all ireland scholarship creative writing

All Ireland Scholarships Alumni Association Creative Writing

All ireland scholarships alumni association creative writing competition.

*Thank you to everyone who submitted their stories. Please note the closing date has been reached and we will be announcing winners in due course* 

The All Ireland Scholarships Alumni Association is proud to present its first creative writing competition, open to all recipients of the All-Ireland Scholarship Award since its inception. Sponsored by JP McManus, a stellar cast of award-winning authors has been assembled to judge the competition, including Joseph O’Connor, Sinéad Gleeson and Donal Ryan . There is one award covering fiction and creative non-fiction categories, with a prize fund of €1,750 . 

Eligibility   

Entrants must be over 18. All past and present recipients of the All Ireland Scholarship are invited to submit up to three entries each.  

The awards  

Awards of  €1,000 (first prize); €500 (second prize) and €250 (third prize)  are on offer. Selected shortlisted stories may also be published in a specially edited anthology. 

Entries must be received no later than Monday, November 30th at 5pm. Shortlisted entries will be announced in the new year.

1. Fiction (short story): We’re looking for creative short stories on any theme or subject. Judges will be on the lookout for interesting, lyrical, elegant, well-structured narratives that hold our attention and provide an emotional and imaginative impact. Stories can be written in any style or register. The most outstanding of the entries will distinguish themselves through their use of language, the extent to which they engage the reader, the effectiveness of the structure and the elegance and clarity of the events and characters.  

2. Creative non-fiction : Non-fiction entries will draw from real life and be based on true experiences, real people or real events. A non-fiction entry might be based on a childhood memory, your own adventures or those of a family member, an interesting aspect from the life of someone you admire, an educational or other experience or a remarkable historical event or something from ordinary life. Keep in mind that this category does not imply scholarly reports or academic essays.  

For either, as long as the writing is original, imaginatively narrated and well written, it can be about anything you like.  

Whether you’re already a creative writer, or this is your first time thinking of giving it a try, this might be your chance! And whether you choose to write fact or fiction, we think you have ideas and stories that will interest us, surprise us, entertain us, engage us, even make us laugh and cry. 

The entries  

• Each entry must not exceed 2,000 words. There is no minimum word count. 
• Entries must be written in English and should be typed, double-spaced 12 font size and saved and entered via the form below in Microsoft Word or PDF format.
• Your name should not appear on the document, but you should include your full name and contact details in the below application form. 
• If you submit more than one entry, you must include each (to a maximum of three) as separate applications.
• All writing must be your own original, unpublished work and must not have appeared in the public domain either in print or online. Those who entered the AIS anecdotal story competition this summer may resubmit those entries if they so wish.
• Resubmissions from last year’s Short Story Competition are not allowed. However, if a significant change or alteration has been made to the short story it will be accepted. Please do not resubmit your short story from last year without any alterations as it will not be accepted.

Please use the form below to submit your short story

Maximum file size: 134.22MB

Terms and conditions:

• Deadline for entering the competition is Monday, 30th November 2020 at 5pm. 

In the event of an insufficient response and/or low numbers of competition entries, the Alumni association competition team reserves the right not to award a prize or prizes once the specified time frame is complete.

Entrants must be over 18 and must be Alumni or current students of the All Ireland scholarship scheme.

The judges’ decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into with any entrants in relation to the award decisions.

The competition screening, shortlisting and selection process will be overseen by the competition team and by a trustee of the Scholarship association.

Membership of the judging panel, prize money amounts and categories and competition time frames and deadlines may be subject to change.

Shortlisted and / or winning entries may be subject to media and other forms of publication. By entering the competition, you agree to this.

The Judging Panel

Joseph o’connor.

Joseph O’Connor is the author of 18 books including Shadowplay, which won the An Post/Eason Novel of the Year Award at the 2019 Irish Book Awards, and Star of the Sea, which has sold more than a million copies and been published in 40 languages. He is Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. On being asked to form part of the judging panel for the competition, he said: “What a wonderful idea to invite both fiction and creative non-fiction writing as part of this new and exciting competition. I’m delighted to be on the judging panel. It’s sure to encourage the talented members of the All-Ireland Scholarship Alumni to get writing, and to tell their stories, real, or imagined.” 

