Category: competitions

Posted on

Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2013-a powerful reading list for Rozz!

A record number of writers have entered this year’s biggie, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize..

It is the only UK award that recognises excellence in a published collection of short stories and has some pretty enticing prizes for the winning short story god or goddess!

I noticed a big number of short story writers from Ireland and am crossing every finger for them. We

The judges have to shortlist 5 names only! That is tough. It will be revealed in May and the winners announced at a plush ceremony on 4th July in London. There is a main prize of £5,000 and a Readers’ Choice of £1,000 chosen from the 5 shortlisted. That is when I will be pushing everyone to vote for the best and Irish, hopefully!

On the long-list from Ireland are:

  • Kevin Barry with his brilliant Dark Lies The Island. You know how I feel about Kevin’s unique work. Noone like him though they may try.
  • Eileen Casey  with her collection Snow Shoes. This is one I want to read but haven’t yet.
  • Nuala Ni Chonchur  with her emotive collection Mother America. Nuala is obviously a highly talented writer, that’s a given but she is also extremely generous with her time promoting literature and the short story form that I am sending all my good vibes to her!
  • Mary Costello with her breathtaking and breathe deeply collection The China Factory. This is her first collection so it would be great for her.
  • Ellis Ni Dhuibhne  and her diverse collection The Shelter Of Neighbours. I loved, loved, loved every single piece in this. She knows how to do it and has been doing for years now, well deserved and my prediction.
  • Emma Donoghue  with her short story collection Astray. Again, beautiful prose but the content of history does not connect with my reading tastes. Maybe, the judges will have a historical interest?
  • Mike McCormack – Forensic Songs. I have not read anything by Mike but my aim this year. Please, send me more time.
  • Joseph O’Connor – Where Have You Been. This is my next collection to read. It is sitting there waiting for me on the window. It looks lonely.

We really have some strong contenders there. Anyone of them is truly deserved as inspiring me and their readers to love the short story form. Best of luck to all of you in great company and you have given me another To Read list!

Posted on

Junot Diaz “Miss Lora” wins the Sunday Times EFG Short Stroy award 2013

So, my least favourite and least predicted won the prize!

First of all, congratulations to him! €30,000 is a pretty nice fee to command for a short story!

You might have read my previous posts. I loved most of the short stories and I did like this. In fact, it is a perfect short story but I thought there was no freshness of content of theme to it. Look the The Gun and we have all of that and more, it also manages to be an easy to read story. I had to repeat some of the lines from Mark Haddon’s wonderful piece.

Miss Lora, not as much,for me and that is a totally personal thing.

It was a public vote so it could have a won by a couple of hundred people and maybe, the story maybe appealed to a more conventional or popular type of view of what a short story should do. Entertain and it did that. It’s just that everyone has their favourites!

Don’t get me wrong, if I even hoped to write in a quarter of the way Junot did, I would be delighted! IJunot sheds some light on the story http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize and he seems to be very modest and a clear lover of the form. I’ll have to read his full collections Drown and This is how you lose her, which Miss Lora come from.

His comment about writing goes a long way to explain his stories.

“There are two types of writers: those who write for other writers, and those who write for readers,”and that he prefers to keep his readers in mind when writing, as “they’ll be more likely to gloss over his mistakes and act as willing participants in a story, rather than actively looking to criticize his writing.”

Here’s to another year of mind moving tales!

Posted on

And my vote goes to…the EFG Sunday Times Short Story prize 2013-Part 3

Call it “The Bug” Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title by Toby Litt

This is a sci-fi type short story. No. Not something I tend to read though my husband would love this. This story was written for a bio-pink collection of short stories, worth putting that into context. It is about death, mourning and sadness though written in  a quirky and experimential way. Toby Litt wrote this story when his own mother died. We feel that emotion throughout. We feel the detachment of the narrator trying to get away from the horribleness that is her own mother’s death. She does this by inventing another story that she would write if she had the time, except she doesn’t have the time as she has to visit her own mother who is dying. Clever. But, I don’t get sci-fi. This is a pushing the boundary type short story and not all readers will like it. The winner of the short story EFG Sunday Times competition needs to be cleverly accessible and broad but breathtaking. This story is breathtaking but the way it is told may lose a few votes. Toby, don’t change though. We like it just maybe, not for this.

