Calling Roscommon Poets!
Writers with a connection to the county are invited to enter our prestigious annual Roscommon Poets’ Competition.
Poems can be in any style and on any subject but must be no more than 70 lines long. The judge is distinguished poet and lecturer Iggy McGovern, who will read every entry. All entries are made anonymous for the judge, so he is basing his choice on the words rather than the reputation of the writer.
Winners will be announced at our 21st Festival (May 2nd – 6th 2019), when each of the shortlisted poets will be invited to read their work and will receive a reading fee. The overall winner receives a prize of €150.
Entrants must have a connection to Roscommon to be eligible to enter, either born, resident, or went to school in the county, or currently attending a writers’ group here.
Entries, which must be previously unpublished, cost €6 each and can be made on-line or via post. Poets may enter as many times as they wish but will only be shortlisted for one poem. The deadline for the competition is February 15th 2019, with more details available on-line: https://www.strokestownpoetry.org/roscommon-poets-prize-2019/
Winner of the 2017 Roscommon Poets’ Prize, Fairymount writer Louise G Cole, subsequently went on to win the 2018 Hennessy Poetry Award and has recently launched ‘Soft Touch’, a collection of her poetry selected for publication by Carol Ann Duffy, the UK Poet Laureate.