Irish Imbas Books are pleased to announce the winners of the 2015-2016 Celtic Mythology Short Story Competition. These are:
First prize ($500): Sighle Meehan for ‘Hawthorne Close‘
Second Prize ($250): Sheelagh Russell Brown for ‘A Mainland Mansie Meur‘
Third Prize ($100): Marc McEntegart for ‘In a Small Pond‘
All three stories will appear in the forthcoming Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection 2016 due for release in March this year with two additional stories:
• ‘Transit Hours’ by Marie Gethins
• ‘Lir’ by Coral Atkinson
As well as the short stories, the Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection 2016 will contain explanatory context/notes on the various elements of Celtic Mythology associated with each story. A key purpose of this competition is to provide a source of authentic context and information on aspects of Celtic mythology for the general public.
Comments from the judges:
In total, 37 submissions received (initially there were 40 but 3 were withdrawn). The vast majority of stories covered aspects of Irish mythology. Stories related to elements of Welsh mythology were the next most popular (in terms of numbers).
The three criteria used by the judges were:
- Celtic mythology or folklore forms a fundamental element of the story
- Any Celtic folklore or mythological reference should be as authentic as possible
- A compelling story/theme, engaging characters.
Submissions were received from all over the world, including countries such as Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Norway, Denmark, France etc. The majority of submissions came from Ireland.
In terms of the mythological content used within the stories, the most common were:
- Elements from the Fenian Cycle (Fionn mac Cumhaill and related stories)
- Seilchidh (Selkie)-related stories
- Beansaí (Banshee)-related stories
The quality of submissions varied extensively both in terms of writing quality and authenticity of mythological content. A number of the submitted stories were excellently written but used elements of mythology in the wrong context. It was a difficult decision not to accept these submissions
We’d like to thank all entrants for taking the time to make submissions.
An announcement on the 2016-2017 Celtic Mythology Short Story Competition will be made later this year.
