Fancy yourself as story writer?
Prestigious short story contest now open for entries
RTÉ is inviting entries to one of Ireland’s longest established and most significant literary prizes, the RTÉ Short Story Competition in honour of writer and broadcaster, Francis MacManus.
Free to enter, the popular competition recognises and rewards the best new Irish fiction writing for radio and presents the winning author with a cheque for €5,000, while the second and third placed writers will receive cheques for €4,000 and €3,000 respectively. A further seven runners-up will receive €300 each.
Writers over the age of 18 living in Ireland, and Irish writers around the world have until Friday, May 25 to submit their short story, in English or Irish, to the competition at www.rte.ie/writing. Story wordcounts must fall between 1800 and 2000 words, excluding the title.
This year’s entries will be judged by Neil Hegarty, Tristan Rosenstock and Jan Carson.
Returning judge Neil Hegarty says: “It's the unexpected thoughts and connections that interest me. We all aim as writers for this time of flow, when we write and write and then afterwards, we sit back and marvel at the words that have appeared on the screen or the page, at the thoughts and images that we hardly knew - that often we simply didn’t know -were in our heads. And now there they are, our words manifest, as if by magic.”
SPECIAL
Talking about the uniqueness of this competition, new judge Tristan Rosenstock adds: “What makes this competition so special is that the short stories that reach the shortlist will be both heard and read.
“As you’re writing your story, read it aloud. If a sentence feels clunky as you read it be sure it won’t land well on the ear… Watch out for over-populating your story and try to put manners on your characters (even the brats) to ensure they’re not all talking at one another. Even Cillian Murphy would struggle to read lots of dialogue between multiple characters. Your story must engage the ear, and also keep eyes glued to the page. No pressure, then. Ádh mór!”
The winning stories will be revealed at a special RTÉ Arena live programme with Seán Rocks in the autumn and all 10 shortlisted stories will be published on rte.ie/culture and broadcast in a season of new writing on RTÉ Radio 1.
The RTÉ Short Story Competition has been championing new talent for decades; past winners and shortlisted writers include Claire Keegan, Danielle McLaughlin, Anthony Glavin, Chris Binchy, Nuala O’Connor, Liz Nugent, Austin Duffy, Colin Walsh, Stephen Walsh and Sarah Gilmartin.
All shortlisted stories are produced for radio, voiced by some of Ireland’s most talented actors.