As mentioned in my last post, the initial shortlist of 19 short stories (this was actually a long-list – we’ll know better next time) was reduced to a more manageable number for the judges. The ten stories in question were:
- A Face in the Snow by Majella Cullinane
- All Man by Philomena Byrne
- Gebann’s Daughter by Jane Dougherty
- In the Hour of Greatest Need by Will O’Siorain
- Joe Malshy by Farren McDonald
- Lexi on her Sixty-second Journey by Randee Dawn
- Revival by Méabh Browne
- Seasick by Molly Aitken
- The Black Hen by Diana Powell
- The Good Man by Damian Keating
It was a tough job culling the nine stories that we did. Certainly, some of them were good, others we thought had immense potential but at the end of the day we had to make a decision.
These then were the ten stories considered by the judges. Even with the reduced number however, the choice remained a difficult one with extremely close scores between the first and second place winners and an even tinier gap between the third and fourth places. Certainly, in our view, any of these ten stories are suitable for publication.
Still at the end of the day, this is a competition so the three winners are as follows:
First Prize
$500 and story published in Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection
‘In the Hour of Greatest Need’ by Will O’Siorain
Second Prize
$250 and story published in Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection
‘The Black Hen’ by Diana Powell
Third Prize
$100 and story published in Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection
‘The Good Man’ by Damian Keating
Special mention also needs to be made for:
- Joe Malshy by Farren McDonald
- Revival by Méabh Browne
- Seasick by Molly Aitken
All three of these were within a hairsbreadth of the top three places and we’re very pleased that they’ll at least appear in the final Irish Imbas: Celtic Mythology Collection 2017.
So What Happens Next?
- The winning authors should receive payment by the end of this week
- Irish Imbas Books is closing down for a much-needed break next week so we’ll probably not be contactable for several days
- The Irish Imbas: Celtic Mythology Collection 2017 will be released sometime towards the end of March 2017. We’ll keep you posted on that.
- Once that publication’s complete, we’ll provided feedback to those authors who didn’t make the initial shortlist (and who requested feedback). We’re still not sure how/when that will occur but I imagine this will happen between April-June 2017.
Congratulations to the winners and immense thanks to those of you who took the time to enter or follow the competition.
