Writing.ie Short Story of the Year 2019

Writing.ie is delighted to announce that we are sponsoring the An Post Irish Book Awards Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award again this year.

Roisin O’Donnell won in 2018 for her story ‘How to Build a Space Rocket’ which featured in The Broken Spiral anthology complied by RM Clarke for Dublin Rape Crisis, watch her chatting about the story to Evelyn O’Rourke and read her story here

Eligibility

The Award is open to short stories of up to 7000 words published between 1st November 2018 and 31st October 2019 in any of the following contexts: a collection of short stories by a single author; an anthology of short stories; an established journal or magazine (established for at least six months within the eligible period); published in print or digital format.

Stories should be original fiction. All stories must have been published in English during the qualifying period.

The author must be Irish by birth, citizenship or long-term residence.

Billy O’Callaghan, Writing.ie Short Story of the Year winner 2013

Entries must be made by the editor of the publication in which the story appears. Submissions open on 1st June 2019. An individual author may be entered more than once for the competition by an editor if their work appears in more than one publication. It is the editor’s decision which author will represent each of their publications.

Entries will not be eligible where the author is a member of the independent judging panel, anyone involved in the administration of the IBAs or a close family relative of any such person.

Authors who have made current or previous contributions to Writing.ie are eligible to enter.

Adjudication on all eligibility issues will be at the discretion of the Awards’ executive body. Their decision will be final.

John Boyne, Writing.ie Short Story of the Year winner 2014

How to submit

Stories may only be submitted via the online form at www.writing.ie . Closing date for entries is  7th September 2019. The entry form must be completed in full and the story attached as a doc or docx in the format detailed below.

Stories may only be submitted by the editor of the publication in which the story appears, with full permission of the author, with a maximum of one story per edition or collection. The author may not submit their own work.  Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of all the terms and conditions of entry. The submitting party must undertake to support the IBAs campaign and if shortlisted, must attend the awards night at their own expense. Shortlisted authors’ are guests of Writing.ie, and do not need to buy tickets, however partners and friends of shortlisted authors will need to make their own arrangements.

Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of all the terms and conditions of entry detailed here.

Orla McAlinden 2016 winner of The Writing.ie Short Story of the Year

Format of Submissions

Manuscripts must be in a Word doc or docx format, typed in Times New Roman, double line spaced and pages must be numbered.

The document itself should be saved with the title of the story ONLY as the file name. The title of the story and its host publication ONLY, MUST appear in the header or footer of all pages in the document. All stories will be judged anonymously.

The word count, author name, edition or collection and publisher should be detailed on the application form.

Judging

Submissions will be judged anonymously. An independent panel will select a long list of  twelve stories for the panel of judges to consider. The judges will then select the final six stories to be shortlisted. Their decision is final. The shortlist will then be voted on by the public and must be available to be read online at www.writing.ie.

To submit a story, please click here.

Pictured at the 10th annual Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards is Donal Ryan, winner of the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year award for his books Slanting at the Sun with Vanessa O’Loughlin.
Pic: Patrick Bolger

The judging panel will select the final six stories to be shortlisted for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award. The winner will be announced at the An Post Irish Book Awards on 20th November 2019. For more information about the awards check out: http://www.irishbookawards.ie/

In line with GDPR legislation, all information gathered in the process of submission is held strictly confidentially and will only be used by the organisers to contact those involved in the process in connection with the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year. Read the Writing.ie privacy policy here.