Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival Poetry Competition

-

 Full Detials

 tterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival is delighted to announce its 2026 Poetry Competition is open for submissions.

This year, the theme of the competition is New World. Poets, interpret as you wish!

Five shortlisted poets will be invited to read their entries at the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival on Saturday 17th October when the overall winner will be announced.

The judge this year is Deirdre Hines. Deirdre is an award-winning poet and author of The Language of Coats (New Island) which includes her Listowel Prize-winning collection, and The Mermelf: A Fable for Our Times (Austin Macauley Publishers), runner-up in the the London Book Festival 2024. Her Japanese Poetry Workbook: Master Haiku, Tanka, Renku, Haibun & more with prompts, is an Amazon Top 50 bestseller.

The Festival Committee wish to thank Brennan’s Pharmacy and Donegal ETB for sponsoring our main prizes. 

The winner will receive €150 and the runner-up €100.
Three highly commended entries will receive cash prizes.
The closing date for entries is Friday 21st August. Results will be announced by the end of September.

Submission Guidelines

1. The submission must be the author’s own unpublished work – this includes, print or online publication, or broadcast. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

2. The theme for this competition is New World. Entrants must be over 18 and from the island of Ireland, or resident in Ireland. Entries to be in English, or Irish with a translation. Entry is free.

3. You may submit two poems; only one submission per person. Maximum length of each poem to be 30 lines, excluding title. Entries should be typed in a clear 12pt font.

4. Ensure that your name does not appear on the work. In the body of the email it is essential to include name, county and telephone number.

5. The five shortlisted poets will be expected to read at the Prize Winners’ Evening of the Festival in October 2026, please consider this when you are entering.

6. Copyright remains with the author.

7. Entry to the competition implies acceptance of the rules. The Judge’s decision is final.

8. Please submit your work as a Word document by email to lkcqfest@gmail.com by the closing date 21st August 2026.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DAW

-
Image
Full details  Overview Founded in 1971 by veteran paperback editor Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, DAW Books was the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy. Now almost 50 years and two thousand titles later, DAW has a well-deserved reputation for discovering and publishing the hottest talents in the industry. Many stars of the science fiction and fantasy field made their debuts in the pages of a DAW book, including Patrick Rothfuss , Tad Williams , C. J. Cherryh , Mercedes Lackey , Kristen Britain , Melanie Rawn , C.S. Friedman , and Tanith Lee . Despite its high profile, DAW is still a small private company, owned exclusively by its publishers, Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert. Betsy and Sheila are strongly committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, and to keeping a personal “family” spirit at DAW—something they feel is all too rare in today’s world of international cong...
Read more

Polis Books

-
Full details  Polis Books is an independent publishing company actively seeking new and established authors for our growing list. We are currently acquiring titles in the genres listed on the web site. Please keep in mind that while Polis Books does accept unsolicited submissions, due to the incredibly high volume of unsolicited material we receive, we will only respond to queries if we have interest in the submission. If you have not received a response to your query in 12 weeks you can assume we have passed on it. We know how much time and effort goes into every manuscript, and we sincerely apologize that we cannot reply to every submission individually.  Please keep in mind that we do not publish stand-alone novellas or short stories, and novel-length submissions should generally be a minimum of 60,000 words. We will very rarely consider titles under that length. Note: we do not respond to emails that are not submissions . If you want to know whether w...
Read more

Boyd's Mill and Kane

-
Imprints Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction titles for picture book, middle grade, and young adult audiences. Established in 1990, Boyds Mills Press features picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction books that focus on excellent storytelling, imaginative illustration, and diverse characters. Our exceptionally crafted titles are designed to entertain, inform, and engage children of all ages. We are actively seeking submissions for the Boyds Mills Press imprint.  Wordsong is the only children’s imprint in the United States specifically dedicated to poetry. Wordsong publishes picture book poetry collections as well as poetry collections for middle grade and young adult readers. We publish novels in verse that are made up of discrete, powerful, individual poems. Some of the well-known poets who publish under the Wordsong imprint include Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Marilyn S...
Read more