Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016 longlist

Normally at this point in the week, I’d be putting together my weekly blog post round-up and browsing sheep/cow/herd-related pictures with which to annoy my few brave readers. But I’ve delayed it slightly this week (though normal nonsense will resume shortly). Instead, I have an exciting piece of news to report – for me, anyway. I’ve been longlisted for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award.

Now, it is a loooong longlist, but I’m so thrilled to have made it, alongside quite a few names I recognise. Organised as part of the annual Wexford Literary Festival, it’s the first time the competition has been held, and it apparently had a terrific response, no doubt helped by the connection with Enniscorthy’s famous son Mr Toibin.

Even better, two people from my writing group – Sinead Slattery and Lourdes Mackey, both terrific writers – also entered and made the longlist. It’s a great result for our little gang and just goes to show the value of feedback and mutual encouragement.

I’m going to be on tenterhooks until the shortlist is announced in a week’s time (with the winners announced during the festival at the end of May), but I’m beyond excited to have made it this far.

Longlist for the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award 2016:

• The List by Louise Hall
• Winter 1963 by Judith Wilson
• The Long Goodbye by Martin McSweeney
• Another Mouth to Feed by Johanna C Leahy
• Accessory by Sharon Dempsey
• A Life Lesson by Anna O’Donovan
• Settling by Jane Harrington
• Turning Away by Sinead Slattery
• The Required Distance by Jean Roarty
• The Station House by Ellen Britton
• The Front Pew by Sheena Lambert
• Comrades in Arms by Sean Lyons
• Very like a Whale by Joe Neal
• Cash in hand by Jo Verity
• The Alphabet Patients by Edel Williams
• Cold Water by Richard Scarsbrook
• It’s the little things by Anne O’Leary
• The Irish Mammy; Reworked by Maire Ryan
• Carmine by Richard Newton
• Pietá by Jonathan de Burca Butler
• Minstry of the interior by Louise Kennedy
• Close by Padraic Whyte
• Our Golden Finery by Riona Judge Mc Cormack
• The Roundabout by Catherine Donelly
• The Cube by Fergal O’Byrne
• Red flags and empty nans by Wendy White
• Remember that summer by Lucy Welch
• A Reunion by John Clinch
• Hemlock 11 by Rory Endean
• The Tether by Diarmuid O’Connell
• Kathleen’s lit up sky by June Caldwell
• Kissing tiny flowers by Sarah Grout
• Saltwater by Rose Stevens
• On an earth uniformly covered by the sea by Laura Morgan
• A roman candle by Sophie Kelliher
• Brad Pitt in the movie Thelma and Louise by Chris Connolly
• Into the Darkness by Gina Wollerman
• Nobody knows the shivering stars by Niamh Mac Cabe
• A meal to remember by Michael Tennyson
• Home by David Butler
• John-John by Pauline Clooney
• Breaking Eggs by Joe Mc Kiernan
• Cry of the Gull by Lorna Cooper
• Freedom by Tina Sweeney
• Cruel woman by Elizabeth Mc Cullum – Ryan
• Cut to the bone by Stephen Leach
• A Dance With Time by Zandra Carrington
• Skunk and Beastie by Holly Atkinson
• Kicking the Habit by Clare O’Reilly
• The best photo I never took by Tom O’Brien
• The Anchor by Delia Mac Taggart
• Dancing Turtle by Thomas Atkinson
• The Burrow by Rosemary Hennigan
• An Unexpected Visitor at Elbow Lake by Louise Mangos
• The Latent Test by Liam Curtin
• Jimmy by Robert Fields
• Camping with Daddy by Michele Sheldon
• A hand to hold Ayobami Adebayo
• The last post by Valerie Ryan
• Into the forest by Andrea Mara
• They took to the sky by Chris Pritchard
• Dad’s lost soul  by Lourdes Mackey
• Rebirth by Anne Mc Loughlin
• Anna’s picture by Mary O’Brien
• Roundabouts and swings by Eleanor O’Reily
• My Date with Nigella by Peter Kettle
• Shrinking from Life by Catherine Talbot

 

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