RTÉ SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2024 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
RTÉ SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2024 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
FIRST PRIZE (€5,000) AWARDED to MATTIE BRENNAN for ‘DEAD BAIT’
SECOND PRIZE (€4,000) to STEPHEN O’REILLY for ‘DIVINATION’
THIRD PLACE (€3,000) to EMER O’TOOLE for ‘THE OTHER ÓRLA’
AWARDS TO BE BROADCAST ON RTÉ RADIO 1’S ARENA ON MONDAY 2ND DECEMBER
www.rte.ie/writing | www.rte.ie/Culture | #rteshortstory
‘Dead Bait’ by Mattie Brennan, with its mastery of storytelling, triumph of detail a sense of jeopardy that grows as the story nears its gripping conclusion, in the words of the judges, has been announced as the winning story in this year’s RTÉ Short Story Competition 2024 in honour of Francis MacManus.
The announcement was made at an RTÉ Radio 1 Arena RTÉ Short Story Special hosted by Sean Rocks in the Pavillion Theatre Dun Laoghaire. The event will be broadcast on Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 at 7pm next Monday 2nd December.
The winning stories were selected by writers Claire Kilroy, Neil Hegarty and Kathleen MacMahon from a shortlist of 10 stories which was announced earlier this month.
As winner Mattie Brennan received a cheque for €5,000.
Second Prize went to ‘Divination’, by Stephen O’Reilly who was presented with a cheque for €4,000, while Third Prize went to ‘The Other Órla’, by Emer O’Toole who was presented with a cheque for €3,000. The seven runners-up received €250 each.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID ABOUT ‘DEAD BAIT’
CLAIRE KILROY: “What won me over was how fully imagined this story was. This is a writer who has fully imagined himself into his protagonist’s shoes and, in so doing, puts his reader into those shoes. Dead Bait is a triumph of detail: from the pain in the narrator’s knee which is carried from the first page to the last, to the depiction of releasing an elderly woman from her upended car in a ditch, What could have been another drug dealing crime caper was elevated by the upsurge of love the narrator suddenly feels for his estranged children. I believed this story and I believed this voice.”
NEIL HEGARTY: “Dead Bait’ offers truly superlative storytelling. We are introduced to a world in which ethics seemingly play little or no part, and to a protagonist whose experience of life has been brutal and terrifying. But as the story unfolds, we come to see that ethics and morality are in fact at the centre of this man’s life, as he faces a final and fatal choice.”
KATHLEEN MacMAHON: “It’s the mastery of storytelling that won us over. From the very beginning, the writer sets the scene and moves through the sequence of events with invisible skill. There is back story and forward momentum, and a sense of jeopardy that grows as the story nears its gripping conclusion. For its consummate crafting, this is a very worthy winner of this year’s Francis Mac Manus.”
WHAT OUR PRIZE WINNERS SAID
1st prize: MATTIE BRENNAN
“Hearing my story being announced as the winner of the 2024 RTÉ Short Story Award was a moment that will live with me for a long time. I’m honoured and humbled that my story was selected from such a competitive shortlist. I’m full of gratitude to everyone involved in the competition, especially the judges, the preliminary readers, the competition’s production team, and, of course, every other writer who entered. Thanks, too, to Seán Rocks and Cathal Murray, who showed such great support for the competition. I owe a huge debt of gratitude also to Aaron Monaghan, whose inimitable reading style brought my story to life with such vividness.”
2nd prize: STEPHEN O’REILLY
“There’s a sense of accomplishment that your story has resonated with the judges in such a high-profile competition. It validates your abilities and the choices you make to have an artistic career. Achieving second place against fifteen hundred other entrants and judged by respected writers like Claire Kilroy, Neil Hegarty, and Kathleen MacMahon, is an enormous confidence boost. It motivates me to continue writing and pushing those creative boundaries.“
3rd prize: EMER O’TOOLE
“It’s an immense honour to be awarded third prize this year, especially given the quality of the shortlist. I so much enjoyed reading the other stories and meeting their authors. I’m relatively new to fiction, and, as any aspiring writer will tell you, it can feel like typing into the void – will anyone get it? will anyone like it? will anyone get it AND like it? The judges’ compliment to my work is a missive from the inky darkness. It reads, “more void typing plz.”
