Bradshaw Books is committed to promoting literature to people of all backgrounds. Established in 1985, for over two decades it has published the work of both established and emerging writers.
Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011 – Winner Announced
Bradshaw Books is happy to announce the winner of for the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011. The winner is Cliona O’Connell with her collection White Space.
Cliona O’Connell grew up in County Wicklow and currently lives in Dublin. She was selected for the 2010 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and was shortlisted for the 2009 Hennessey Literary Awards for Emerging Poetry. She has previously been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Southword, The Stinging Fly, The Sunday Tribune and the Fish Anthology. She is currently studying for an MA in Poetry Studies at Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University.
In selecting White Space, judge Jean O’Brien said the work was ‘innovative and ambitious’, ‘witty with some striking images’, with a ‘Muldoonish use and play with language’.
As prize-winner, we look forward to working with Cliona in publishing her first collection in the coming months.
We would also like to congratulate our runners up:
1st Runner-up: Eileen Sullivan, Playing Dice with The Universe (St. Louis, US)
2nd Runner-up: Natalie Scott, Berth (Stockton-on-Tees, UK)
Both will be featured, along with Cliona, in the Cork Literary Review Volume XV.
Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011
The judge for the 2011 competition was the poet, Jean O’Brien. Jean is the 2010 winner of the prestigious Arvon Competition, which attracted thousands of entries from more than 43 countries. She has published three collections of poetry: The Shadow Keeper (Salmon, 1997), Dangerous Dresses (Bradshaw Books, 2005) and Lovely Legs (Salmon, 2009). Her poetry has been described by Fiona Sampson writing in The Irish Times as ‘effortless writing, graceful and exact as any pirouette in its insight’.
This Year’s Entrants
Bradshaw Books would like to thank all of the entrants of this year’s competition for the time and effort they put into their submissions. Though entries came from all over Ireland, there was a strong international flavour to this year’s competition, with entries from the United States, Great Britain, Australia and the Mediterranean. The standard of this year’s entries was exceptionally high, Jean describing it as a ‘close call’ between the winner and runners-up.
If you would like more information about Cliona, the 2011 Competition, or the Cork Literary Review, please contact Jamie O’Connell, Commissioning Editor for Bradshaw Books (info@bradshawbooks.com).
