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Archived Announcements
- Southword Subscribers’ Competition Results
Every year we hold a free-to-enter flash fiction competition and poetry competition exclusively for subscribers to Southword. In April 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… Read more: Southword Subscribers’ Competition Results - Southword 48 out this month, join us for the launch 15th July
€12.00, Southword Editions, 2025, 118 pages, ISBN: 978-1-915573-15-5 * Issues will be posted at the end of June Southword is a literary journal featuring new writing from around the globe. Issue 48 includes the winning short stories of the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition (judged by Camilla Grudova), the winning poems of the… Read more: Southword 48 out this month, join us for the launch 15th July - Creative Non-fiction workshop starting 16 July, four weeks only €120
How to Improve Our Memoir or Personal Essays by Learning and Practicing the Core Elements of Creative Non Fiction: a Craft Workshop with David McLoghlin This is an online course through Zoom for those writers who are beginning or revising a project, whether memoir or personal essays. Each two-hour class will be equally divided between… Read more: Creative Non-fiction workshop starting 16 July, four weeks only €120 - Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition Open
The Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition is now open for entries. Page limit: 16 – 24Closing date: 31st August (midnight)Entry fee: €25 per manuscript The competition is open to new, emerging and established poets from any country. At least one of these winners will be the highest scoring manuscript entered by a poet with no solo… Read more: Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition Open - 2025 Fool for Poetry chapbooks in our bookshop
The winning chapbooks of the most recent Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition, Superposition by Lauren O’Donovan and Drought / Diagnosis by Liza Katz Duncan are available now. - Victoria Kennefick wins Farmgate Café National Poetry Award
With sponsorship from one of Cork’s most loved restaurants, the Farmgate Café, this award is €2000 for the best full-length poetry collection in English published in 2024 by a poet residing in Ireland. Judges this year were were Dean Browne, Mary O’Donnell and Maurice Riordan. Limited places are available for a cosy reception at the… Read more: Victoria Kennefick wins Farmgate Café National Poetry Award - Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition Open
The Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition, which includes a first prize of €2,000, is now open for entries. Word limit: 3,000Closing date: 31st July (midnight)Entry fee: €19 per storyJudge: Laura Jean McKay The competition is open to original, unpublished and unbroadcast short stories in the English language of 3,000 words or fewer. More details at our competition page. - Farmgate Café National Poetry Award Shortlist
The Farmgate Café National Poetry Award was established in 2019 with sponsorship from one of Cork’s most loved restaurants, The Farmgate Café. The award will be €2000 for the best full-length poetry collection in English (including translations from other languages) published in 2024, by a poet residing in Ireland. In a year where a debut… Read more: Farmgate Café National Poetry Award Shortlist - Change in festival lineup
The Cork International Poetry Festival reading of Romalyn Ante & Mary O’Malley at 8.30pm 17th May has been changed. Unfortunately, Romalyn Ante is unable to attend as previously advertised. However, we are happy to say that Theresa Muñoz will now be reading alongside Mary O’Malley. https://www.corkpoetryfest.net/saturday.html Theresa Muñoz was born in Vancouver, Canada and lives in… Read more: Change in festival lineup - Prebooked Poetry Introductions Readers
friday 16th May, 2.30pm, Cork City Library | Free The Prebooked Poetry Introductions as part of the 2025 Cork International Poetry Festival involves six individuals who have yet to publish a short chapbook or full-length collection of poems. Each poet, chosen through open submission, will read in a ten-minute reading slot. Colm Brennan is poet… Read more: Prebooked Poetry Introductions Readers - Aneas: Glaoch idir 1 Aibreán agus 1 Bealtaine
