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SiarScéal Festival 2017: Exciting News for Authors in October

Post date: Oct 03, 2017 10:23:37 PM

SiarScéal Festival 2017:

– Exciting News for Authors in October –

posted 3 Oct 2017, 23:23

A last call for entries for the Hanna Greally International Literary Awards 2017 has just gone out. The awards, which form part of the annual SiarScéal Festival, will be presented at this year's event, which takes place over Friday and Saturday, 20-21 October. Roscommon County Library in Roscommon Town is the venue.

Previous SiarScéal Festivals

All entries must be received by 5pm on Tuesday, 10 October. Entries may consist of poetry or prose and can be posted or submitted online. The theme for this year's competition is Beneath Western Skies. Full details of how to enter, rules of entry, etc. are available from the website of SiarScéal – see Competitions page.

Authors and writers have every incentive to get their entries in. The Overall Prize winner will take away a publishing package valued at €2000, sponsored by The Manuscript Publisher. What this will mean is that the winner will have his or her book published professionally, in print and e-book editions, marketed, promoted and formally launched at a future SiarScéal Festival.

There is also a cash prize of €700 for winner of First Prize. The Ger Hanily Memorial Cup will be awarded to a local entry that best conveys 'sense of place' while trophy prizes will be awarded for Highly Commended entries in poetry and prose categories (local, national, international).

Mary Melvin Geoghegan will adjudicate at this years Awards. She will also be reading from her own work. Mary is the author of no less than four anthologies of poetry and has also edited several volumes of children’s poetry and verse. Her most recent collection, Say it like a Paragraph, was published in 2012 by Bradshaw Books.

Also headlining at this year’s festival is Eileen Battersby, journalist, art critic, literary correspondent. She will be reading from her debut novel, Teethmarks on My Tongue, published just last year to a great reception, both in Ireland and internationally.

An open mike session will wind down the evening's entertainment. The formal part of the festival concludes at 5pm. Full details, including programme of events, are available from SiarScéal website – see Festival page.

Rose Morris reads from her winning entry at the 2014 SiarScéal Hanna Greally International Literary Awards. As Overall Winner, her prize was to see her book published professionally, resulting in The Splendiferous Tale of Ferdinand Fox (see below), a whimsical adventure story with a cautionary ecological message, told in the form of children's illustrated verse.