Sinéad Gleeson

Sinéad Gleeson is an Irish Book Award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. Her essays have been published by Granta, Winter Papers and Gorse, and broadcast by BBC and RTÉ. Her debut essay collection Constellations: Reflections from Life (Picador) won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at 2019 Irish Book Awards and the Dalkey Literary Award for Emerging Writer. She said: “Many people struggle with ideas when it comes to writing, but stories are innate if we dig deep enough. There are many ways to tell a story – fiction, essay, memoir - and I’m always interested not just in the narrative itself, but how a person tells it. We need more new writing and new voices and this competition seems the perfect impetus to get started.”

Donal Ryan is a multi-award-winning author, whose 2013 novel The Spinning Heart landed the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted 'Irish Book of the Decade'. He said: “The written word is one of the greatest ways we have of sharing human experience with one another. Whether fact or fiction, creative writing shines a light on something that might otherwise go unnoticed. I can’t wait to read the range of writing and new stories that this competition will generate.”

Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald chairs the All-Ireland Scholarships Alumni Association Creative Writing Competition. She is Professor of Teaching and Learning at the University of Limerick with a particular interest in creativity and currently works with the creative writing team at UL. Sarah has an academic background in psychology and pedagogy, was UL’s first Dean of Teaching and Learning and Ireland’s inaugural chair of the National Forum for the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. Sarah has published five novels. Her fiction has been adapted for the stage in Edinburgh and London’s West End. She has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Prize, the CBI Book of the Year Award and the Irish Book Awards. She received a Kirkus star for her fiction in the USA, is a past winner Irish Writers’ Centre’s Jack Harte Award and her novels have been translated into over 17 different languages.

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All Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Award winners announced

The 2024 All Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Award winners have been announced

The winners in the Alumni and Public categories of the All Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Awards have been announced.

The winner of the 2024 AIS (Alumni) award is Rites of Passage by Surnaí Molloy . In second place is On the Platform , by Chess Law , and in third place is Mouse , again by Surnaí Molloy . Shortlisted writers were Lorraine McEvoy and Eoin Corcoran .

The judges also picked Mouse by Surnaí Molloy in third place. This is a very special achievement and speaks to her writing talent and craft

A range of superb fiction, non-fiction and op-ed entries were received and reviewed by judges Emma Corcoran, Donal Ryan, Marian Keyes and Roddy Doyle .

“On behalf of this year’s judging panel for the AIS Alumni Association’s Roger Downer Award for Creative Writing, I’m absolutely delighted to announce that Rites of Passage by Surnaí Molloy has been selected as the overall winner,” said Chair of the 2024 award, Professor Sarah Moore . “The judges also picked Mouse by Surnaí Molloy in third place. This is a very special achievement and speaks to her writing talent and craft.”

Marian Keyes said that Rites of Passage is written with an insistent rhythm, which gathers force as the piece continues. “The way it’s written mirrors the steady accumulation of daily aggressions women are met with. As the piece progresses, each new violation stacks up on the previous, building to an intolerable weight. It’s truthful and powerful.” Roddy Doyle praised the story, saying it was chilling, frightening, and very well told.

This year for the first time there was a public category in the awards, inviting submissions from all across the island, judged by Donal Ryan, Marian Keyes , and Roddy Doyle .

Winning first place was Beautiful Like Her , a short story by Jennifer McMahon . In second place was Dinner at Jim’s , by Jamie O’Donoghue , and in third place was The Sparrow, the Bear, and the Chimney Pot , by Oonagh Montague .

Shortlisted entries were by John Merkel, Sadhbh Moriarty, Ferdia Foley, Neil Tully, Jessica Grene , and Ailín O’Dea .

Sarah Moore Fitzgerald thanked everyone who entered, saying that the winning story was “beautifully written and skilfully executed,” while Donal Ryan said that there were some beautiful turns of phrase, with “moving, natural, well-crafted dialogue.” Roddy Doyle praised the story as “well-paced and chilling, with great use of language.”

The All Ireland Scholarships (AIS) Alumni Association Creative Writing Competition was established in 2020 to create a new and engaging platform for recipients of the Scholarship to enter, with a new public category opening in 2024.

