The Battle of the Books Judgement Night!

 Judgement Night is tonight in The Trim Castle Hotel at 8pm!

The shortlisted writers will read, I'll give my comments, and later announce the winner - the audience too will vote for their own winner who will receive the €100 Audience Prize. 'Helpful advice' will be delivered by the two mentors who will champion each of the shortlisted writers. 'Any similarity between Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets and our two Mentors, Peter Higgins and Michael Farry, is not entirely coincidental.'  It's 5 Euro entry,  and you can get tickets Here

Battle of the Books is part of The Swift Satire Festival, which is on in Trim, Co Meath over this weekend - you can check out all their events Here

Battle Of The Books Longlist 2014

Here's the 2014 Long list for the Battle of the Books! The Shortlist will be published Monday 7th July. Congratulations to everyone listed, and thanks to everyone who entered - the standard of entries was exceptionally high. For more details check out the Festival Website.

Title of piece	Prose or Poetry
Time you won’t get back	pr
The maggot as medicinal device	pr
Mary Poppins	po
Diary of an exhibition	pr
The Siege of Ushuaia	po
Foxfire	pr
Pygmalion	pr
The Letter	po
The Lunch Date	pr
Other Drivers	po
Las Vegas in the hills of Donegal	pr
Carphone, 1992	pr
Mattys maiden Voyage	pr
Ah man you should’ve seen her	pr
Preparations for the journey	pr
Untying the knot	pr
If I was your wife	po
The Good Son	pr
The Wonders of Egypt	pr
Worksearch Journey	pr
Rainbow nation	po
Bewleys	po
Apres Paris	pr
Hilda	pr
Tiny Rooms	po
Waiting for John	pr
Airport bus to the city centre	po
The three dimensional traveller	pr
A tale to tell	pr
My Ray	pr

Battle of the Books!

I'm very excited to be judging this new competition from the organiser's of the infamously fabulous Swift Festival! The Battle of the Books is a new international writing competition (open to poetry and prose) and is organised by the Swift Festival in Trim, Co Meath, Ireland. And, unusually, previously published work is accepted! The deadline is July 1st, so get sending!

Theme:‘Travel is the theme of the competition, but the interpretation of ‘travel’ will be very wide indeed... In other words, anything goes – as long as it has some mention/whiff/suggestion of travel. It can be pure fiction or memoir or any other genre of writing. Humour is not essential but it certainly won’t do an entry any harm. Entertainment is highly desirable.’

Deadline: Tuesday 1^st July, 2014.

Poems: minimum 40 lines, maximum 60 lines.

Prose: minimum 800 words, maximum 1,000 words.

Entry fee: €5 per entry or €10 for three entries.

Prize: €500

For further details and to enter - click the Festival Website *HERE*