Short Story Competition

Written by John Boyne on the March 18th,2020

To help foster creativity among Irish children and teenagers during this current crisis, I’m running a SHORT STORY COMPETITION, aimed at 6-18 year olds, with lots of book tokens to give out as prizes.

There are 3 categories:

• 6-10 year olds
• 11-14 year olds
• 15-18 year olds

So this is the way it will work:

• 3 categories, 6-10 year olds; 11-14 year olds; 15-18 year olds.
• The total prize fund originally stood at € 3,600, but thanks to the generosity of NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS, who offered to double the fund, it now stands at € 7,200
• Each category will have an overall winner who receives € 200 national book token. Each category will also have 10 winners of a € 100 national book tokenand 16 winners of a € 50 national book token and 20 winners of a € 20 national book token
• All stories to be submitted in WORD DOCUMENT FORMAT to: johnboynestory@gmail.comby Wednesday 25^thMarch, 5 pm.
• Please DO NOT send in pdf or Google Docs format. (If you already have, don’t worry, I’ve converted them, but it just adds to my workload! So WORD DOCUMENT FORMAT only!)
• Stories must be no longer than 300 words.
• Entrants need to include their name, email address, phone number, postal address and age, so I know which category they’re entering.
• The Gutter Bookshop is supplying the book token cards and envelopes but the book tokens are national book tokens so can be used anywhere in Ireland.
• All stories can potentially be shared over the radio on RTE’s Liveline by Joe Duffy.

The judges are a who’s who of Irish writing!

• Alex Barclay, Anne Enright, Anne Griffin, Cecelia Ahern, Claire Kilroy, Dermot Bolger, Donal Ryan, Eoin Colfer, Helen Cullen, John Boyne, Kevin Power, Louise O’Neill, Paul Murray, Roddy Doyle, Sarah Webb, 

Good luck!