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Jennifer McMahon wins AIS Creative Writing Prize

By Writing.ie

• 8 April 2024

Beautiful Like Her wins Jennifer McMahon short story competition judged by Marian Keyes, Roddy Doyle and Donal Ryan

Cork city native Jennifer McMahon has been awarded first place in the public category of the 2024 All Ireland Scholarships (AIS) ‘Fresh Pages, New Stories’ Creative Writing Competition, for her entry Beautiful Like Her.

The competition, now in its fourth year, was for the first time split into two categories; the existing AIS Alumni Association, plus a new, public category which Jennifer entered. The sub-categories included fiction, non-fiction and op-ed, with a maximum word count of 2,000 words. First place prize is €2,000, plus a place on UL’s Creative Writing Winter School – a residential, three-night professional development retreat for creative writers.

This year’s judging panel comprised a stellar trio of award-winning authors: Bestselling fiction writer, Marian Keyes, Ireland’s first Prix Jean Monnet winner for European Literature, Donal Ryan and legendary Irish author Roddy Doyle. The judging process was chaired by Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, head of Creative Writing at UL and author of seven children and young adult novels.

Jennifer is an Irish author, Cork-born, and living in Co. Wexford. She is a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year (2023), the Bridport Short Story Prize and many other notable awards, and has been nominated for Best Of The Net 2024. She was a second-place winner of the Oxford Prize (winter 2023).

What the judges said about Beautiful Like Her:

“A really accomplished piece of writing makes this the winning story. Beautifully written and skillfully executed.” – Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

“Moving natural, well-crafted dialogue with writing that is simple and striking. There are some beautiful turns of phrase here and a restrained, spare and effective portrayal.” – Donal Ryan

“An excellent story, great use of language, well-paced, chilling” – Roddy Doyle

Initiated in 2020, the AIS Creative Writing Competition has already uncovered notable creative talent. One such example is inaugural winner and recently published author Alice Kinsella, whose book ‘Milk: On Motherhood and Madness’ is now on the shelves in bookstores.

Sponsored by JP McManus, the All-Ireland Scholarship is a third level educational scholarship and is awarded to 125 of the highest-achieving students each year from the 32 counties.

FIRST PLACE: BEAUTIFUL LIKE HER – Jennifer McMahon SECOND PLACE: DINNER AT JIM’S – Jamie O’Donoghue THIRD PLACE: THE SPARROW, THE BEAR AND THE CHIMNEY POT – Oonagh Montague

OTHER SHORTLISTED

FRANKY UNBOUND – John Merkel HOUDINI – Sadhbh Moriarty SOMEBODY GET OUT THE BUNTING – Ferdia Foley THE BIG KEY – Neil Tully THE EGG THAT SPLIT – Jessica Grene THE FALL – Ailín O’Dea

Beautiful Like Her, and the runner-up entries, can be read on the AIS website HERE . Publishing rights are permitted.

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Winners of Creative Writing Competition sponsored by JP McManus announced

Frances Watkins

01 Mar 2022 12:11 PM

[email protected]

THE WINNERS of the 2022 All Ireland Scholarships Alumni (AISA) Creative Writing Competition sponsored by JP McManus have been announced. 

Romana Semler has been unanimously selected as the winner of the competition by a star-studded judging panel for her short story Stringing The Bow. 

The competition was open to all 1,500 All Ireland Scholarship winners, where eight candidates were selected as the finalists.  

Romana, a 2011 All Ireland Scholarship recipient from Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim will be presented with €1,000 prize money with runners-up James John O’Connor from Longford, Katie Lockhart from Antrim and Claire O’Brien from Cork each set to receive €500. 

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The Competition judging panel, chaired by Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald of UL included Ireland’s first Prix Jean Monnet winner, Donal Ryan, acclaimed writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh and poet Alice Kinsella. 

All Ireland Scholarships sponsor, JP McManus, said: "We’re delighted to announce this year’s winner of the creative writing award and to congratulate Romana on her extraordinary short story and to commend the runners up on their achievement. 

"Now in its second year, the competition has attracted incredible writing talent and we’d like to sincerely thank Prof Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and the judges for giving their time and expertise to ensuring its success."

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08 December, 2023

Opportunities and competitions december 2023.

