Cúirt New Writing Prize 2025

The Cúirt New Writing Prize, kindly sponsored by Tigh Neachtain in memory of Lena McGuire, is now open for submissions.

There are three categories: poetry, short fiction, and short fiction and poetry in Irish.

This year we are delighted to announce Wendy Erskine as the short fiction judge, Victoria Kennefick as the poetry judge, and Liam Carson as the Irish language poetry and short fiction judge.

The winner in each category will be awarded a €500 cash prize and the opportunity to read at the 40th annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature which will take place in Galway between 8th – 13th April 2025.

Wendy Erskine  is the author of two short story collections, Sweet Home and Dance Move, She has been listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and the Edge Hill Prize. She was awarded the Butler Prize for Literature and the Edge Hill Readers’ Prize. Dance Move was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Her writing on arts of all kinds, from sculpture to body-building, has been published in the Guardian and the Quietus among others, and for PVA Books she edited well I just kind of like it, an anthology about art in the home and the home as art. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a frequent broadcaster, interviewer and willing collaborator on all manner of projects. She is also a secondary school teacher in Belfast. Her debut novel The Benefactors will be published in June 2025.

Victoria Kennefick’s debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Book Award, Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the Butler Literary Prize. Her second collection, Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, 2024) was a PBS Choice for Spring 2024 and BBC Poetry Extra Book of the Month for March. 

Liam Carson is the founder and director of the IMRAM Irish Language Literature Festival, which stages multi-media literary productions that fuse poetry, prose, visual art and music to promote writing in Irish. 

He is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir call mother a lonely field, shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2013. He is a haiku poet, and his work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Autumn Moon Journal, First Frost, hedgerow: a journal of small poems, The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, Presence, Seashores, Tiny Words, and Wales Haiku Journal. 

 His first haiku collection, Belfast Twilight, will be published by Salmon Poetry in May 2025. 

Cúirt New Writing Prize Guidelines for Entry

• Poetry entries must consist of three poems under 50 lines each
• Short stories should be no longer than 2,000 words.
• Entry costs €10 in total which covers one story or up to three poems.
• Writers submitting work should not have had a full collection or work published in the category in which they enter (novel or short collection for fiction, poetry collection for poetry); this does not include the publication of single poems, stories, self publishing or chapbooks. If you have had single poems or stories published, you are still eligible to submit.
• The story or poems submitted should not have been accepted for publication elsewhere.
• There is no restriction on theme or style.
• The judges’ verdict is final.
• Stories cannot be altered or substituted once they have been entered.
• Judging is anonymous. Please DO NOT include your name or contact details within the body or title of your submission.
• Entries should be submitted as follows:
  • In a single document
  • In .doc or .docx format
  • Double spaced, in 12 pt font
  • Please title your submission in the following format ‘TITLE _CATEGORY’, for example ‘The Shift_SHORT FICTION’.
• Entries in the body of an email will not be accepted.
• International writers can enter the competition, but we are unable to  provide travel expenses to attend the 2024 festival, should they be successful.
• Entries submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.
• Entry fees will not be returned if stories are withdrawn after entering.
• Entry is taken as acceptance of these rules.

Submitting Your Entry

Submissions will be accepted through Google Forms only this year. You can submit your work and details through the link here

Fees

The entry fee for each separate submission is €10. This can be paid through the Stripe link here

It is important to us that the prize is accessible to as many writers as possible from all backgrounds around the world. Because of this, we are offering a limited number of subsidised entries. We are offering a limited number of 35 subsidised entries for the 2025 prize.  If you would like to avail of a subsidised entry, please contact info@cuirt.ie as to why you require a subsidised entry (up to 200 words).

Closing Date

All entries for Cúirt New Writing Prize must be submitted by Friday 31st January 2025 at 5pm.
Contact info@cuirt.ie for any further enquiries.