The 10 shortlisted stories, in alphabetical order by story title were:
- Artifice, by Sharon Guard
- Chambermaid, by Fiona O’Connor
- Dead Bait, by Mattie Brennan
- Dessie and Hopper, by Susanne Stich
- Divination, by Stephen O’Reilly
- Once Upon an Algorithm, by Ryan Delaney
- Planning the Leftovers, by Sheila Barrett
- The Other Órla, by Emer O’Toole
- The Rehearsal, by Alexis MacIsaac
- Turncoat, by David Ralph
Commenting on the judging process, Neil Hegarty, who joined the judging panel this year said: “I’m deeply impressed by the entries submitted this year. Quite simply, it’s so heartening to see the sheer quality of writing on display. I’m also struck by how these stories track emotional lives in all their variety and complexity: art acts as a barometer of society, of course, but it seems to me that the RTE Short Story Competition in particular truly mirrors the preoccupations of our society in the here and now.”
RTÉ Short Story Competition producer Sarah Binchy said: “It’s our privilege in RTÉ to showcase and celebrate the vibrant literary talent on display in this year’s fine shortlist, and to offer meaningful support to the winners in the form of significant prizes that can buy time for their writing. We’re very grateful to Claire, Kathleen and Neil for their deeply considered judging, to our wider reading panel, and to our brilliant actors who bring these stories to life with such aplomb each year. If you didn’t catch all the stories on air, you can listen back to them and read them at rte.ie/culture or rte.ie/writing or subscribe to our podcast. And look out for next year’s competition – we’ll announce details in early 2025.”
All ten stories were published on rte.ie/culture and broadcast (read by actors) over the last two weeks, from Monday 18th November on RTÉ Radio 1’s Late Date. They also featured regularly on RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena in advance of the awards event which featured readings of extracts from all ten shortlisted stories, each followed by a discussion with all three judges before they awarded their top prizes.
The RTÉ Radio 1 Arena special will be broadcast at 7pm on Monday 2nd December 2024.
Set up in 1986 to honour writer and broadcaster Francis MacManus, the RTÉ Short Story Competition has been a critically important launch pad for new and emerging writers in Ireland. Past winners and shortlisted writers include Claire Keegan, Molly McCloskey, Danielle McLaughlin, Anthony Glavin, Chris Binchy, Nuala O’Connor, Liz Nugent, Colin Walsh, Stephen Walsh, Austin Duffy and Sarah Gilmartin.
The RTÉ Short Story Competition is free to enter, and open to any writer over 18 living on the island of Ireland or living abroad who holds an Irish passport. Details of next year’s competition will be announced in early 2025. For more on the RTÉ Short Story Competition, see www.rte.ie/writing.
ENDS
For information: Neil O’Gorman, Corporate Communications Manager, RTÉ | E: neil.ogorman@rte.ie
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID ABOUT THE THREE WINNING STORIES:
CLAIRE KILROY
Dead Bait: “What won me over was how fully imagined this story was. This is a writer who has fully imagined himself into his protagonist’s shoes and, in so doing, puts his reader into those shoes. Dead Bait is a triumph of detail: from the pain in the narrator’s knee which is carried from the first page to the last, to the depiction of releasing an elderly woman from her upended car in a ditch, What could have been another drug dealing crime caper was elevated by the upsurge of love the narrator suddenly feels for his estranged children. I believed this story and I believed this voice.”
Divination: “A tender depiction of confusion and powerlessness by a man, a husband and father, thrust into the female world. I found myself moved – it’s fair to say all of the judges did – by this evocation of love and care in the most difficult of circumstances.”
The Other Órla: “A pacy, funny and provocative depiction of sexual politics – not just between boyfriends and girlfriends, but between two best friends, the Orlas, competing for the same boy. This writer coupled piercing insights with excellent descriptions.”
