RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition 2009

IN MEMORY OF FRANCIS MAC MANUS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition in Memory of Francis MacManus was founded in 1985 to promote and encourage creative writing for radio. Over the years the short story competition has resulted in the broadcast of more than 500 stories by new and emerging writers and has set many authors on the path to publication and recognition. This is the 24th year of the competition and over 700 stories were received from all over Ireland and many from Irish people living abroad. The final selection of 22 stories has been made.

The prizes for the RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition in Memory of Francis MacManus are €3,000, €2,000 and €1,000 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes. All 22 shortlisted stories in the competition will be broadcast in the coming months. The three winners of this year's competition will be announced on Wednesday 29 April 2009.

The judges for the 2009 competition are:

Julie Parsons - Novelist and former radio and television producer with RTÉ.

Maurice Harmon - Former Professor of English at University College Dublin, poet, academic and scholar.

Claire Kilroy - Novelist who won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004.

Seamus Hosey - Senior Producer in Arts and Features Department in RTÉ Radio 1 and Chairman of the adjudication panel.

Speaking of the 700 stories entered for the RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition, Seamus Hosey said,

"The range and scope of this year's stories reflect the extraordinary variety of life lived in Ireland today, a country undergoing profound changes where the old certainties are being challenged and the new order yet to be established. These stories reflect with great insight, emotion and skill the complexities of everyday life transformed by the power of the writer's imagination and passion."

WRITERS SHORTLISTED FOR RTÉ RADIO 1 SHORT STORY COMPETITION IN MEMORY OF FRANCIS MACMANUS

Shortlist in alphabetical order

1. "The Other Side of Nowhere" by Elizabeth Carty, Dunsaney, Co. Meath.

2. "The Body" by John Austin Connolly, Booterstown, Co. Dublin.

3. "African Finch" by Richard Cotter, Carrigline, Co. Cork.

4. "Out of Sight" by Geraldine Creed, Shankill, Dublin 18.

5. "Purgatory" by Paul Duffy, Baldoyle, Co. Dublin.

6. "Molly's Last Performance" by Des Feeney, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford.

7. "Hay" by Ciaran Folan, An Spideal, Co. Na Gaillimhe.

8. "Race" by Andrew Fox, Skerries, Co. Dublin.

9. "Wish You Were" by Anthony Glavin, Whitehall, Dublin 9.

10. "Romance" by Alastair Hadden, Ballinteer, Dublin 16.

11. "Commas and Comas" by Rachel Hegarty, Raheny, Dublin 5.

12. "One In A Million" by Kay Inckle, Basin Street, Dublin 8.

13. "Hired Help" by Fidelma Kelly, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.

14. "Ten" by David Keohane, Shannon, Co. Clare.

15. "Thursday Market" by Martin Malone, Kildare Town.

16. "Tipping Point" by Anna May Mangan, Wembley, Middlesex.

17. "An Irishman in Berlin" by David Andrew Mc Ilroy, Brussels.

18. "Centre of Small Hell" by Geraldine Mills, Rosscahill, Co. Galway.

19. "Mare Rubrum" by Helena Mulkerns, Wellingtonbridge, Co. Wexford.

20. "Emperors of Speed" by Mary O'Donnell, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.

21. "Only Four Girls" by Ita Ryan, Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry.

22. "Home Help" by Dolores Walshe, Virginia, Co. Cavan.

JULIE PARSONS was born in New Zealand but grew up in Ireland. After a very successful career as a producer in RTÉ Radio and Television she turned to writing fiction. From her first novel "Mary Mary" in 1998 she has established herself as a master storyteller among Irish writers with a unique ability to create an atmosphere of suspense and unpredictability that can often transform the ordinary lives of her characters into a living nightmare.

MAURICE HARMON is a former Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at University College Dublin. Over many years he has been a distinguished scholar in Irish Literature, publishing landmark works on such writers as Austin Clarke, Thomas Kinsella, Sean O'Faolain and Samuel Beckett. He has been a Visiting Professor at Ohio State University, the University of Washington, Boston College and Kobe University in Japan. He is also a distinguished poet whose volume "The Last Regatta, Selected Poems" (1988 - 2000) has been published by Salmon Books.

CLAIRE KILROY is one of Ireland's young and most acclaimed novelists. She was born in Dublin in 1973 and studied English at Trinity College. She worked in television for some years before publishing her first novel "All Summer" in 2003 which won the 2004 Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second novel "Tenderwire" a love story between an Irish violinist and her old Italian violin, was shortlisted for the 2007 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Her third novel, "All Names Have Been Changed" will be published in May 2009.

SEAMUS HOSEY who is Chairman of the Adjudication Panel is a Senior Producer in the Arts and Features Department of RTE Radio 1. He has worked as producer and organiser of The RTÉ Radio 1 Short Story Competition in memory of Francis Mac Manus since 1985, the year of its inception. Over the years he has produced such programmes as The Arts Show, The Poetry Programme, The Thomas Davis Lecture Series and several documentaries on the arts.