Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition

The Munster Literature Centre
is pleased to announce
the 2012 winners and commended poets:

2nd Place

Alinda Wasner, Michigan USA for “Ode to the Night and the Morning Following an All-Day Day of Arguing”

3rd Place

Tom Moore, Cork, Ireland for “Meteorites”

Erica Miriam Fabri, New York, USA for “Fish”
Judith Krause, Regina, Canada for “Mitterand’s Last Meal”
Jude Neal, Bowen Island, Canada for “Blue Bowl”
Tanya Olson, North Carolina, USA for “Slave to the Virgin”
Lynn Roberts, Kent, UK for “Le Douanier Rousseau: Surprised”
Mark Ryan, Clare, Ireland for “Breakfast with Yeats”
Padraig Rooney, Muenchenstein, Switzerland for “The Names of the Winds”
John Withworth, Kent, UK for “First Sight”
Amber West, New York, USA for “Daughter Eraser”
Alexandra Zempiloglou, Thessaloniki, Greece for “I lost me child”

Commended (70)
in alphabetical order

Susan Adams, NSW Australia for “Entire of Himself”
Melanie Almeder, Virginia, USA for “The Kennebec”
Devreaux Baker, California, USA for “New Orleans Style of Prayer”
Gerry Boland, Roscommon Ireland for “The Local Accupuncturist”
Burton Bradley, Wyoming USA, for “A Very Old Man Smoking His Last Cigar”
Genevieve Burger-Weiser, New York, USA for “Small People”
Cian Cafferky, Dublin, Ireland for “Nothing to See”
Mary Rose Callan, Dublin, Ireland for “Small Girl with Orange Paint”
Karen Campbell, Cheshire UK for The Ichthyologist as a Young Man”
Ron Carey, Dublin, Ireland for “Finavarra”
Eileen Casey, Dublin, Ireland for “Brought to Surface”
Evan Costigan, Dublin, Ireland for “The Kiss”
Hilary Davies, London, UK for “Coming Back”
Maria Dilorenzo New York, USA for “The PO Box”
William Doreski, New Hampshire, USA for “Blue Cotton Dress”
Tom Dredge, Kildare, Ireland for “Teelin Fiddlers”
Roger Elkin, Biddulph Moor, UK for “Mustapha Loves Her”
Michael Farry, Meath, Ireland for “Rulers”
Rachel Feder, New Orleans, USA for “Three Birds, One Heart”
Claudia Finseth, Tacoma, WA, USA for “Small Cry”
Siobhan Flynn, Dublin, Ireland for “My inner child is a teenage boy”
Peggie Gallagher, Sligo, Ireland for “Old Lady”
Carmel Hayes, Kilkenny, Ireland for “Self Portrait”
Eoin Hegarty, Carlow, Ireland for “Secret Pools”
Tania Hershman, Bristol, UK for “Dreams of a Tea Seller”
Gail Irvine, Aberdeen, Scotland for “Daily Bread”
Helena Kahn, Cork, Ireland for “East Cork A.D. 2000”
Nora Keller, New Jersey, USA for “Affinity”
Peter Kline, San Francisco, USA for “Fear of the Weaver”
John J. Kelly, Dublin, Ireland for “Up the Moyne (for rhubarb)”
W. F. Lantry, Washington D.C. USA for “Evanescence”
Paige MacKay, Ontario, Canada for “the ropes”
Michael McCarthy, Yorkshire, UK for “Westerns”
Robert Mc Dowell, Dublin, Ireland for “Kiss Chasing”
Mourad Mchiri, Montreal, Canada for “The Song of the Libertadores”
Michael McKimm, London, UK for “Eventually I had to leave....”
Alan McMonagle, Galway, Ireland for “Witch Woman”
Jim Maguire, Wexford, Ireland for “Nocturne”
Maryvonne May , St Pons de Thomiers, France for “Limpkins and Pelicans”
Maximilian Meinhardt, Mainz, Germany for “a vulture circles – black the body sweats”
David C. Meyer, Illinois, USA for “Apologio pro Poemate Meo”
Jory Mickelson, Idaho, USA for “So Careful After”
David Mohan, Dublin, Ireland for “The Swim”
Anna Moore, Waterford, Ireland for “Peace in Rest”
Gerard Moore, Laois, Ireland for “The Island”
Mary Moore, West Virgina, USA for “Damara Diving”
Peggy Moran, Illinois, USA for “Colored”
Irene Mosvold, Kentucky, USA for “Death Takes A Stroll”
Mae Newman, Dublin, Ireland for “Peace Lily”
James O’Brien, Massachusetts, USA for “first they get distracted”
Karen O’Connor, Kerry, Ireland for “Taken”
Mary O’Gorman, Tipperary, Ireland for “Lasair Choille”
Tim O’Leary, London, UK for “Bats in Lucania”
Cathal O’Riordain, Dublin, Ireland for “The Shape of my Father’s Feet”
Michelle O’Sullivan, Mayo, Ireland for “Substance”
Susan Azar Porterfield, Illinois, USA for “Woman’s Art”
Edward Power, Waterford, Ireland for “Tintype Girl”
Aidan Rooney, Massachusetts, USA for “Circuit”
Matthew Rowe, London, United Kingdom for “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday”
Denise Ryan, Dublin, Ireland for “Moon Brides”
Don Schofield, Thessaloniki, Greece for “The Blind”
Sally Spedding, Ammanford, Wales for “The Missing”
Kim Stafford, Oregon, USA for “Wild Light at Achill Island”
Victor Tapner, Essex, UK for “Banquet in the Hall of Happiness”
Dominic Thompson, Surrey, UK for “General Nguyan Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon – E.A.”
Eran Tzelgov Beersheba, Israel for “Long Legged Cry”
Christian Wallace, Galway, Ireland for “Across the Landscape”
Julie Watts, Watermans Bay, Australia for “And Everyday Is Sunday”
Sarah Wetzel, New York, USA for “Near Death Experience”
Michael White, North Carolina, USA for “Woman Holding a Pearl Necklace”
John Hartley Williams, Berlin, Germany for “Houri”
Leigh Zaphiropoulos, New York, USA for “Coming Too, A Head, Near You”

