The judges for the Poem for Enniscorthy, Brian Quigley & John Kelly, are delighted to announce the following shortlist of four works, from which the Overall Winner will be announced on 28th May, 2016, at our award ceremony, in Enniscorthy Athenaeum at 3pm.
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Republic of Enniscorthy – Maria Clifford
Requiem – Norah Clifford-Kelly
Rise – Joe Neal
Rise and rise again – Jer Ennis.
Highly Commended:
Four Days of Glory – Fiona McAree
Blood is thicker than Vinegar – Ruth Allen
Easter Week, 1916 – Noel Armstrong.
The winners will be announced during afternoon tea in the historic Athenaeum, on Sunday 29th May at 3pm.
All short listed and highly commended writers are invited to attend.
Full details can be found here: http://www.focalliteraryfestival.com/festival-2016
Thank-you to Wexford County Council for sponsorship and to Colm Tóibín for giving his name to this prestigious award. Congratulations to all.
Shortlist for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016
The List by Louise Hall
Winter 1963 by Judith Wilson
The Cube by Fergal O’Byrne
Camping with Daddy by Michele Sheldon
Into the forest by Andrea Mara
Kicking the Habit by Clare O’Reilly
A roman candle by Sophie Kelliher
Red flags and empty nans by Wendy White
The last post by Valerie Ryan
Settling by Jane Harrington
The Roundabout by Catherine Donelly
The Long Goodbye by Martin McSweeney
It’s the little things by Anne O’Leary
Dad’s lost soul by Lourdes Mackey
Cash in hand by Jo Verity
Skunk and Beastie by Holly Atkinson
Highly Commended for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016
Pietá by Jonathan de Burca Butler
Ministry of the interior by Louise Kennedy
Kathleen’s Lit up Sky by June Caldwell
Rebirth by Anne Mc Loughlin
Very Like a Whale by Joe Neal
Reading panel:
Carmel Harrington, Paul O’Reilly, Caroline Busher, Cat Hogan and Alison Martin
Our Judging panel:
Lisa Coen, a founder of Tramp Press
Nuala O’Connor, esteemed writer and poet
Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, founder of The Inkwell Group and the online national writing resource magazine www.writing.ie.
Thankyou,
Caroline Busher, on behalf of the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award sub-committee.
]]>It has been an absolute pleasure for me to be affiliated with the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award, and to chair the sub-committee on behalf of Wexford Literary Festival. Colm Tóibín is one of the greatest writers of all time and we are honoured that he gave his name to this prestigious award.
The standard of entries that we received for the inaugural Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award has been exceptionally high. We received over three hundred entries from writers all over the world. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of Wexford Literary Festival to thank everyone who took the time to enter.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the members of the Colm Toíbín International Short Story Award sub-committee: Cat Hogan, Paul O’Reilly, Carmel Harrington and Alison Martin. The sub-committee were initial readers for the competition, and we have been meeting on a weekly basis for a number of months to discuss the stories and to compile the longlist.
The shortlist for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award will be announced on 23rd April 2016 and the judges will then make the final decision.
The judging panel consists of:
• Lisa Coen, a founder of Tramp Press
• Nuala O’Connor, esteemed writer and poet
• Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, founder of The Inkwell Group and the online national writing resource magazine www.writing.ie.
Thanks again to everyone who entered.
The Wexford Literary Festival will take place on 27th-29th May 2016.
