If you like writing, please take note – a new competition in northwestern Ireland offers around 3,000 euro worth of awards, for just 500 words.
With the coronavirus outbreak forcing many of us to stay home, Donegal-based ‘Ireland Writing Retreat,’ at which I am co-founder and tutor, decided this was a good time to launch its first-ever competition, with key prizes for winners.
Welcome to the inaugural ‘Wild Atlantic Writing Awards’ (WAWA), a competition that we hope will provide challenge, diversion and enjoyment for you as a wordsmith in the strange times we live in right now.
After much brainstorming, it was decided the competition should reflect the nature of ‘Ireland Writing Retreat’ itself and what it has focused on over the last five years of operation.
The conclusion: not one, but two, separate competitions: fiction and creative nonfiction.
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Flash Fiction Award
The fiction writing competition is open to all genres – sci-fi, crime, romance, horror, humor, thriller, mystery, whatever tickles you and your Muse’s fancy. And it is in the form of flash fiction, a field growing rapidly in popularity.
To add spice to the idea, there is a single theme.
After many hours of debate, we realised the perfect one was staring us right in the face.
Writing itself.
In other words, upon reading competition entries, judges are left in no doubt that a key element in your story is linked in some way to writing itself. For example, one of the characters, human or non-human, could be a writer. Or a piece of writing could play a key role in the story. Let your imagination be your guide.
All you have to do is pen a flash fiction story in any style or genre focusing on the act of writing, in any way, shape or form, up to a maximum of 500 words.
PRIZE
The winning entry will receive 500 euro in cash.
And more.
An added bonus of 990 euro in value in the form of free participation* – including all excursions, by land and sea, food and drinks tastings, concerts and dance performances, and all writing workshops and author talks – at one of our retreats of your choice, either this autumn in either Paris or Donegal, or one of our retreats next year.
In effect, a total prize equal to almost 1,500 euro.
Plus, with the writer’s permission, the winning entry will be published on the ‘Ireland Writing Retreat’ website, with short bio and photograph. The writer retains all copyright to her or his work.
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Creative Nonfiction Award
As for our creative nonfiction competition, we offer you a similar challenge.
To write a story of not more than 500 words on any subject – whether it be in the form of memoir, profile, literary journalism, personal essay, travel (and remember, award-winning travel articles don’t have to be about exotic destinations, it could be about your own hometown), food, or any creative nonfiction category you prefer.
PRIZE
The winner will receive 500 euro in cash.
And more.
An added bonus of 990 euro in value in the form of free participation* – including all excursions, by land and sea, food and drinks tastings, concerts and dance performances, and all writing workshops and author talks – at one of our retreats of your choice, either this autumn in either Paris or Donegal, or one of our retreats next year.
In effect, a total prize equal to almost 1,500 euro.
Again, with the writer’s permission, the winning entry will be published on the ‘Ireland Writing Retreat’ website, with short bio and photograph. The writer retains all copyrights to her or his work.
Grab this golden opportunity to unleash your creative abilities during this period of restrictive ‘social distancing’ and emerge a happy winner.
Sean Hillen 