The Munster Literature Centre is a not-for-profit institution, an officially registered charity in the Republic of Ireland Charity. No. 12374. All entry fees received in this competition will be disbursed in prize money, judge's fee and to fund services the Centre provides to writers and readers.

The Munster Literature Centre is pleased to announce a new international poetry prize for single poem, named in honour of a late Irish poet long associated with the Centre. The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize will have a first prize of €1,000 ($1430.32/ £875.86 on xe.com as of 5th September 2011) and publication in Southword Literary Journal. The MLC will subvent travel costs for the winner up to €600 and provide hotel accommodation and meals for three days during the Cork Spring Literary Festival. There will be a second prize of €500, third prize of €250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published in Southword and receive Southword’s standard fee of €30.

The winners will be notified in late January. Due to the large volume of entries, the judge will not be able to notify the authors of non-winning poems or give individual feedback. A shortlist will be posted on our website in late January and the winners will be announced during the Cork Spring Literary Festival.

We would kindly request that entrants refrain from emailing to check the status of their poems. Withdrawn poems will not be eligible for refunds.

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The Judge

Patrick Cotter, O'Donoghue Competition Judge

It is planned to have a rotating judge each year. The current judge is Patrick Cotter, who will read each and every entry himself; in many other competitions entries are screened and longlisted by preliminary readers, not so for the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize.

Patrick Cotter: Born Cork, 1963. Writer and publisher. Educated at UCC, he has published several chapbooks of his poems including The Misogynist’s Blue Nightmare (Raven Arts Press), A Socialist’s Dozen (Three Spires Press), and The True Story of Aoife and Lir’s Children & other poems (Three Spires Press). His first collection, Perplexed Skin, was published by Arlen Press in 2008. His second collection, Making Music, was published in early 2009 by Three Spires Press.

