Short Story Winner - Emma Hutton

Click here to read her winning work.

An Irish writer based in London, Emma's stories have appeared in The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Southword, Litro, Outsiders from Three of Cups Press, and Best Microfiction 2020.

When asked why did she submit work to the Mairtín Crawford Award, Emma said: 

I love Mairtín's poems, especially the NASA/space poems. 'Oh Jupiter / light up your moons. // Oh Jupiter / let your tall cataclysms of mass fall around you. // Oh Jupiter / your haloes of star-dust do not frighten the dog away.' And I'm Northern Irish too and there aren't that many awards that celebrate Northern Irish writers.

Poetry Winner - Phoebe Walker

Click here to read her winning work.

Phoebe Walker won the Mairtín Crawford Poetry Award in 2019, and a Northern Writers' Award for Poetry in 2012. Her poetry has appeared in publications including Under the Radar, The Tangerine, The Moth, Ambit, Magma, and in the Northern Poetry Library's Poem of the North exhibition. Her arts journalism has been published by The Observer and The TLS.  Her debut poetry pamphlet, Animal Noises, was published by Green Bottle press in 2020. Phoebe lives in Manchester. 

Phoebe's advice for people thinking of entering The Mairtín Crawford Awards:

There are still pieces of homework worth doing with any submission, however: if it’s a prize or award, reading about its history and ethos, and its judges (and their work), as well as the work of previous winners (winning poems and stories are often published on prize websites).

Runner-Ups

Poetry

1st runner-up - Toby Buckley 

2nd runner-up - Linda McKenna. 

Linda’s debut poetry collection, In the Museum of Misremembered Things, was published by Doire Press in 2020. The title poem won the An Post/Irish Book Awards, Irish Poem of the Year. She won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing in 2018 and the Red Line Festival Award in 2018. She was shortlisted for the Mairtin Crawford Award in 2018 and placed third in 2019. She has had poems published in a number of publications including Poetry Ireland Review, The North, The Honest Ulsterman, Banshee and Crannog.

She is from North County Dublin but has lived n Downpatrick for over 20 years.

Linda's advice for people thinking about entering the Mairtín Crawford Award:

Go for it! Think about what poems you are submitting, try to submit pieces that give a real flavour of your ‘voice’ and edit them again if you think they aren’t quite there. There’s  a great diversity of work submitted every year so don’t think your work doesn’t ‘fit’.

Short Story

1st runner-up - Aingeala Flannery

Aingeala is a writer living in Dublin, whose work has been shortlisted for awards including the RTÉ Francis MacManus Short Story competition, the Bath Short Story Award, and the Mairtín Crawford Award. She was the winner of the 2019 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize. In 2020, she was awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland. Aingeala has just completed her debut short story collection.

When asked how being shortlisted had changed her writing career Aingeala said: 

I think most writers suffer from imposter syndrome. We spend so much time in our heads, it's unavoidable. Rejections are more common than accolades, so it was very encouraging to be named runner-up in the Mairtín Crawford Award. It came at a time when I needed a lift.  I've since completed an MFA in Creative Writing and have been awarded an Arts Council literary bursary.

2nd runner-up - Lucy Beevor 

In 2020, Lucy received a Support for the Individual Artist Programme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and an Irish Writers Centre Course Bursary. In 2018/19 she was an X:Borders participant with the IWC and a finalist for the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award. Her writing has also been short-listed for the John O’Connor Short Story Prize and the Bath Flash Fiction Award. She lives and works in Belfast.

Lucy's advice for people thinking about entering the Mairtín Crawford Award:

Go for it, send your story in! Committing to doing so helped me to finish mine and then having it make the shortlist and THEN make runner-up were just the best experiences ever!

2019 saw the third iteration of the Mairtín Crawford Poetry Awards and the second Short Story Award.

The judging panel for the Awards were well established and respected writers including Moyra Donaldson, Paul Maddern and Matt Kirkham (Poetry) and Wendy Erskine (Short Story). 

Thanks to sponsors go to NIPR Books and River Mill for their continued support of the Awards.