Southword Subscribers’ Competition Results 2024

Every year we hold a free-to-enter flash fiction competition and poetry competition exclusively for subscribers to Southword. For each category, all current subscribers are emailed a link and may submit up to three poems and/or three pieces of flash fiction; winners are published in our summer issue and receive the following: 1st Prize €150, 2nd prize €100, 3rd prize €75.

This year, we received 222 poems and 45 flash fiction pieces. The winners are as follows and will appear in issue 46 in July:

Southword Subscribers’ Flash Fiction Competition winners

1st Prize

What do you do by Louise Watts

Louise Watts has published a novella-in-flash, Something Lost. She writes poetry and fiction. She won the 2024 Bridport memoir prize and was highly commended in the 2022 Seán Ó Faoláin short story competition.

2nd Prize

Last Kiss, Age 10 by Nate Van Sweden

Nate Van Sweden lives in Cork. His work has appeared in Ragaire, Swerve, Asylum Lake, Cellar Roots, and elsewhere.

3rd Prize

Anchorite by Frances Gapper

Frances Gapper’s work has been published in four Best Microfiction anthologies, plus lit mags including Splonk and Wigleaf. She lives in the UK’s Black Country.

Southword Subscribers’ Poetry Competition winners

1st Prize

Taxidermy Heart by Lauren O’Donovan

In 2023, Lauren O’Donovan won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award and the Cúirt New Writing Prize in Poetry. She is fortunate to have her work sometimes published.

2nd Prize

The rain came in tiny gusts by Christian Wethered

Christian Wethered (christianwethered.com) is a poet and songwriter based in Dublin. He has featured in PIR, The Moth, Poetry Wales, PN Review and The London Magazine.

3rd Prize

Landings by Eoin Cahill

Eoin Cahill is from Cork. His poems have recently appeared in HOWL New Irish Writing, Southword and The Storms Journal. In July 2023 he was a participant in The Stinging Fly Summer School. Find him @eoinspoems.