forms: fiction, creative non-fiction, children’s/YA fiction and poetry
Award: Sustained creative and professional mentoring from an established Irish writer of their choosing.
More Information here:
Submissions:
Deadline 31 January 2025
The London Magazine
The London Magazine is the UK’s oldest literary magazine, proud to have published some of the biggest names in literature including Angela Carter, Joan Didion, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, Jean Rhys, and Virginia Woolf. We are open to unsolicited submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and reviews for our print edition and online.
Accepted forms: Short Fiction and Non-fiction
More Information here:
thelondonmagazine.submittable.com
Deadline: 10 February 2025
Unapologetic magazine
Unapologetic magazine is a multidisciplinary, literary, cultural, and artistic response to the social issues and creative opportunities in contemporary Ireland. They centralise academics, creatives and activists from marginalized communities. Founded in 2020, they have just released the call for contributors for our fourth issue. The theme is “What is a Home.” They are looking for poetry, prose and visual arts.
Accepted forms: Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Academic Essays
Writer’s fee: The Unapologetic team is working hard to secure funding to pay you for your work. As soon as we secure funding, you will be paid for your work.
More Information here:
Deadline: 19 Februrary 2025
Winter Papers
Winter Papers is Ireland’s annual arts anthology. Edited by Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith. The submission window for the next volume of Winter Papers will be open during the period Wednesday 5th February 2025 to Wednesday 19th February 2025.
Accepted forms: short stories, non-fiction, photography, and visual art.
Writer’s fee: €500 – €600 depending on length.
More Information here:
Deadline: 28 February 2025
Skylight 47 Poetry
Skylight 47 is seeking submissions for its next issue. Issue 20 will launch in June 2025. Skylight 47 is a poetry magazine in newspaper format, and is published roughly twice a year. The editors are also looking for original artwork. They will be featuring one artist in each issue, publishing five to six pieces. Interested artists should email images of their work during the submission window.
Accepted forms: Poetry
All contributors will receive payment for their work as well as a printed copy of the magazine, and poetry contributors will be invited to read their poems at the issue launch.
Writer’s payment: Contributors will be paid €40 for each poem published and will also receive a free printed copy of the magazine.
More Information here:
skylight47poetry.wordpress.com
Deadline: 28 February 2025
Poetry Ireland Review
Poetry Ireland Review is published three times annually. Poetry Ireland welcome unsolicited submissions of poems, and proposals for articles and reviews, from Ireland and abroad, in Irish or English. Submittable will open on 1 January 2025, when their next editor is appointed, and will remain open from 1 January to 28 February for issue 145.
Cuireann Éigse Éireann fáilte roimh iarratais i nGaeilge. Is féidir iad a sheoladh go díreach chuig pir@poetryireland.ie i gceangaltán Word.
More Information here:
Competitions:
Deadline: Friday 31 January 2025
The Cúirt New Writing Prize 2025
The Cúirt New Writing Prize, kindly sponsored by Tigh Neachtain in memory of Lena McGuire, is now open for submissions. This year Wendy Erskine is the short fiction judge, Victoria Kennefick is the poetry judge, and Liam Carson is the Irish language poetry and short fiction judge. Poetry entries must consist of three poems under 50 lines each. Short stories should be no longer than 2,000 words.
Accepted forms: poetry, short fiction, and short fiction and poetry in Irish.
Prize: The winner in each category will be awarded a €500 cash prize and the opportunity to read at the 40th annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature which will take place in Galway between 8th – 13th April 2025.
Entry fee €10
More Information here:
Deadline: 19 February 2025
Five Lamps Arts Festival Flash Fiction Competition
This spring, the Five Lamps Arts Festival is inviting writers based in Ireland to submit their flash fiction stories of up to 500 words. Poet and fiction-writer Mary O’Donnell and poet Sara Ribeiro will be the judges of the competition. We’re looking for a well-written, self-contained fictional story with a beginning, middle, and end. We’re not looking for any particular theme or genre, we just want to find ourselves momentarily mesmerised in no more than 500 words. Each winner will have the opportunity to read at a prize giving ceremony which will take place during the Five Lamps Arts Festival in Dublin’s North East Inner City on 30th March.
Accepted forms: Flash fiction (500 words maximum)
Competition prize: €250 (1st place) , €150 (2nd) and €100 (3rd). Plus, mentoring package to an entrant who represents a New Irish voice, a writer who has chosen to make Ireland their home and is at an early- or emerging-stage in their writing career
No entry fee
More Information here:
Other Opportunities
Deadline: 4 February 2025
Phelim Donlon Playwright’s Bursary & Residency 2025
In association with the Irish Theatre Institute and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, this opportunity provides a playwright with time and resources towards writing a new play. Named in honour of Phelim Donlon- an independent theatre producer for many years, he was committed to the arts and was a passionate advocate for new and emerging talent. This award, now in its 10th year, is an acknowledgement of his valued contribution to Irish theatre. The recipient will be announced in late March.
Award: a bursary of €2,000 and a 2 weeks’ fully resourced residency in Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig.
More Information here:
Deadline: 10 February 2025
2025 Mirror Lamp Press x The Complex writer-in-residence programme
Apply now for the 2025 Mirror Lamp Press x The Complex writer-in-residence programme aimed at early-career visual arts writers based in Ireland. Following on from 2024, there will be two 5-month residency opportunities where writers are invited to produce up to five new critical responses to the exhibitions and events programme at The Complex Gallery in Dublin.
Accepted forms: early-career visual arts writers
Residency 1: March – July 2025 Residency 2: August – December 2025
Selected writers will receive: €1,500 fee (€300 per text). 50% will be paid at the beginning and 50% on completion of the residency. €500 production budget to disseminate thinking and research through an event, DIY publication, video recording, podcast or other activity.€500 budget for mentoring divided into two mentoring sessions. €500 budget towards skill development e.g. a tutorial with a graphic designer, proofreader, editor, or writing workshop of choice.
More Information here:
Bursaries
For a full list of Ireland-based bursary and grant schemes, please check out our Bursaries and Funding webpage.
The Irish Writers Centre is the leading support and development organisation for writers in Ireland. Each year, we runs up to 20 free and exciting programmes to support writers’ development. Carrying out it’s work on an all-island basis, the Irish Writers Centre offers a range of support schemes, residency opportunities, mentoring, and other development programmes. View more opportunities for writers here.
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Please get in touch with Communications Officer Jo Morton at communications@irishwriterscentre.ie if your organisation has a competition, submission, residency, bursary or funding opportunity for writers that you would like us to include in our monthly round-up blog post.