NEIL HEGARTY
Dead Bait: “Dead Bait’ offers truly superlative storytelling. We are introduced to a world in which ethics seemingly play little or no part, and to a protagonist whose experience of life has been brutal and terrifying. But as the story unfolds, we come to see that ethics and morality are in fact at the centre of this man’s life, as he faces a final and fatal choice.”
Divination: “I loved ‘Divination’. We meet a protagonist simultaneously central and marginal to a family sorrow as it unfolds – and we follow the thread of his feelings, fears, insecurities, and memories as they gradually unspool in his consciousness. The ending of this story in particular was both beautifully controlled and emotionally devastating. I’m full of admiration.”
The Other Órla: “Few periods in our lives are as fraught as adolescence: and ‘The Other Órla’ honours the importance and emotional heft of this phase in our lives. Órla’s world and Órla herself are brought to life with tremendous vividness and sensitivity: and we are wrapped fully in her whirl of friendship, rivalry – and a tentative blooming of love.”
KATHLEEN MacMAHON
Dead Bait: “It’s the mastery of storytelling that won us over. From the very beginning, the writer sets the scene and moves through the sequence of events with invisible skill. There is back story and forward momentum, and a sense of jeopardy that grows as the story nears its gripping conclusion. For its consummate crafting, this is a very worthy winner of this year’s Francis Mac Manus.”
Divination: “A beautiful account of a man’s attempt to accompany his wife through the intensely female experience of miscarriage. This writer observes the landscape of a woman’s life from a male perspective, describing to great effect the gap that exists between them and his efforts to cross it. The use of language is gorgeous, with a glimpse at the end of a future that is hopeful. A very moving story.”
The Other Órla: “This very stylish story traces the rivalry between two teenage girls as they compete for a boy’s attention. Centred around a swimming pool, it follows the girls through the school year to a summer as lifeguards at the local pool, when their subtle rivalry will result in a shocking consequence.”
THE WINNERS AND WHAT THEY SAID
FIRST PRIZE: MATTIE BRENNAN (From Sligo, living in Clare)
Mattie Brennan is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. His fiction has featured in The Stinging Fly, Southword and has been shortlisted for several awards, including the Cúirt New Writing Prize and the Seán O’Faoláin International Short Story Competition. Originally from County Sligo, he now lives in County Clare.
Dead Bait
“The idea for this story came to me when I saw three men fishing at Doolin pier a few years ago at about 2am. I’d just finished working a shift nearby in McDermott’s bar, and I’d pulled up in my van to sleep there for the night. As I watched the lads cast, I thought to myself that there’s surely a story here somewhere. I initially envisioned writing a scene about three mates simply whiling away the time, but, like many stories, what I ended up with was far different from my original idea. When the various characters in this story presented themselves, I knew I had to follow a particular thread.”
SECOND PRIZE: STEPHEN O’REILLY (Donegal, living in Galway)
Raised in Donegal, Stephen O’Reilly lives near Craughwell, Co. Galway. His short stories have featured in numerous anthologies in Ireland and the UK. He is a previous recipient of a Molly Keane Memorial award, a HG Wells Short Story award and was also winner of the 2019 RTÉ Short Story competition.
Divination
“Time has a way of confounding your expectations. I wanted to write about that uncertainty and how a couple navigate the loss of an imagined future. The tension between faith and reason and the fragility of hope.”
THIRD PRIZE: EMER O’TOOLE (Galway, living in Montréal)
Emer O’Toole is from Galway, and now lives in Montréal, where she teaches Irish theatre, film, and performance at Concordia University. She’s written lots of non-fiction, including academic and newspaper commentary. Her book Girls Will Be Girls (Orion: 2015), a funny, accessible introduction to gender theory, has been translated into six languages. Emer is new to writing fiction and is hoping to find a home for her recently completed first novel.
The Other Órla
“The Other Órla is about how we, as women, can make ourselves small to please others, and how bad that is for society. It is also a story about shame, about things we did when we were young that haunt us, about trying to live with past selves. The ending of the story landed in my head while I was taking a shower, and I worked backwards to find the characters, the context, and the narrative.”