The Mairtín Crawford Awards are aimed at writers working towards their first full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel. Both published and unpublished writers are invited to submit between 3-5 poems for the poetry award, and a short story of up to 2,500 words for the short story award, with the only stipulation being that they have not yet published a full collection of poetry, short stories, or a novel.

The 2020 Judges were: 

Short Story:  Lucy Caldwell (Chair) and Rachael Kelly 

Poetry: Moyra Donaldson (Chair) and Naomi Foyle

Click here for more information about the judges.

A big thank you to our partners and sponsors NIPR Books and The River Mill, for their continued support of the Awards. 

Sophie Hayles, CEO of The Crescent Arts Centre, reflects on running this year’s Awards in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic:

“Despite all the challenges which the lockdown has presented us with - both personally and professionally - we were determined to continue to host the Mairtín Crawford Awards this year. Arts and culture have played a central role in helping many people navigate the lockdown period and the quality and variety of entries to this year’s Awards were a real tribute to what artists can produce under challenging circumstances.”