Aug 7, 2024 | News
Listowel Writers’ Week wishes to engage the services of a programme curator, on a contract for services basis, to devise a literary programme of quality, ambition, and diversity for our 2025 festival which takes place from Wednesday 28th of May to Sunday 1st of June inclusively.
Deadline for the receipt of email applications is Wednesday the 14th of August at 4.30 pm.
Please note that interviews will be scheduled on Wednesday August 21st, 2024. In person interviews will commence at 3.00pm.
Selected candidates will be notified re the venue and the time-slot allocated. Listowel Writers Week will also publish this detailed advertisement on social media and on other outlets
To Read More about this proposal – Click Here
Jun 13, 2024 | Featured, News
Thank You to Everyone Involved in Listowel Writers’ Week 2024
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the artists, sponsors, guests, volunteers, and funding partners who made Listowel Writers’ Week a resounding success. Your talent, generosity, and dedication have been instrumental in celebrating the literary arts.
A special thank you to the entire community for your unwavering support. Your enthusiasm and participation have created an atmosphere of inspiration and joy, making this festival truly memorable.
To the artists, your creativity has illuminated our festival with brilliance. To the Board of Listowel Writers’ Week, your vision and hard work have been the guiding force behind our success.
We also celebrate the dedication of those who traveled near and far to join us this year. Your presence has enriched our gathering and strengthened our sense of community.
A heartfelt thank you to the whole team behind the scenes – from the organizers to the technical crew, your dedication and hard work have ensured the smooth running of the festival.
We honor the accomplishments of the Listowel Visual Arts Collective, St. John’s Theatre, and the Listowel Writers’ Museum, whose contributions have enriched the cultural fabric of our festival.
Together, we have created something extraordinary. We look forward to many more years of celebrating literature and the arts with all of you.
With deep appreciation,
Listowel Writers’ Week Team
May 29, 2024 | Featured, News, Winners
Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award 2024
Winner: Remembrance Sunday by Darragh McKeon
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Pigott Poetry Prize Award 2024
Winner: The Solace of Artemis by Paula Meehan
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Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award
Winner: Born Crying by Róisín Burke
Highly Commended: Holding by Anna Moloney
Highly Commended: Granny Knows Best by Maria Kenny
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Poetry Collection Award
Winner: Thicker than Water by Eilis Stanley
Highly Commended: The Year I Painted The Humber Bridge by Paul McMahon
Highly Commended: The Apology Tour by Michael Naghten Shanks
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Duais Foras na Gaeilge
Winner: Amhdhorchact by Sadhbh Moriarty
Highly Commended: Scoil Scairte
Highly Commended: Crainn
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Nilsson Local Heritage Award
Winner: Mapping South Kerry by Arnold Horner
Second Prize: Ballyheigue in Arms by Bryan McMahon
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Single Poem Award
Winner: The Death of A Foal by Finola Cahill
Highly Commended: Instructions for Members of The Non-Evacuation of Tears Society Post Bereavement by Róisín Leggett Bohan
Highly Commended: Sonnet for a Deer Tick by Luke Morgan
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Creative Writing for Adults with Learning Difficulties and, or, Disabilities, Award
Winner: The Taste of Solitude by Aisling Walsh
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Listowel Writers’ Week would like to sincerely thank all Sponsors who supported this year’s competitions and the many competition entrants who submitted their work.
May 8, 2024 | Featured, News
Listowel Writers’ Week Announce Shortlist for Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2024. Five Irish novels have been shortlisted for the most sought-after prizes for Irish Authors, with a shared prize fund of €22,000.
Here are your shortlist or view video below to see all shortlist finalist:
The five shortlisted novels are:
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
The Wren The Wren by Ann Enright
Remembrance Sunday by Darragh Mc Keon
Old God’s Time by Sabastian Barry
The overall winner of the €22,000 prize will be announced on Wednesday 29th May 2024.
Apr 26, 2024 | Featured, News
Listowel Writers Week is pleased to announce the three poetry books which have been shortlisted for the 2024 Pigott Poetry Prize. The prize is Ireland’s largest monetary prize for a poetry collection with the winner being awarded €12,000 and the two shortlisted finalists each receiving €1,000.
Over 40 poetry books were submitted for this year’s award and adjudicators Billy Collins and Annemarie Ní Churreáin selected three books of poetry for the shortlist on behalf of Listowel Writers’ Week.
