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Festival Update:

– Exciting News for SiarScéal Writers in October –

posted 2 Oct 2017, 20:10

SiarScéal Festival 2017 takes place over Friday and Saturday, 20th – 21st October in Roscommon County Library. Full details, including times, venue, programme of events and how to get there have been posted online. There is also a festival brochure that you can download and share, or keep some place that is handy.

Among our featured writers are poet, Mary Melvin Geoghegan, who acts as adjudicator for this year's Hanna Greally International Literary Awards. We are also very pleased to have with us, Eileen Battersby, Irish Times staff arts journalist and literary correspondent. She will be reading for her recently published debut novel, Teethmarks on My Tongue, which has been very favourably reviewed, both in Ireland and internationally.

Hanna Greally International Literary Awards – Last Call for Entries!

Closing date for this year's awards is fast approaching: all entries must be received by 5pm on Tuesday, 10 October. Entries can be posted or submitted online – see our website full details of the Competition Rules of Entry.

This year’s competition is inviting submissions on the theme of Beneath Western Skies. Entries may be of poetry (maximum 100 lines) or prose/short-story (2000 words). There is an fee of €10 that allows up to three entries per person.

There is every incentive for writers to get their entries in for this year's awards. The Overall Prize winner will see his or her book published professionally, in print and e-book editions, in a publishing package deal sponsored by The Manuscript Publisher, valued at €2000.

If the Overall Prize is not enough to entice you, a cash prize of €700 will be awarded to the First Prize winner. The Ger Hanily Memorial Cup will be awarded to the best local entry received on the same theme which, in the judges' view, offers the best Sense of Place. There will also be trophy presentations for Highly Commended entries in local, national, international categories of poetry and prose.

SiarScéal Festival 2017 – Day One

The Festival will kick off on Friday, October 20th at Roscommon County Library HQ, Abbey Street, Roscommon Town, starting at 10am. Day One is entirely given over to the student presentations of The Hanna Greally International Literary Awards, involving local schools. AIB Manager, Carmel Reilly, will provide the keynote speech on behalf of the sponsors.

Day Two

Saturday, October 21st will see presentations of this year's Hanna Greally International Literary Awards for Overall Prize, First Prize, the Ger Hanily Memorial Cup and Highly Commended entries. Cathaoirleach of Roscommon County Council, Orla Leyden, will be presenting the prizes and this will be followed by readings from the winning entries.

The adjudicator of this year's awards, Mary Melvin Geoghegan, will also be reading from her own work. Mary has had four collections of poetry published to date and she has edited several anthologies of children's poetry. She has been widely published in journals that include The Stinging Fly and Poetry Ireland Review. She has won the Longford Festival award for poetry and, in 2015, was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Award. Her most recent collection, Say it like a Paragraph, was published in 2012 by Bradshaw Books.

Eileen Battersby, Irish Times staff arts journalist and literary reviewer, who has won the National Arts Journalist of the Year award four times and was National Critic of the Year in 2012, will be reading from her extremely well-received debut novel, Teethmarks on My Tongue. This will be followed by Q&A from the audience.

An open mike session will wind down the evening's entertainment. The formal part of the festival concludes at 5pm.