The results of the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award will be announced on 29th May at 3pm in the historic Athenaeum in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
Thankyou,
Longlist for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016
The List by Louise Hall
Winter 1963 by Judith Wilson
The Long Goodbye by Martin McSweeney
Another Mouth to Feed by Johanna C Leahy
Accessory by Sharon Dempsey
A Life Lesson by Anna O’Donovan
Settling by Jane Harrington
Turning Away by Sinead Slattery
The Required Distance by Jean Roarty
The Station House by Ellen Britton
The Front Pew by Sheena Lambert
Comrades in Arms by Sean Lyons
Very like a Whale by Joe Neal
Cash in hand by Jo Verity
The Alphabet Patients by Edel Williams
Cold Water Richard by Scarsbrook
It’s the little things by Anne O’Leary
The Irish Mammy; Reworked by Maire Ryan
Carmine by Richard Newton
Pietá by Jonathan de Burca Butler
Minstry of the interior by Louise Kennedy
Close by Padraic Whyte
Our Golden Finery by Riona Judge Mc Cormack
The Roundabout by Catherine Donelly
The Cube by Fergal O’Byrne
Red flags and empty nans by Wendy White
Remember that summer by Lucy Welch
A Reunion by John Clinch
Hemlock 11 by Rory Endean
The Tether by Diarmuid O’Connell
Kathleen’s lit up sky by June Caldwell
Kissing tiny flowers by Sarah Grout
Saltwater by Rose Stevens
On an earth uniformly covered by the sea by Laura Morgan
A roman candle by Sophie Kelliher
Brad Pitt in the movie Thelma and Louise by Chris Connolly
Into the Darkness by Gina Wollerman
Nobody knows the shivering stars by Niamh Mac Cabe
A meal to remember by Michael Tennyson
Home by David Butler
John-John by Pauline Clooney
Breaking Eggs by Joe Mc Kiernan
Cry of the Gull by Lorna Cooper
Freedom by Tina Sweeney
Cruel woman by Elizabeth Mc Cullum – Ryan
Cut to the bone by Stephen Leach
A Dance With Time by Zandra Carrington
Skunk and Beastie by Holly Atkinson
Kicking the Habit by Clare O’Reilly
The best photo I never took by Tom O’Brien
The Anchor by Delia Mac Taggart
Dancing Turtle by Thomas Atkinson
The Burrow by Rosemary Hennigan
An Unexpected Visitor at Elbow Lake by Louise Mangos
The Latent Test by Liam Curtin
Jimmy by Robert Fields
Camping with Daddy by Michele Sheldon
A hand to hold Ayobami Adebayo
The last post by Valerie Ryan
Into the forest by Andrea Mara
They took to the sky by Chris Pritchard
Dad’s lost soul by Lourdes Mackey
Rebirth by Anne Mc Loughlin
Anna’s picture by Mary O’Brien
Roundabouts and swings by Eleanor O’Reily
My Date with Nigella by Peter Kettle
Shrinking from Life by Catherine Talbot
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A limited number of early bird tickets are available, book your tickets for #WEXLITFEST here
Venue: Church Institute, Saturday 28th May, 9.00 – 10.00 am
Author Talk, Historical Fiction
With Hazel Gaynor
One Foot In The Past: The challenges and joys of writing historical fiction set in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME and A MEMORY OF VIOLETS. She was selected by US Library Journal as one of ‘Ten Big Breakout Authors’ for 2015, was a spring 2015 WHSmith Fresh Talent pick and received the 2015 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year award for THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME. As features writer for writing.ie she has interviewed Philippa Gregory, Sebastian Faulks, Kate Mosse and Cheryl Strayed, among others. Hazel is a contributing author to WWI anthology FALL OF POPPIES. Her third novel, THE GIRL FROM THE SAVOY, is published in June. Hazel lives in County Kildare with her husband and two children.
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MADELEINE KEANE, LITERARY EDITOR OF THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT TO LAUNCH FOCAL – WEXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL TO THE PRESS, ON 7TH APRIL 2016 AT A RECEPTION IN THE NEWLY REFURBISHED ENNISCORTHY ATHENAEUM.
Wexford Literary Festival would like to invite you to our festival launch night, in The Enniscorthy Athenaeum, on 7th April, at 7.30pm. We are delighted to welcome Madeleine Keane to Wexford, to formally launch our festival. All are welcome and there will be a wine reception with a chance to meet some of our festival speakers.
Madeleine Keane was educated at UCD and Trinity. She worked in the editorial departments of Irish Tatler, Image Magazine and the publishing house Chatto & Windus before joining the Sunday Independent in 1988. She has been the Literary Editor of the Sunday Independent for the last 11 years and during that time co-founded the Irish Book Awards and curated two writers’ festivals in Dublin – Books ’08 and Books ‘09.