The three shortlisted poetry books are:
NICK LAIRD, “UP LATE”
PAULA MEEHAN, “THE SOLACE OF ARTEMIS”
DAVID NASH, “NO MAN’S LAND”
Speaking on behalf of the adjudicators, poet Billy Collins commented, “It’s customary for judges of literary prizes to mention the difficulty of making their selections, given the high quality of the works at hand. It was a pleasure to discover with my fellow adjudicator, Annmarie Ni Churreáin, how closely our tastes in poetry overlapped. We are very happy with the results. A broader pleasure, too, was being associated with the distinguished and widely coveted Pigott Prize for Poetry”.
Mark Pigott KBE shared, “The Pigott Poetry Prize is celebrating its eleventh year and my family is thrilled at the breadth of outstanding Irish poetry that is being written every year. I would like to thank our adjudicators, Billy Collins and Annemarie Ní Churreáin for their hard work and thorough review of all the entrants and congratulate them on their excellent selection of this year’s shortlist which showcases the beauty, diversity and strength of Irish Poetry”.
Neel Keenan, on behalf of the Board of Listowel Writers’ Week, stated, “We are very grateful to all the poets who have submitted wonderful collections for this year’s competition. Congratulations to the poets on being selected for the shortlist and sincere thanks to Mark Pigott KBE who continues to celebrate Irish Poetry with the Pigott Poetry Prize.”
The winner of the Pigott Poetry Prize will be announced on Wednesday, 29th May 2024 during our Opening Night Ceremony of the Listowel Writers Week.
Oct 19, 2023 | Featured, News
We are absolutely delighted to announce the poetry shortlist for the Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year 2023, in association with An Post Irish Book Awards.
Many entries were received again this year for the Irish Poem of the Year 2023 poetry competition. Here are our Four Finalist:
A LEGACY TO SEVEN MEN I’VE LOVED
To the first, a brass Zippo inlaid with the faint cartography
of our nakedness;
the second, a maidenhair fern, the lacy fronds of which
have graced the windowsills of every life I’ve lived;
to the third, a cloud confected from the contents
of a beachball, which is to say, nothing at all;
the fourth, two birds—Guilt and Regret: an ibis that pecks
and an emu that ruptures your gut with its toe;
to the fifth, a bouquet of dock, nettles and dandelion clocks
tied up with a Gordian knot;
the sixth, a biopsy of my shallow heart, taken by pine needle
from the chamber with the trapped hummingbird;
and to you, Great Love, I leave a radio—a crystal set
of galena and copper—fine-tuned to eternity.
—–
Poet: Audrey Molloy
Published: The Weekend Australian
Date: 24th June 2023
Publisher: Jaya Savige (poetry editor for The Australian)
TABLE TWO
They sat at a reserved table, by the sea,
with a white linen tablecloth, napkins,
glasses for water and wine, an elderly couple.
She could have been on the front cover of Vogue.
He could have done with a fashion makeover.
Silence was their main course. The sky
was barely blue. The sun was setting. The sea calm.
He started to cry and couldn’t stop.
She tried to comfort him. Then she started to cry.
The waiter stood by. The manager stood by.
Cutlery and glasses were suspended in mid-air
as we all stared. When they had cried
themselves dry, the waiter brought their bill.
They left hand-in-hand. The moon was in the sky.
—–
Poet: Owen Gallagher
Published: Poetry Ireland Review 139
Date: April 2023
Publisher: Poetry Ireland
LULLABY BEFORE LEAVING
“…to unpath’d waters, undream’d shores.”
A Winter’s Tale, Act 4, Scene 4
Frost warning, so into their beds
tuck the lettuce and spinach. Feel the cold
through the legs of our jeans.
We are leaving. We won’t get to taste
this growth but it must be protected,
we planted it, we must give it a chance.
Where are we headed? Lettuce, spinach,
we don’t know the least of it.
Even the weeds are luminous
under the Globe Theatre of the moon.
The stars are as unreadable as ever,
but I’d say they are auspicious. I’d say
for the moment we are all safe, (no,
that’s impossible) (yes, but just now it feels
that way, everyone has called,
everyone’s accounted for).
Then the apparition of white cows, mud
over their spectral flanks, a goodbye party
from another townland
that makes us laugh. Startled
when they see us, they continue
down the peninsula. Where
are we headed? To the unpathed,
to the undreamed, to the benedictions
of water and shore. Come inside
and sleep before the journey. The garden—
we must leave it behind—is all tucked in.
—–
Poet: Theodore Deppe
Published: Atticus Review
Date: 24th February 2023
Publisher: Atticus Books
VECTORS IN KABUL
—–
Poet: Mary O’Donnell
Published: Fish Publications
Date: July 2023
Publisher: Clem Cairns
Audrey Molloy
Bio:
Audrey Molloy’s debut collection, The Important Things (The Gallery Press, 2021), was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and won the Anne Elder Award. She recently launched her second collection, The Blue Cocktail (The Gallery Press, 2023). She has a masters degree in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, The Moth, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Southword, Cyphers, and The Irish Times. She lives in Sydney with her family.
