I was delighted to win the Mairtín Crawford Award for my story, The Risk Manager.  The prize money is definitely a bonus, but I have to stress how much I am looking forward to taking some time out in Belfast to focus on my work.  Meeting the other finalists at the Awards evening was really interesting, and having my work read with such attention and detailed focus by the judges has been a huge encouragement. 

Originally from Galway, Julie lives and works in Dublin, and is currently working on a collection of short stories. She has been shortlisted for the RTE Short Story Competition three times, winning second place in 2023 and has been published in a number of online and print journals, including Banshee.  

 

We are also delighted to reveal the runner-ups and Shortlist of the Short Story Award are as follows:

1st Runner Up: Tom Harvey

Tom won the 2023 Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition in Cork, and placed second in the 2024 Mairtín Crawford Award at the Belfast Book Festival. His unsettling stories, characterised by stripped down realism, explore flawed male characters with deep longings. Tom’s work has appeared in literary journals in the US, England and Ireland, including Southword, the Mechanics’ Institute Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Litro. In 2024, he was selected for the 11th Bull Anthology ‘Fragile like a Bomb.’ Tom is currently finalising his story collection on masculinity.

It was a joy to attend the Belfast Book Festival, it spills out of the Crescent Arts Centre, the perfect venue, housing all the events in one place, and it features a wonderful range, from readings and interviews to professional workshops, talks, networking and matchmaking. It has a lovely mix of writers, publishers and the public. I was so proud to place second in the Mairtìn Crawford Award, to be amongst so many wonderful writers, and to be read and selected by Lucy Caldwell and Wendy Erskine was a high moment, bringing that welcome sense of being heard and seen.

 

2nd Runner Up: Grahame Williams

From Bangor, County Down, Grahame's stories have been published widely, including in the Stinging Fly, the Winter Papers and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. His work has been shortlisted for various prizes, including the Fish Short Story Prize, runner up in the Wild Atlantic Words short story prize and as well as being longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize. In 2022/23 he won a place on the London Library's Emerging Writers Programme. He is currently writing a novel with the working title How to Eat Snow, which the story Wave Pool is part of.

I was absolutely bowled over when I got the news about the Mairtín Crawford Award. Wendy Erskine and Lucy Caldwell are two of my favourite writers, and both absolute masters of the short story form, so to know they’ve read my work and rated it is just the biggest honour, particularly given the focus this story has on back home. I was also delighted to be able to join the event, albeit remotely, and for my little boy (Finn, 6) to join me and see what all the fuss was about :)

 

Shortlist (in alphabetical order): Aidan McGowan, Finola Cahill and Richard Clements.

Many congratulations to all the nominees!