Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition Results

Jack Kennedy is from Tinnahalla, Co Kerry and currently works as a biochemist in a Dublin hospital. He has been a voracious reader all his life, gorging himself on anything he could get his hands on. In particular, he enjoys stories with dark comedic undertones, inventive use of vernacular and distinctive voice. He writes short fiction and is currently working on a novel. This is his first publication.

Rowe Irvin is a writer and artist living between London and Manchester. Her debut novel, Life Cycle of a Moth, will be published by Canongate in June 2025. Rowe’s writing has been published by Prototype and Nēpenthé Press, shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize and the Bath Short Story Award, and longlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her collaborative publication, Quiver, made with the artist Georg Wilson, was published in 2023 with Bookworks and Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery. Rowe is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing, with a focus on oral tradition and folk tales, at the University of Manchester.

Eamon Doggett, originally from Bettystown in Meath, now lives in Galway, where he recently completed a Practice-Based PhD at the University of Galway. His short stories have been published in The London Magazine, The Irish Times, and Prick of the Spindle, among others. He won the 2019 Hennessy First Fiction Award and was the inaugural joint-winner of the Sylvia O’Brien Prize. He hopes to publish a short story collection in the near future and is currently working on a novel.

Fiona Ennis has won the Molly Keane Creative Writing Award and was one of the winners of the 2021 Fish Short Story Prize. She was awarded second place in the 2022 LA-based Screencraft Cinematic Short Story Competition. Her work has been highly commended in the Manchester Fiction Prize. Her fiction has also been shortlisted for other international awards, including the Bristol Short Story Prize, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize and the Aurora Prize for Writing. She is the recipient of an Agility Award from the Irish Arts Council.

Dillon Jaxx is a queer writer, disabled through chronic illness. Poems have appeared online and in print including Poetry Wales, Alchemy Spoon, and Ink, Sweat & Tears. Dillon has been shortlisted and placed in various poetry competitions over the last three years including the Rebecca Swift writing prize 2022, and the Brotherton prize for emerging poets 2024. The debut collection manuscript is out there waiting for a yes. This – runner up for the Seán Ó Faoláin competition – is their first short story acceptance.

Zoë Meager is from Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work has appeared in Cheap Pop, Ellipsis Zine, Granta, Hue and Cry, Landfall, Lost Balloon, Mascara Literary Review, Mayhem, Meniscus, North & South, Overland, Splonk, and Turbine | Kapohau, among others. She’s a 2024 Sargeson Fellow.