Literary Competition for Writers with Roscommon Connection

New Roscommon Writing Award 2015 First Prize €500

Competition Rules

·        Entries, in English, on any theme, in any literary form, will be accepted.

·        The competition is open to anyone over 18. All entrants must have a connection with the county of Roscommon (born in, living in, currently working in, went to school in, etc).

·        Typed entries (handwritten entries cannot be accepted) must be no more than 500 words. Mark the number of words in your entry on the bottom of the page. Entries over the 500 word limit will be automatically disqualified.

·        Include your name, address and contact details, plus your connection to the county. Include these on a separate page, not on your entry.

·        There is no entry fee. All entries must be received by 30 August, 2015.

·        The competition will be adjudicated by Jessamine O Connor. The judge’s decision is final.

·        Post your entry to: NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2015, Roscommon Arts Office, Roscommon West Business Park, Circular Road, Roscommon. You may also email your entry to:  mmullins@roscommoncoco.ie. Title your email NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

Roscommon Writing Award

 

Gerry Boland has emailed me with news of The NEW ROSCOMMON WRITING AWARD 2014 which will be awarded for works in English, on any theme, in any literary form. The competition is open to people of all ages and nationalities,however all must have some connection with the county of Roscommon.They can be living or born there, have gone to school or be working in the county.

The winner will receive a monetary prize of €500, (four runners-up will receive €50 each),

and will have their winning entry printed in the Roscommon Herald, the Roscommon People, and be broadcast on Shannonside FM. There is no entry fee, and all entries must be received by 30 September, 2014. Jane Clarke is judging this year's entries.
Find more information at: http://roscommonarts.com/artsoffice/news.htm

 

The Roscommon Anthology - Culture Night Reading

The Roscommon Anthology  will most likely be launched in October, but the first Anthology reading will happen on Culture Night. Alice Lyons, Gerry Boland (Roscommon's current writer in residence) and myself will be reading at 7pm, Friday, 20th September in Roscommon Library. As with all events on Culture Night, admission is free. So put it in the book.

How it goes - stages of decay

The Barracks, Cootehall

Time takes away. My own Roscommon home flattened, I don’t really want to go down the road I lived on; too many memories were flattened with it.

But sometimes time removes slowly and poignantly: the Barracks at Cootehall,Co Roscommon, immortalised  by John McGahern in “The Barracks” looks in good order today but the last garda gone, it now stands empty. What next?

Hanna Greally's Cottage

Hanna Greally as author of “Bird’s Nest Soup” recounted her almost 20 years incarceration in St Loman’s psychiatric hospital in Mullingar, “Mentally well, but unclaimed”. She eventually came to live in a cottage, "Sunny Acre", not far from Roscommon town. She died in 1987; her cottage is on its way back to oblivion.   

Ruins of Church, Kilgefin Graveyard

Bithia M Croker was the colossally successful author of books such as “The Road to Mandalay”, “Babes in the Wood”, “In Old Madras”. Born in Kilgefin, Co Roscommon, where her father was rector, she and her books are now almost forgotten in spite of huge popularity in the 40’s. The remains of her father’s ministry have all but disappeared and with them all marks that she ever had connections with this part of the world.

There are no indications that Croker or Greally ever existed at these sites, and that is a pity. 

Roscommon Writers

Now that the O’Dea house in Roscommon is no more - my mother died two years ago and the house has since been demolished – I feel quite eager to put together an event comprising Roscommon writers and musicians to take place in Dublin, Roscommon, and anywhere else that would stage it. The suggestion was put to me some years ago; lately it has been on my mind again. I launched my first collection Sunfire in Roscommon and it proved to be a marvellous occasion.

I am also weighing up an anthology of writings by Roscommon writers, eg Douglas Hyde, Percy French, John Waters or alternatively, writers with Roscommon connections. The two lists would make interesting reading. Writers belonging to either or would include John McGahern, Patrick Chapman, Jack Harte, Patsy McGarry, Kieran Furey and..... I must investigate.

If this question still interests me tomorrow morning; I’ll take the first step.