She also presented a books programme for RTE TV (‘First Edition’) and has written a non-fiction careers guide for teenagers (What Will I Be? Mercier Press 1995). She was a member of the steering committee for the successful Dublin City of Literature Unesco bid. She regularly writes about books, theatre and travel. She has broadcast on tv and radio (The View, Ryan Tubridy, Tonight with Vincent Browne, TV3 Ireland AM, 4FM) about books and publishing and presents at literary festivals and events (Dublin Book Festival, Dalkey Books Festival, The Irish Book Awards etc).
Our third annual literary festival will take place between 27th – 29th May, 2016,
The full programme will be released to the press at the launch on 7th April. We have worked hard over the past couple of years to promote Co. Wexford nationally as a place of literary excellence. Our aim has always been to both honour our existing literary greats and to support aspiring writers on their own creative paths.
The festival will include workshops and panel discussions with some of Ireland’s beloved bestselling authors and industry experts. We will also announce the winners of our Schools Book Trailer Award, The 1916 Poem for Enniscorthy and The Colm Toibin International Short Story Award. Full details of the lineup will be on www.focalliteraryfestival.com. Tickets are available to buy online now
http://www.focalliteraryfestival.com/shop/
Carmel Harrington curator of the Wexford Literary Festival, said: ‘We are excited and honoured that such talented speakers are coming to Co. Wexford. We have worked hard to ensure that our programme appeals to both writers and readers. Our festival has earned a reputation as one of the most friendly and fun events in the literary calendar, where all speakers are accessible. Ultimately, our festival is a celebration of books and writers and this year promises to be our best yet.’
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]]>We hope you will not be too disappointed and encourage you to go to Fusion Cafe, Wexford Friday 4th December 7.30pm for a local poetry reading evening with guest Mark Roper.
In 2016, Focal is encouraging all Wexfordians to explore their talent.
We will have TWO Venues as part of our Bi-monthly Open Mike Nites. A full year’s schedule and Venues are listed bellow:
05th Feb. 2016 – Wexford Art Centre
01st April 2016 – The Presentation Centre Enniscorthy
03rd June 2016 – Wexford Art Centre
05th August 2016 – The Presentation Centre Enniscorthy
07th October 2016 – Wexford Art Centre
02nd December 2016- The Presentation Centre Enniscorthy
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Use the Google link to locate the Bellefield Rapparees GAA Complex in Enniscorthy
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If you would like to attend, please email [email protected]
Carmel Harrington is the bestselling and award winning Wexford author of Beyond Grace’s Rainbow and The Life You Left.
Every Time A Bell Rings will be on sale nationwide in all good bookshops from 19th November 2015
If you prefer to read on your eReader or kindle, you can download here
What the blurb says:
‘Beautiful and uplifting…Written with such heart it warms the soul’ – Claudia Carroll, bestselling author of ‘Meet Me in Manhattan’
‘A compelling, magical, festive cracker of a book’ – Alexandra Brown, bestselling author of ‘The Great Village Show’
Every Time A Bell Rings
An angel gets its wings…
Belle has taken all the Christmas decorations down. This year they won’t be celebrating.
As foster parents, Belle and Jim have given many children the chance of a happier start in life. They’ve loved them as if they were their own. They shouldn’t have favourites but little Lauren has touched their hearts. And now her mother is well enough to take her back and Belle can’t bear the loss.
Hence, Christmas is cancelled.
So when Jim crashes his car one icy December night, after an argument about Lauren, Belle can only blame herself. Everything she loves is lost. And Belle finds herself standing on The Ha’Penny Bridge wishing she had never been born.
But what happens to a Christmas wish when an angel is listening…
Will Belle realise, before it’s too late, that her life is the most wonderful life of all?
Inspired by the timeless tale of beloved Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, Carmel Harrington’s next book tells the story of Belle, a young woman and foster carer from Dublin who faces the hardest decision of her life this Christmas on The Ha’Penny Bridge.
Full of Irish charm, magic, and the warmth of the festive season this is an emotional, heartwarming story that will stay with you long after you’ve reached ‘The End’. Perfect for fans of Cecelia Ahern & Jojo Moyes.
Carmel is the bestselling author of The Life You Left & Beyond Grace’s Rainbow, voted Romantic eBook of the Year 2013.
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