Eligibility
The Award is open to short stories of up to 7000 words published between 1st November 2019 and 31st October 2020 in any of the following contexts: a collection of short stories by a single author; an anthology of short stories; an established journal or magazine (established for at least six months within the eligible period); published in print or digital format.
Stories should be original fiction. All stories must have been published in English during the qualifying period.
The author must be Irish by birth, citizenship or long-term residence.
Entries must be made by the editor of the publication in which the story appears. Submissions open on 30th June 2020. An individual author may be entered more than once for the competition by an editor if their work appears in more than one publication. It is the editor’s decision which author will represent each of their publications.
Entries will not be eligible where the author is a member of the independent judging panel, anyone involved in the administration of the IBAs or a close family relative of any such person.
Authors who have made current or previous contributions to Writing.ie are eligible to enter.
Adjudication on all eligibility issues will be at the discretion of the Awards’ executive body. Their decision will be final.
How to submit
Stories may only be submitted via the online form at www.writing.ie . Closing date for entries is 31st August 2020. The entry form must be completed in full and the story attached as a doc or docx in the format detailed below.
Stories may only be submitted by the editor of the publication in which the story appears, with full permission of the author, with a maximum of one story per edition or collection. The author may not submit their own work, please check with your editor if you wish to enter. Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of all the terms and conditions of entry. The submitting party must undertake to support the IBAs campaign and if shortlisted, must attend the awards night at their own expense. Shortlisted authors’ are guests of Writing.ie, and do not need to buy tickets, however partners and friends of shortlisted authors will need to make their own arrangements.
Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of all the terms and conditions of entry detailed here.
Format of Submissions
Manuscripts must be in a Word doc or docx format, typed in Times New Roman, double line spaced and pages must be numbered.
The document itself should be saved with the title of the story ONLY as the file name. The title of the story ONLY, MUST appear in the header or footer of all pages in the document. All stories will be judged anonymously.
The word count, author name, edition or collection and publisher should be detailed on the application form.
Judging
Submissions will be judged anonymously. An independent panel will select a long list of twelve stories for the panel of judges to consider. The judges will then select the final six stories to be shortlisted. Their decision is final. The shortlist will then be voted on by the public and must be available to be read online at www.writing.ie.
To submit a story, please click here.
Pic: Patrick Bolger
The judging panel will select the final six stories to be shortlisted for the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award. The winner will be announced at the An Post Irish Book Awards on 25th November 2020. For more information about the awards check out: http://www.irishbookawards.ie/
In line with GDPR legislation, all information gathered in the process of submission is held strictly confidentially and will only be used by the organisers to contact those involved in the process in connection with the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year. Read the Writing.ie privacy policy here.