His work has appeared in the anthologies Separate Islands: Contemporary British and Irish poetry (Quarry, Ontario) Irish Poetry Now (Wolfhound) Jumping off Shadows - Some Contemporary Irish Poets (Cork University Press) The Irish Eros (Gill & Macmillan) The Backyards of Heaven (Newfoundland) Something Beginning with P (O'Brien Press) and in The Great Book of Ireland. He has published short fiction in Cyphers, New Irish Writing and elsewhere. His translations of the Estonian poet Andres Ehin are collected in the book Moosebeetle Swallow (Southword Editions). His play Beauty and the Stalker was produced at the Granary Theatre, Cork in 2000. In 1984 he was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award. Cotter was runner-up in the Patrick Kavanagh award in 1988. He is currently the Director of the Munster Literature Centre.

http://www.patrickcotter.ie

Fees and Deadlines

There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five. (Postal entries can be paid for in US Dollars or Pounds Sterling. No cash, please.) Closing date for entries is December 17^th 2010. A result will be reached by late January 2011, with a shortlist published on our website at that time. The winners will be contacted individually and announced publicly during the Cork Spring Literary Festival in February 2011. Please refer to the submission guidelines below for details on how to enter.

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1. The competition is open to original, unpublished poems in the English language of 40 lines or less. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, translated work is not in the scope of this competition.

2. Entries should be typed. The entrant's name and contact details must be on a separate piece of paper. Manuscripts cannot be returned. Your name should not appear on the same page as the poem to ensure anonymity. No entry form is necessary.

3. There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five. For postal entries you may pay UK£5 or US$8 per poem, or UK£20 or US$32 per batch of five. You may submit as many entries as you wish. Withdrawn poems (for any reason) will not be eligible for refunds. Cheques and money orders must be made payable to THE MUNSTER LITERATURE CENTRE.

Entrants from USA: We DO NOT accept US Postal Orders as they cannot be redeemed outside of the United States. N.b. American entrants: please date cheques by writing out the month as a word. For example: November 4 2010. If any information is crossed out or altered, our bank returns the cheque to us as unusable. In such cases we would have to request a new cheque from the entrant, delaying the processing of their work.

4. Closing date is 18th December 2011. Please note that the post office is very busy this close to Christmas and it is advisable to enter online after December 1st to ensure your poem arrives on time. Entries must be sent to The Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition, The Munster Literature Centre, Frank O'Connor House, 84 Douglas Street, Cork, Ireland (no postal/zip code).

5. A result will be reached by late January 2012, with a shortlist published on our website at that time. The winners will be announced at the Cork Spring Literary Festival in February 2011.

6. If you require acknowledgement of your entry, you must submit a self-addressed stamped postcard. SASEs for international entries should include money for IRISH stamps. Please do not include SASEs with American, British or other stamps foreign to Ireland. Instead you may add one dollar or pound to the total of your entry fee to cover the cost of postage.

7. The Judge's decision is final. Due to the large volume of entries anticipated, the judge will not be able to give feedback on an individual basis. We would kindly request that entrants refrain from emailing to check the status of their poems. Winners will be contacted individually by the end of January 2012; a shortlist will be posted on this website at that time.

8. It would greatly assist us if you let us know how you heard of the competition (whether through mailshot, word of mouth, advertisements, newspaper, website, etc.) with your entry.

1. Send your entry as a word document (files ending with ".doc"). Preferably save the poem in a compatible format, usually labeled 'Word 97 - 2003 Document'.
2. Include the poem/poems and cover letter as separate documents in the same email.
3. Pay your entry fee through Paypal (see link below). Paypal accepts Mastercard and Visa and guarantees secure transactions.
4. In the body of the email, list your name, address, poem titles and Paypal receipt number.
5. Use the subject header "O'Donoghue Entry".
6. Email submissions to competitions(AT)munsterlit(DOT)ie.

N.b. The cost of an online entry is fixed in Euro and the conversion into your local currency will be done automatically by your credit card company according to the current exchange rate.
POEMS SUBMITTED/PAID FOR AFTER 18 DECEMBER WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED! Please note that the MLC will be closed for the holidays from 16 December to 4 January. We will be happy to answer any correspondence after the winter break.