Theodore Deppe
Bio:
Theodore Deppe fell in love with Ireland when he walked a thousand-mile circle around it when he was 19. In 2000, he and his wife poet Annie Deppe moved to Ireland and became citizens. He has published seven collections of poems: Children of the Air and The Wanderer King with Alice James; Orpheus on the Red Line with Tupelo; Beautiful Wheel, Liminal Blue and Riverlight with Arlen House; and Cape Clear: New and Selected Poems with Salmon). His work has appeared in many journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including Poetry Ireland Review, Stinging Fly,
Cyphers, Irish Pages, Crannog, Poetry, Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares. He won a Pushcart Prize and was awarded two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in the US. After working as an RN for twenty years, he switched careers and has taught in Master’s programmes in writing in Ireland, the US, and the UK. He lives in Connemara.
Owen Gallagher
Bio:
Owen Gallagher was born in Gorbals, Glasgow. He left school at 15 and worked in factories and on building sites, also as a street-sweeper and bus conductor. He lives in London and was a teacher in Southall, London.
He attended the University of London and the University of Glamorgan.
His recent publication is: Clydebuilt, Smokestack Books, England, 2119. Shortlisted for The Scottish Poetry Book of The Year, 2021.
His publications include:
Clydebuilt Smokestack Books, England, 2119. Shortlisted for The Scottish Poetry Book of The Year.
A Good Enough Love, Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2015. Nominated for the T.S.Eliot Award.
Tea with the Taliban, Smokestack Books, England, 2012.
Sat Guru Snowman, Peterloo Poets, England, 2001, reprinted 2002.
The Sikh Snowman an illustrated (by Fiona Stewart) children’s picture book was published in November 2020 by Culture Matters and reprinted in December 2020.
Mary O’Donnell
Bio:
Mary O’Donnell has worked professionally as a writer of poetry and fiction for over thirty years, as well as being a creative writing teacher at Maynooth University, Galway University, UCC, on Carlow University Pittsburgh’s MA course in Creative Writing, and at Dublin’s IWC. She has published seventeen books since 1990, most recently the chapbook Outsiders, Always, from Southword Editions, Cork. The first of her four novels, The Light Makers, was an Irish bestseller and her poetry and stories are frequently taught on university courses. A collection of essays on O’Donnell’s work—Giving Shape to the Moment: the Art of Mary O’Donnell—appeared during 2018 with contributions by Spanish and Irish academics and writers. Her poetry has been translated to Hungarian, Spanish and most recently to Portuguese in a bilingual edition from the Brazilian publisher Arte y Lettras. She is an invited participant, reader and lecturer at literary events both in Ireland, Europe and South America. As a writer, she is grateful to have been able to pursue the calling she truly loves. She received a PhD in Creative Writing from UCC in 2019 and since 2001 she has been honoured by membership of Ireland’s affiliation of artists, Aosdána. www.maryodonnell.com.
Photograph credited to photographer Mark Reddy
Aug 23, 2023 | Featured, News
LWW is currently funded by the Arts Council and commits to upholding its Paying the Artist policy.
- -We pay authors €250 for “in conversation” events
We are upfront about the fees from the first email or phone call regrading an offer of work.
We respect every artist’s right to negotiate upwards on any fee offered.
We ensure that the initial communication reflects the full scope of what an artist is expected and required to deliver, including details of any video or audio recordings that will be made of the event.
Fees are paid within 14 working days of receipt of an invoice that can be emailed on full completion of commissioned or requested work, or an agreed date prior to this.
We cover the cost of travel where the writer is travelling outside their county of residence. We also cover accommodation where the length of travel involved and/or the start time of the event necessitates it.
We ensure that writers copyright is respected, both in terms of moral and economic rights.
We believe in the importance of transparency on matters of pay and working conditions, and that sharing this information publicly is to the benefit of all writers and artists.
Much of the language in the above is borrowed from the Arts Council’s Paying the Artist policy document whose principles we align ourselves with.
Jul 6, 2023 | Featured, News, Proposal
The Board of Listowel Writers’ Week wishes to engage the services of a programme curator, on a contract for services basis, to devise a literary programme of quality, ambition, and diversity for our 2024 festival which takes place from 29th of May to the 02nd of June inclusively.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is 5pm on 17th July 2023
To Read More about this proposal – Click Here