The beholder by Ali Smith

The story opens with a person(I’ll go with woman here) who is a bad way. She visits her doctor and tells him of her problems. Her Dad has died, she has recently separated and is getting depressed. So far, so normal. But, the the lady starts to notice something growing on her chest. It is a branch of some sort, which eventually grows into a fully blooming rose bush. I get it and I get what she was doing. The message is clear and she obviously wanted to challenge and push our boundaries of what we might expect. I couldn’t help but thing of that film “How to get a head in advertising” with Richard E. Grant as the advertising executive that suddenly starts to notice a head growing out of his chest. It eventually eats him or something. It freaked me out as a child/teenager. So, this story was not helpful. I see what she was doing but this wouldn’t be my type of story, it almost felt as if the metaphor of the rose was too pushy, too needy and looking for the reader to go “Ah-hah, I get it now” I like my stories seemingly normal but quirky but with many mysteries and hidden metaphors for me to probe and think about. This story was too much for me.

 

 

Posted on

And my vote goes to…the EFG Sunday Times Short Story prize 2013-Part 2

Evie by Sarah Hall was number three in the six short stories shortlisted for the EFG Sunday Times Short Story prize 2013.

I’ve read and loved The beautiful indifference, Sarah Hall’s first set of short stories, released last year but I was aware that she could be heavy going and ultra female themed. So, when I started Evie after finishing the brilliant short story The Gun, I braced myself.

Not to worry, the first few pages were easy and smooth, a woman decides she is going to start eating chocolate and lots of it. Her husband gets worried. Then, she drunkenly tries it on with his best friend. Hmmm, easy going this is not. The next morning, she is parading about in her silky dressing gown, showing her lady lumps off and using the f word when she wants to speak about making love.

Her husband gets worried but not too worried, after all his wife is a changed woman and he is a changed man and they have great fun fifty shades style for a while. The ending is an ending that I predicted. Though, it does make the reader feel bad about asusming something they shouldn’t have. There you go, I’ve revealed a lot. I am sorry, I take it all back. Evie is a strangely comforting nad easy to read short story written tenderly as always by the lovely Sarah Hall.

The dig by Cynan Jones

After all of that making out and feelings, we get The Dig, a story about a teenage boy who goes on a dig with his father and his gypsy friend.

The dig of the title refers to the digging out of a badger and the killing of a badger.

You will be brought into this world very quickly, I felt itchy having read it as I believed it and believed the characters and hated them. I feel I’ve seen variants of this story, Meles Vulgaris  by Patrick Boyle springs too mind although that story is told with love and affection for the badger. Something that I liked.

This story is a cruel story about what humans can do to animals and indeed each other. The teenage boy goes on a physical and mental journey towards the climatic murder scene of the badger. We hope he will shy away from it all, we hope he will have a realisation about his father and what he does for fun. The boy has a realisation indeed but it, too, is a cruel one.  He is the same as the other adults in the story and shame for him. He is keen to be a big man in front of his Dad but ultimately, there is no hero in this tale. The badger is a passive animal that puts up with the violence of his life, the puppy too is yearning for the boy’s love and the boy wants his Dad or men to accept him. Powerful.

Cynn Jones writes with a poetic harshness and maybe, it’s my own personal preference but I won’t be able to sleep now, the world is so cruel.

I bet this will win. Have the feeling! It has the landscape, coming of age, subtle underlying themes and metaphors and a non judgmental view of the gypsy character. This has a very British feel.

My last post will look at the final two stories shortlisted in the awards, Call it the bug because I have no title to think of a better title and The beholderB

 

Posted on

And my vote goes to…the EFG Sunday Times Short Story prize 2013-Part 1

For €2.27, I purchased the 6 shorts:the finalists for the 2013 Sunday Times EFG PRivate Bank Short Story Award. That is a title!

The results will be announced this Friday, 22nd March at a very posh gala ball where only special people can go!

