RTÉ SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2023 OPENS FOR ENTRIES 

 €12,000 PRIZE FUND FOR TOP THREE STORIES 

“This is an extraordinary, wonderful platform for short story writers of all genres – comedy, drama, memoir, speculative fiction, uncategorisable. Tá fresin fáilte roimh scríbhneoirí Gaeilge. Take a chance and plunge in. Beir Bua.”  

Judge, Ferdia MacAnna 

The RTÉ Short Story Competition 2023 in honour of Francis MacManus is back and is now open for entries. Writers have until Friday 26th May to submit their short story to the competition. 

This year’s entries will be judged by Ferdia MacAnna who returns as a judge along with authors Kathleen MacMahon and Claire Kilroy, both of whom have new books out this year (all pictured). 

The winning author will receive €5,000, while the second and third placed writers will receive €4,000 and €3,000 respectively. A further seven runners-up will receive €250 each. 

Since its inception over 35 years ago, the RTÉ Short Story Competition has been a critically important launch pad for new and emerging writers in Ireland. Set up in 1986 to honour writer and broadcaster Francis MacManus, the competition recognises and rewards the best new Irish fiction writing for radio. The competition is free to enter and attracts thousands of entries every year. 

A shortlist of ten stories will be announced in September, and the top prize winners will be announced on an Arena special programme later in the autumn, broadcast live from the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire.  All 10 shortlisted stories will be published on rte.ie/culture and broadcast in a season of new writing on RTÉ Radio 1 in the autumn. 

You can listen to and read last year’s 10 shortlisted stories here. 

What the judges said 

Ferdia MacAnna said: “I am thrilled to be involved with the RTÉ Short Story / Francis MacManus awards once again. This is an extraordinary, wonderful platform for short story writers of all genres – comedy, drama, memoir, speculative fiction, uncategorisable. Tá fresin fáilte roimh scríbhneoirí Gaeilge. Take a chance and plunge in. Beir Bua. 

“One of the most extraordinary, illuminating and uplifting aspects of being a judge on this competition last year was discovering a short story possessed a ‘radio voice’. The work is brought to vivid, incandescent life by a professional actor. It doesn’t alter a story. Instead, it enhances it in captivating, unexpected ways.” 

Kathleen MacMahon said: “A short story is a small doorway, but it opens onto an infinitely wide world. There’s no end to the possibilities the short story offers, and I very much look forward to reading what the finalists of the competition make of them. It’s a real honour to be asked by the RTÉ Short Story Competition to judge them and a great opportunity for me to learn more about what it is that makes a good story.” 

Claire Kilroy said: “The great thing about being involved with a cultural institution like the RTE Short Story Competition is that, as a judge, you never know what is going to come in. You never know what new voice will be discovered. From a new writer’s point of view, it is a pretty unique opportunity to be connected with a large audience.and get your work out there. I’d encourage anyone who has an idea for a short story to go for it.” 

The RTÉ Short Story Competition has been championing new talent for decades; past winners and shortlisted writers include Claire Keegan, Danielle McLaughlin, Anthony Glavin, Chris Binchy, Nuala O’Connor, Liz Nugent, Colin Walsh and Sarah Gilmartin. Last year’s winner was Brendan Killeen for his short story, Big Why, Little Why. 

Commenting, Brendan said: “Winning the RTÉ Short Story Competition in 2022, was, first and foremost, a huge vote of confidence in my writing. The competition also has a long reach, and I was delighted to receive messages of support from lots of old friends and acquaintances in far flung places as well as from ‘strangers’ who connected with the story as well as notice from within the world of Irish literature.” 

All shortlisted stories are produced for radio and voiced by some of Ireland’s most talented actors. In recent years these have included Cathy Belton, Eamon Morrissey, Ali White, Ingrid Craigie, Janet Moran, Kathy Rose O’Brien, Emmet Kirwan and Andrew Bennett. 

For competition rules, information on how to enter, and to read and listen to past winning stories, see www.rte.ie/writing. 

Series producer Sarah Binchy said: “This is a great opportunity for anyone serious about their writing, and almost 40 years on, being placed in this competition in honour of Francis MacManus has become a kind of rite of passage for Irish writers. There’s no entry fee, the prize fund is substantial, and you have the chance to have your work read and heard widely on RTÉ Radio 1 and Rte.ie/culture. A particular pleasure unique to this competition is to hear what an experienced actor can do with your words. We look forward very much to this year’s stories.”   

What the judges are looking for 

Ferdia advises prospective entrants to: “Give me conflict, atmosphere, a curious, significant setting. Character driven dialogue along with a brisk pace. Intrigue, surprise and enthral. Keep the reader at least one step behind. In other words, a tale needs to be unpredictable or at least, artfully disguised so it feels as though we are participating in an unravelling, a revelation.” 

Kathleen says that: “At the risk of stating the obvious, a short story should have a narrative arc, however small. The short stories I love best are the ones that turn on a moment of significance in a person’s life. In some ways, the smaller the moment the better. I’m thinking of the Kevin Barry story, Across the Rooftops. It’s only a few pages long, but there’s great drama to it, as a summer crush draws towards its moment of truth on a Cork city rooftop at dawn.” 

For Claire: “The one thing I need to happen with a short story is to end up in a different place to where I started, to experience a perspective shift. It doesn’t have to be a huge movement but I want to go somewhere, or to be brought. Insight, I suppose you might call it. Joyce termed it the epiphany. Writing an epiphany, of course, is no simple feat, and there are no instructions on how to accomplish this, but that’s the glorious game that is writing.” 

About This Year’s Judges 

CLAIRE KILROY 

Claire Kilroy is the author of four novels, All Summer (Faber & Faber, 2003), Tenderwire (Faber & Faber, 2006), All Names Have Been Changed (Faber & Faber, 2009), and The Devil I Know (Faber & Faber, 2012), which was described by The Guardian as “a satiric danse macabre of brio and linguistic virtuosity,” and by the New York Times as “savagely comic… and great fun.” She has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year three times, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004. She was an inaugural recipient in 2019 of the Markievicz Award. Her fifth novel, Soldier Sailor, described by Anne Enright as “a scorching read,” and by Sebastian Barry as “a radiant and fearless work of universal import,” will be published by Faber in May. 

FERDIA MacANNA 

Ferdia Mac Anna returns to the RTÉ Short Story Competition as a judge this year. He works as a novelist, film director, screenwriter and lecturer. In 1996, his novel , The Last of the High Kings was made into a Hollywood movie starring Jared Leto, Gabriel Byrne and Christina Ricci. His latest feature film is Danny Boy, which received an international release last year. 

KATHLEEN MacMAHON 

Kathleen MacMahon is a novelist, short story writer and journalist. Her fourth novel, The Home Scar, was published in February 2023 to great critical acclaim. Her third novel, Nothing But Blue Sky came out in 2020 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her short stories have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times and The Lonely Crowd, among others. Her work has been translated into over twenty languages. As well as writing fiction, Kathleen is a newspaper columnist and occasional broadcaster.