Cuirfidh an iris bhliantúil litríochta Gaeilge Aneas fáilte roimh ábhar don ó scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge idir 1 Aibreán agus 1 Bealtaine. Dánta agus gearrscéalta amháin atáthar ag glacadh leo faoi láthair. Ní mór don ábhar a bheith neamhfhoilsithe. Cuirfear fáilte roimh ábhar ó scríbhneoirí bunaithe agus guthanna nua araon. Díolfar €40 ar gach dán agus €200 ar gach… Read more: Aneas: Glaoch idir 1 Aibreán agus 1 Bealtaine - Laura Jean McKay: 2025 Frank O’Connor Fellow & judge of the Ó Faoláin CompetitionLaura Jean McKay has been appointed as this year’s Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow, which includes a three-month residency in Cork and the delivery of workshops and mentorships. She will also be the judge of the Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition, which opens for submissions on 1st May. The opportunity to apply… Read more: Laura Jean McKay: 2025 Frank O’Connor Fellow & judge of the Ó Faoláin Competition
- Submit: Prebooked Poetry Readings at the Cork International Poetry Festival
This is your opportunity to apply for one of six reading slots available at the Prebooked Poetry Introductions reading at 2.30pm on Friday 16th May 2025, in Cork City Library as part of the Cork International Poetry Festival. Each poet will have the opportunity to read in a ten-minute reading slot and receive an honorarium… Read more: Submit: Prebooked Poetry Readings at the Cork International Poetry Festival - Southword Creative Non-Fiction Award
1st Prize €1,000 Word Limit: 4,000 wordsClosing date: 30th June (midnight)Entry fee: €20 We are looking for compelling writing, as memoir or as innovative essays or as an admixture of both. Simon Van Booy, Sandra Beasley, Thomas Lynch, Kim Addonizio & Yoko Tawada have all published creative non-fiction in Southword, why not join that illustrious company? Full guidelines here. - Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition Results
The winning chapbooks of the Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition are Superposition by Lauren O’Donovan and Drought / Diagnosis by Liza Katz Duncan. We have also highlighted the finalists and highly commended entries below. Their chapbooks will be launched on 17th May at the 2025 Cork International Poetry Festival. 1st Prize Superposition by Lauren O’Donovan Cork, Ireland… Read more: Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition Results - Gregory O’Donoghue Competition Results
The winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition, Lani O’Hanlon, will read her winning poem Dancing with Thierry Thieu Niang along with a selection of her other work on 17th May at the 2025 Cork International Poetry Festival. Below, we have highlighted the first, second and third prize winners as well as (in alphabetical order) finalists… Read more: Gregory O’Donoghue Competition Results - Cacti & other poems by Jerm Curtin, new poetry chapbook
The latest in our New Irish Voices series is now available from Southword Editions. Jerm Curtin is originally from Co. Cork but lives in Spain. He received the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 2021, and the Cúirt International Festival of Literature’s New Writing Prize for Poetry in 2020. He also won the Listowel Writers’ Week Single… Read more: Cacti & other poems by Jerm Curtin, new poetry chapbook - Episode 20 of the Southword Poetry Podcast
Episode 20 with Matthew Dickman is now available anywhere you get podcasts. Matthew Dickman grew up in Lents, a working-class area of Portland, Oregon. He earned a BA at the University of Oregon and an MFA at the University of Texas-Austin’s Michener Center. He is the author of the poetry collections Husbandry (2022), Wonderland (2018),… Read more: Episode 20 of the Southword Poetry Podcast - Submission dates for Southword
Unsolicited submissions of poetry and short fiction (for our 2025 winter issue) are open as follows: POETRY: 1st ‒ 31st January FICTION: 1st ‒ 28th February Our Submittable account limit means that we can only receive 1000 submissions per month, so if we reach this limit before the end of January (for poetry) or February… Read more: Submission dates for Southword - Episode 19 of the Southword Poetry Podcast
Episode 19 with John W. Sexton is now available anywhere you get podcasts. John W. Sexton was born in 1958 and identifies with the Aisling poetic tradition. His work spans vision poetry, contemporary fabulism and tangential surrealism. He is the author of seven poetry collections including The Offspring of the Moon (Salmon Poetry 2013), Futures Pass (Salmon Poetry 2018), Visions… Read more: Episode 19 of the Southword Poetry Podcast