Photo credit: Kylemore Abbey Centre at Connemara (Co. Galway)

Each month we update our  Competitions, Submissions & Opportunities webpage, along with our Bursaries & Funding , to ensure that we are connecting our writers with the best upcoming opportunities. Here are a few deadlines we wanted to highlight this December.

Submissions:.

Deadline: 31st December 2023

As Ireland’s foremost environmental literary journal, Channel’s aim is to provide a home for Irish and international writing that contributes to building rich, mutually sustaining relationships between human beings and the natural world. They publish two issues every year and they are currently open for submissions for their 10th issue.

They publish fiction, non-fiction and poetry and currently they can offer a fee of €35 per printed page, up to a total maximum of €250 per piece and with a minimum fee of €50 for single-page works.

Competitions:

The moth poetry prize 2023.

With a 1st prize of €6000 and three runner up prizes of €1000, the Moth poetry prize is one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single unpublished poem. On top of that the four shortlisted poems will appear in the Irish Times online.

There is no line limit and the poems can be on any subject. It costs €15 to enter one poem. This prestigious prize has been judged in the past by the likes of Nick Laird, Claudia Rankine and Nobel Laureate Louise Glück. This year’s judge is Hannah Sullivan.

Fresh Pages, New Stories: The 2023/24 Creative Writing Competition Supported by the All Ireland Scholarships

Deadline: 15th January 2024

This competition is supported by the All Ireland Scholarships. The overall prize fund is €4000 with a first prize of €2000 plus a place on the University of Limerick’s Winter School.

Previous winners include Alice Kinsella, author of Milk: On Motherhood and Madness.

They accept three types of entry: A) Fiction; B) Non-fiction; C) Op-ed each with a word limit of 2000 words.

From the Well Short Story competition 2024

Deadline: 28th January 2024

Cork County Council Library and Arts Service is accepting submissions to the From the Well Short Story competition 2024. From the Well is a long standing short story anthology published annually by Cork County Council’s Library and Arts Service. Twenty stories will be selected for inclusion in the 2024 edition of the From the Well short story anthology, while the winning story and two others will feature in the 2024 West Cork Literary Festival as part of the anthology launch event in Bantry Library within the festival dates of 12-19 July. The winning writer will be offered a place on West Cork Literary Festival’s three-day short story writing workshop. The tutor will be Jan Carson and the workshop will run from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 July 2024.

Dingle Lit Short Story Competition

Deadline: 29th February 2024

The Dingle Lit Short Story Competition is open to all writers on the island of Ireland, writing in either English or Irish. Writers are invited to submit previously unpublished work. The competition will be judged by Nicole Flattery, Anna Stein, Camilla Dinkel, and Cathal Póirtér.

The word count is 3000 words and the prizes for this one are pretty exciting with a week long retreat up for grabs for the winners of both the Irish and English language categories.

Opportunities:

Landmark productions: theatre for one.

Deadline: 18th December 2023

In summer 2024, Landmark Productions and Octopus Theatricals are join forces once again with Cork Midsummer Festival and Cork Opera House, to commission six emerging Irish playwrights to write original 5-minute plays. Each of the selected playwrights will receive mentorship from one of the following five playwrights: Marina Carr, Stacey Gregg, Emmet Kirwan, Louise Lowe, Mark O’Rowe and Enda Walsh. In June 2024, Theatre for One: This Ireland – twelve plays (six from the original writers and six from the public call-out) – will be presented together at Cork Midsummer Festival.

Selected playwrights will each receive a fee of €500. If the playwrights are not based in Cork, they will receive accommodation in Cork for 3 nights, a per diem of €35 for each overnight stay, and return economy-class rail travel (or its equivalent) within Ireland.

Irish Writers Centre Opportunities:

Northern soul roadshow 2024.

Deadline 3rd January 2024

The Irish Writers Centre is delighted to announce the return of Northern Soul Roadshow (NSR) for 2024, a programme for emerging and professional writers based on the island or Ireland. Take part and develop your writing practice through a series of creative writing events and workshops featuring a wide range of NI writers. Curated and facilitated by Fiona O’Rourke, this programme is delivered across six online sessions and an in-person showcase event at The Linen Hall (Belfast).

