SEEKING YOUR SHORT STORIES! 

RTÉ SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2024 INVITES SUBMISSIONS 

RTÉ is currently accepting short story submissions for one of Ireland's longest established and most significant literary prizes, the RTÉ Short Story Competition in honour of Francis MacManus. Writers living in Ireland and Irish writers around the world have until Friday 10 May, 2024 to submit their short story to the competition, which will be judged this year by Neil Hegarty, Kathleen MacMahon and Claire Kilroy. The literary prize, set up in 1986 to honour writer and broadcaster Francis MacManus, recognises and rewards the best new Irish fiction writing for radio. The top prize is now €5000. Ten stories will be shortlisted and broadcast. It's free to enter and is open to anyone over 18 with an Irish passport, or resident on the island of Ireland. 

Returning judge for 2024, Kathleen MacMahon says: “This is a wonderful opportunity for writers to have their work read out loud by actors and heard on radio by a wide audience. The quality of work we saw on the shortlist last year was an amazing testament to the robust health of Irish writing. The competition is free to enter, so I would encourage both professional and amateur writers to take part.” 

At a special RTÉ Arena live programme with Seán Rocks in the autumn, the overall winner will be awarded €5,000, while €4,000 and €3,000 will be awarded to the second and third place prize winners respectively. A further seven runners-up will receive €250 each, and all 10 shortlisted stories will be published on rte.ie/culture and broadcast in a season of new writing on RTÉ Radio 1. 

For rules and all information about the competition, see www.rte.ie/writing. To enter the competition online, you will need to set up a (free) Submittable account.