Miss Lora by Junot Diaz

The collection opens with Junot Diaz Miss Lora short story. It is a long short story about a boy who sleeps with his next door neighbour, Miss Lora during a sad time in his teenage life. The big difference of this story is the narration technique, Diaz opts to use the second person narrative, which we know is really the first person  but gives us the sense that the narrator wants closure and  a wall put between the past, which is narrated in the present. Don’t be confused, there is no need to be. It is a fairly traditional tale. We have heard this before but the way Diaz writes is unique, he throws in the occasional spanish phrase amongst the English, which I didn’t understand. He writes plainly and in a voice that is teenage and of the streets. He invites you to hear his story while trying to warn a younger version of himself away from the muscle woman, Miss Lora.

At one point, I was thinking that there was a bit too much narrative in this short story to make it a true short story but then, the ending came. And the last sentence is a really good ending so wait for that. This is a strong short story. Will it make me read more of his work? Maybe. It seems too easy to be that good that it was narrowed down to 6 best stories out of the world! But, do read it, you can get it free on the New Yorker page here.

The Gun by Mark Haddon

Wow. Okay, a few things running through me after this.

First of all, this Mark Haddon, he of the curious incident of the dog at night fame, he who is also a painter, illustrator and cartoonist. Of course, this story was going to rock but it turns out that it rocks more than I could have thought. Strangely enough, I didn’t recognise the author’s name for some reason until I got to the bio at the end. I’m glad I didn’t as I would always be a bit worried that I had just thought this was great because it was by Mark Haddon. Like it had to be.

The story is about two boys who are from opposite ends of society. They are not friends, the story is clear to point this, they’re just in the same class. Daniel is middle-class and has parents that “aspire to be average.” Sean lives in a council flat with a Mum (that Daniel envies at the start of the story)and a brother who has a gun he keeps in a yellow sports bag.

And so the gun of the title. Yes, we know something scary is going to happen because of the title but also the way Haddon marks it clearly in a unique story telling way. He speaks directly to us at various points of the story, telling us that “there will be other extraordinary events in his life…Today will be different, not simply shocking, but one of those moments where time forks and fractures…” We get ready for the bang of the gun, and when it goes off, it is more sinister and numbing than we could imagine.

This is a short story. The ending is a marvel and the story never loses its pace, its authentic picture of two young lives and how an event can stay with you forever, for some reason. We can understand it and him. There were so many times where I stopped and read the piece out loud just to hear it, how did he do it? I don’t care. I loved this. More, more, more. You can and you should listen to Mark Haddon reading The Gun here.

It is 40 minutes long as it is covers some of the story but an interview about the difference between short stories and novels. This being Haddon’s 2nd short story but please read it! He says he finds short story very difficult! Phew!  Great to read British short story writing like this as I don’t come across it often. Makes you think about what if, you all know those moments!

I’ll be back when I’ve read the next two stories and you have had a chance to read these two stories.

Posted on

Party hard:We get our first challenge from David Lordan on RTE Arena

Party hard!

The party

You have till 21st December. If you missed out on Radio 1 Arena programme with David Lordan, then check out the link here http://www.rte.ie/radio1/arena If you click on New planet cabaret, you will hear the clip related to it.

New Planet Cabaret – Arena’s Creative Writing Course

Dave Lordan launched the first ever on-air creative writing course which Radio 1 is calling ‘New Planet Cabaret’. Writers can send their stories to arena@rte.ie with ‘creative writing’ in the subject title. They are looking for stories on the theme ‘The Party’ before December 21st .

David spoke about the title of the course in that he is looking for writing that is alive, well-travelled/multi reflective and of a cabaret-entertainment style! Some really good concepts there to keep in mind.

The party theme is a great prompt. David spoke about the fertility of lies and how we should use this in our fiction writing. He questions that people think telling lies in writing is morally wrong. To try to break out of this, he urges people to ask our friends about an interesting party that you have been to-wake, wedding, house party. Listen to the story and then tell the story from their point of view. He recommends that you add in at least three lies to the story! Keep in mind that you are writing for an intelligent audience around the 700 word mark, which will last for about a couple of minutes. David gives us a song to inspire us at the end of the podcast. It is a personal favourite of Simon and I-Party hard by Pulp.

