09 June, 2025
Opportunities for Writers: June 2025
Check out the current opportunities available for writers. See a list below of summer 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 Evolution Programme 2025 -2026
Who is it for: Writers living on the island of Ireland who have successfully published at least one book.
Deadline for applications: Friday 27 June 2025
The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce the return of the Evolution Programme for 2025-2026. This free six-month programme will provide support for up to twelve published writers (1 or 2 books) to advance their writing careers. The selected writers can choose from a suite of supports which includes creative writing courses, one-to-one mentoring, clinics with industry experts, monthly peer forums and Irish Writers Centre membership with access to writing space. It also includes an opportunity to be on a paid teaching residency with the School of English and Creative Arts at the University of Galway.
The Evolution Programme is supported by the Arts Council Ireland, The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the University of Galway.
Find more information and how to apply here.
Submissions
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Poetry Ireland Review
Poetry Ireland Review is currently seeking submissions for Issue 146, which will be guest-edited by Rooney Prize-winning poet Stephen Sexton. Of his approach, Sexton says, ‘For Poetry Ireland Review 146, I invite poets new and established to send poems that surprise and delight in their turns and tones. Alongside those full of the mischief of midsummer, the folkloric, the fanciful, I welcome poems of skeptical magic and ordinary (and extraordinary) humanity: poems of the personal and the political, elegies and laments, war poems and love poems.’
Accepted forms: Poems, and proposals for articles and interviews, from Ireland and abroad, in Irish or English.
Contributor fee: €100 minimum.
More Information here:
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Lilliput Press
The Lilliput Press is one of Ireland’s smallest and most prestigious publishing houses. They publish a wide variety of Irish interest books and are proud to represent authors such as James Joyce, John Moriarty, J.P. Donleavy and many others. We specialize in biography, historical non-fiction and memoir, but are also one of the leading fiction publishers in Ireland and are known for discovering exciting new talents such as Donal Ryan, Rob Doyle, Elske Rahill and Adrian Duncan.
More Information here:
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Ragaire literary magazine
Ragaire is a literary magazine based in Galway. The title ‘Ragaire’ is an old Irish word to describe someone who enjoys late night wandering. We are a light for those travellers, a warm and welcoming home for writers of all stripes and creeds.
Accepted forms: fiction/non-fiction/poetry/cover art
Contributor payment: none
More Information here:
Competitions
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Four Faced Liar: Competition Issue
The Four Faced Liar is currently seeking submissions for its upcoming ‘competition issue’. Writers can apply in any one of the following four categories, each of which will be judged by a special guest writer: short stories (judged by Roisín O’Donnell), poetry (judged by Micheál McCann), non-fiction (judged by Tim MacGabhann) and flash fiction (judged by Cathy Sweeney). Each selected piece will be published in Issue 4 of the Four Faced Liar.
See the Four Faced Liar’s website for full details on word limits and how to submit.
Prize: 1st prize €500; 2nd prize €300; a number of highly commended writers will receive a prize of €200 for short stories/non-fiction and €100 for poetry.
Entry fee: €12.
More Information here:
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Frazzled Lit Short Story Award 2025
From 1 June until 30 June, Frazzled Lit will be accepting submissions of original short stories (750-2,000 words) for its annual short story competition. Entries must be made via Duosuma, and will be blind-read by Jennifer and Laura from Frazzled Lit. The overall winner will be chosen by Nuala O’Connor (author of Nora [2022] and Seaborne [2024]). All ten shortlisted stories will be published in a special issue of Frazzled Lit.
Accepted forms: Short stories.
Prize: 1st prize €1,000; 2nd prize €500; 3rd prize €300.
Entry fee: €15 (twenty free places available to low-income writers).
More Information here:
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Moth Short Story Prize 2025
The Moth Short Story Prize is an international prize open to anyone from anywhere in the world, as long as the story is original and previously unpublished. The winners are chosen by a single judge each year, who reads the stories anonymously. Previous judges include Ottessa Moshfegh, Kevin Barry, Mark Haddon, Ali Smith and Sarah Hall.
Accepted forms: short story (3,000 word limit)
Prize: 1st prize €3,000; 2nd prize a week at Circle of Misse plus open travel stipend; 3rd prize €1,000.
Entry fee: €15 per story.
More Information here:
Deadline: 30 June 2025
The Eavan Boland Award 2025
The Eavan Boland Award, founded by Poetry Ireland in 2021 and now a biennial award, celebrates Eavan Boland’s role as a pathfinder, teacher and leader in the world of poetry. The Eavan Boland Award honours her legacy by fostering emerging and mid-career poets through two cross-residency opportunities at Trinity College Dublin with the School of English and University of Manchester at the Centre for New Writing. This year’s selectors are John McAuliffe, Professor of Poetry at University of Manchester, and Dr Rachael Hegarty, poet, educator and Dubliner.
Who is it for? Early-career poets based in the UK and mid-career poets based in Ireland to apply.
Prize: Residency at TCD School of English (Creative Writing) in November 2025. Receive €2,000, plus travel, accommodation, and two post-residency mentoring sessions with the adjudicators. Participate in seminars and creative discussions.
More Information here:
Deadline: 4 July 2025
The Hubert Butler Essay Prize 2025
The Hubert Butler Essay Prize was founded to encourage the art of essay-writing with a European dimension, and to expand interest in Butler’s work. The subject for this year’s prize is: “‘Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither’ – King Lear. Have we no more active rights over life, birth and death?”
Accepted forms: Essays/non-fiction.
Prize: €1,500 first prize; two second prizes of €500.
Entry fee: None.
More Information here:
www.hubertbutleressayprize.com
Deadline 10 July 2025
Short Story Competition (Irish Country Magazine)
Irish Country Magazine’s Short Story segment is looking for readers and followers to send in their fictional short story. The winning story will be published inside the magazine and the story that comes in second place will appear online.
More Information here:
Other Awards and Bursaries
Deadline: 14 June 2025
DLR County Council Arts Office Nature and Place Project 2025
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Arts Office is currently seeking applications from professional artists for a project that responds to the public forests in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County (DLR). This opportunity is for temporary works which will take place between September and November 2025 and is open to artists working in any medium (special interest will be paid to audio-based, lens-based and literary/performance-based projects).
The budget for the project is €10,000 (including VAT). An extra budget of up to €2,000 may be available for creating outputs that can continue to engage the public after the project ends.
See DLR’s website for full details.
More Information here:
The Arts Council Bursary Award: Round 2
The Bursary Award supports individual artists to develop their artistic practice. It focuses on providing artists with the time and resources they need to think, research, reflect, and deeply engage with their artistic practice. Applications open on Tuesday 20 May 2025.
Maximum award: €20,000
Applications close Thursday 19 June 2025 at 5.30pm.
Please get in touch with Jack Delaney at info@irishwriterscentre.ie if your organisation/journal 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.
