“Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” – Pico Ayer, author of The Global Soul.
The 2026 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions are now open! Entries will be accepted through 27 September. Winners will read their entries and receive prizes during the Allingham Festival in November.
An artist's impression of William Allingham
In addition to prizes of €300, the first-place winners of the Allingham Competitions will also be recognised as winners of the 2026 Francis Harvey Poetry Award and the Keane Family Fiction Award. Worldwide entries are welcome.
Publisher and poet Kate Newmann will judge the 2026 Poetry Competitions. Fiction entries will be judged by Patrick Holloway, author and writer-in-residence at Maynooth University.
Patrick Holloway, author and writer-in-residence at Maynooth University will judge the fiction entries.
Previous winners of the Allingham Competitions have included Una Mannion, author of A Crooked Tree and Tell Me What I Am, and E.M. Reapy, author of Skin and Red Dirt.
Competitors must be 18 years old by 7 Nov 2026. Entry forms and competition rules are detailed on the Allingham Festival website www.allinghamfestival.com.
The 2026 Allingham Festival will take place in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal from 04-08 November. Headline guests will include Irish Author of the Year Elaine Feeney, memoirist and podcaster Michael Harding, writer and journalist Róisin Ingle and humourist Paul Howard (Ross O’Carroll-Kelly). The 2026 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday 7 November.
Tom Sigafoos, Competitions Manager
www.allinghamfestival.com
allinghamfest@gmail.com