IWC/Kylemore Notre Dame Residencies 2024

Deadline: 10th January 2024

The Irish Writers Centre is thrilled to announce a new partnership with Kylemore Global Centre under the auspices of Notre Dame University. Three writers will be awarded with a fully-catered five day residency opportunity from April 15th to 19th, 2024 in the beautifully restored Kylemore Global Centre on the grounds of Kylemore Abbey in Connemara (Co. Galway). One of the residency places will be reserved for a writer who may require wheelchair access and accessible toilets.

Please get in touch with Administrative Assistant Tom Jordan at [email protected] if your organisation has a  competition, submission, bursary or funding opportunity for writers that you would like us to include in our monthly round-up blog post. 

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Ferbane woman wins national creative writing competition

Emma Corcoran from Ferbane, has been selected as the overall winner of the All-Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Competition 2023.

A Tullamore native, Shane Brennan, was also a finalist in the competition. They were both presented with their awards at a special ceremony in Adare Manor on Tuesday.

The competition, now in its third year, is open to all members of the All-Ireland Scholarships Alumni Association. The categories included fiction, non-fiction and op-ed, with a maximum word count of 2,000 words.

This year’s judging panel comprised a stellar quartet of award-winning authors: Ireland’s first Prix Jean Monnet winner for European Literature, Donal Ryan, acclaimed writers Joseph O’Connor & Eoin Devereux, and 2022’s winning entrant, Romana Semler. The judging process was chaired by Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, head of Creative Writing at UL and author of seven children and young adult novels.

Emma received her All-Ireland Scholarship in 2011 and went on to complete a bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics in TUD (formerly DIT) and Trinity College, and graduated in 2015. She currently works in the Mater Hospital as a Senior Dietitian, specialising in Inherited Metabolic Disorders. Shane received his scholarship in 2014 and studied Primary Education in the Froebel Department of Maynooth University. He is now in his fifth year of teaching in St. Anne's National School in Ardclough, Co. Kildare.

Discussing her writing inspirations, Emma said: “It’s difficult to narrow it down to just one source. I enjoy reading, and am particularly inspired by the many talented contemporary Irish authors of today. I also gain inspiration from everyday life – my own experiences and what I’ve learned from others.”

Shane’s writing inspiration comes from his late mother Lelia Brady, whom he says “kindled and nurtured a love of reading” in him from infancy. His brother Ciaran is also a source of inspiration, as he encouraged him to write about his own life experiences “no matter how mundane they may seem.”

The judging panel were impressed by Emma’s fiction piece ‘A Little Bird’, and Shane’s fiction piece ‘Blunders Of A Rambling Commuter’ which both can be read here

Commenting on Emma’s winning piece, the judges described it as “a compassionate, yet honest, exploration on what we do with the information we observe, and how much of ourselves we give away. The writer lens zooms in and out of the location and subjects of the story with dizzying effect, and finally closes with crystalline images.”

The judges described Shane’s piece as having “a real sense of movement and energy with dazzling flashes of lyrical brilliance.”

Initiated in 2020, the AIS Creative Writing Competition has already uncovered notable creative talent among AIS Alumni. One such example is inaugural winner and recently published author Alice Kinsella, whose book ‘Milk: On Motherhood and Madness’ is now on the shelves in bookstores.

Sponsored by JP McManus, the All-Ireland Scholarship is a 3rd level educational scholarship and is awarded to 125 of the highest-achieving students each year from the 32 counties.

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Mayo woman wins national creative writing competition

Alice Kinsella, from Claremorris, has today been named as the winner of the first-ever All-Ireland Scholarships (AIS) Alumni Creative Writing Competition award.

The competition, which was run late last year, was open to all recipients of the All-Ireland Scholarship Award since its inception in 2008.

Alice’s short story, Window, about the unique connection between mother and newborn son, was unanimously chosen by judges Sinéad Gleeson, Donal Ryan and Joseph O’Connor from a shortlist of 12 entries narrowed down from the near-100 submissions initially received. Alice will be awarded a prize of €1,000 for her short story.

The competition invited both short fiction or creative non-fiction entries of no more than 2,000 words.

Alice was awarded an All-Ireland Scholarship in 2011 after completing her Leaving Certificate in Balla Secondary School. She went on to study English literature and philosophy at Trinity College.

Her winning story, Window, can be read at writing.ie .