Saturday 25 April 2015

North West Words April 2015 Arts Night

Next Thursday 30th April is North West Words Arts Night - Cafe Blend, Letterkenny at 8pm. I'm particularly looking forward to it as I wasn't able to go last month.

This month's featured writer is Marie Hannigan. I've heard Marie read her work a few times on Sunday Miscellany live recordings at the Donegal Bay and Bluestacks Festival. She's a pleasure to listen to. Here's a recent example from October 2014 - Miracles by Marie Hannigan  (you'll find it at about 00: 15:15 on the podcast). A very talented writer, she has also facilitated workshops; I attended one about writing stories at Carn Lodge organised by Denise Blake a few years ago, and would highly recommend the experience if you ever get the chance.    











See North West Words Website: Marie Hannigan was born in London and grew up in the fishing port of Killybegs. Her first stories were published in New Irish Writing. A Hennessy nominee, she was twice winner of Listowel Writers’ Week Short Story Award and the Annaghamakerrig Award. She has written drama for radio, television and theatre. Her novel, “Tide Riders” was one of the winners of the inaugural Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. Marie’s current novel, “Into the Fire,” is set in the very near future.

On the same night there is the launch of an exhibition of Eamonn Bonner's photographs. Eamonn is the MC of North West Words, and if you've ever attended the Arts Night, you'll know what a great job he does. He is also a photographer and poet and combines the two in Donegal Poetry Cards. For further details see North West Words Website

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Submission call for Issue 4 of North West Words magazine

This time last year Eamonn, Nick  and the rest of us on the North West Words team were planning our second NWW Writing Weekend and to coincide the launch of our website. We planned to host a magazine of writing and art on that website. We invited Denise Blake to join us on an editorial team and put a call out for submissions.

Writers who had read at our events, writers who were winners in the Donegal Creameries NWW Poetry Prize, writers who were to facilitate at our July weekend gave us their work, Lisa Bond gave us her art. Editing was a matter of selecting the strongest from a very strong submission.

We are a year on and we have had three issues, each featuring a local artist and writers from far and near. The second and third issues had to stand on their own two feet so to speak. Again strong writing arrived in the inbox, and Rik Walton's beautiful photography and Renata Visser's art set off the written work.

The magazine is widely shared, the website viewing figures are steady and rising. The magazine is the most time consuming NWW project  I'm involved with, the most far reaching and the one that is most out of our control.

We rely on readers liking and sharing the magazine link, we rely on writers choosing to send us their precious work. It's the call out now for the fourth issue, volume two if we want to get picky about it, and my heart is in my mouth again. Send your  best poems, stories and memoir to editornww@yahoo.com. For full submission details see our submission page

Sunday 5 April 2015

Happy Easter, and the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2015

From: Freeimages http://www.freeimages.com/home

Happy holidays to all those on an Easter break. 

For anyone wanting to use some free time to write, why not look into the RTE Radio 1 Francis MacManus Short Story Competition 2015. It has a later deadline than previous years (01st May 2015), but thankfully it's still up and running.  The winning and shortlisted stories are broadcast on RTE Radio 1, and so it's a great opportunity for short story writers to showcase their work.  Rules for submission are available here (to enter you need to be born or resident in Ireland).  It seeks hardcopy postal submissions only with a strict word limit of 1,800 - 2,000 words.

Be mindful of audience in writing this type of story. A story for audio broadcast, needs to follow some conventions to help the listener. Here are some online resources that give advice on writing short stories for radio:

Radio New Zealand Writing for Audio Drama

Sue Moorcroft writes Writing....stories for radio 


Good luck if you are entering.