Party Hard by Pulp

He has given some more prompts and brilliant pieces to read, art to look at, films to see that will inspire you on the theme of parties. You can find this at his website http://davelordanwriter.com/2012/12/05/the-party-decembers-writing-prompt-fpr-new-planet-cabaret/ 

Ways to enter and get involved can all be found at David’s website, I am officially excited!

 

Posted on

RTE Radio 1 Arena is to run on-air creative writing course

For the last month, I have noticed the name of David Lordan springing up everywhere! Dave is very well known in literary circles, he teaches creative writing at Mater Dei Institute amongst millions of other things, I’m sure!
He is running a certified course for creative writing in Mater Dei in January 2013 and I am definitely looking into this.
So, when I flicked to RTE news ap and saw the following news, I felt a warm, Christmas, creative writing glow! Brilliant idea from RTE and David. Now, I must find out if they do an app or a podcast download!

RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena programme is to run an on-air creative writing course, with opportunity for submissions to be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 and published by New Island Books.

Sean Rocks
The course begins on Tuesday December 4 at 7.30pm on the programme and continues on the first Tuesday of the month thereafter throughout 2013.

The course, which is being run in association with New Island Books, is entitled New Planet Cabaret and features writer, poet, performer and creative writing teacher Dave Lordan discussing, deconstructing and demystifying the process of writing poetry, short story writing, novel writing, writing for theatre, crime fiction, song lyrics.

Each month, Dave will set out assignments for followers of the course, who will then be invited to send their submissions in to arena@rte.ie for review by Dave Lordan and the Arena team.

Dave Lordan currently teaches contemporary critical theory and poetic practice on the MA in Poetry Studies at Dublin City University. He also teaches creative writing at primary, secondary, third, and adult education levels. An internationally-acclaimed poet, he was the first to win Ireland’s three national prizes for young poets.

Lordan is also the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award and previous winner of both the Patrick Kavanagh and Strong Awards for poetry.

New Planet Cabaret will feature guest contributions from acclaimed writers, including Nick Kelly, Colm Keegan and Kathy D’Arcy to name but a few. Arena is presented by Sean Rocks.

20121203-120718.jpg

Posted on

Five Dials:free mag-stories from Kevin Barry, Nuala Ni Chonchuir and Lydia Davis et more!

Twitter is great for following new literary talent and any sort of bookish and writing news. I follow the brilliant Nuala Ni Chonchur, who not only writes and writes novels, poetry and short stories, teaches classes but she also runs a pretty cool blog. It is called http://womenrulewriter.blogspot.ie/. I think she writes 3 other blogs too but let’s just focus on this one. Easy now!

Nuala’s twitter handle is @NualaNiC and she is a brilliant social conversationalist. She tweets you right back and if you make a comment on her blog, she replies! That’s manners for you!

Seriously, though her blog and tweet alerted me to the Five Dials magazine. I have heard of it before but didn’t quite realise how good it was. I must admit I only really went to delve into it properly when I saw these 4 words-Kevin.Barry.new.writing.

But, this issue not only has writing from himself, it has short stories, fiction, poetry and strange images from Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Lydia David, Mike McCormack and D.W Wilson. Kevin’s story is well, very Kevin. A story called “The lovely Miss-what’s her face” is about a frustrated young man with psoriasis who likes to cook spaghetti bolgonese. Little does he know is that a man will never find a nice, young girl if he is going ot present her with a made from scratch spag bol. This woman is not really after the spag bol.

Nuala’s story Room 313  is really, really nice and sad and tender and the ending just hits the right spot. It’s about a chambermaid and the things she sees, the work she does/doesn’t do and her favourite room, Room 313. The chambermaid kicks some bottom at the end.

So, you can see why I am so excited because not only does five dials have these amazing short story writers and other bits of fiction and poetry, it also puts out  a call to all.

Zsuzsi Gartner is another pretty cool short story writer(why so many?), she is looking for people to “adopt” her short stories. She gives eleven of her story starters and you have to write to her, the old fashioned way and ask for adoption rights. She will send you a cert and you must finish the story. Simple.

I wish. Your story may be published in a future issue of Five Dials. I am going to have a go so why not you?

The link to the Five dials Issue 25 can be found here. and Nuala’s blog at here.

I am so good to you, you know.