The Writing.ie Short Story of the Year 2016

READ ALL SIX STORIES AT WRITING.IE  

WINNER:

The Visit by Orla McAlinden

Orla McAlinden is a new voice in Irish writing. Her award-winning debut collection The Accidental Wife is available to order at independent bookshops or through Amazon. She is the 2016 recipient of the  Cecil Day Lewis emerging writer bursary from Kildare County Arts Service.

SHORTLIST:

What a River Remembers of its Course by Gerard Beirne

Gerard Beirne has published six books of fiction and poetry. His novel The Eskimo in the Net was shortlisted for The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and his recent collection of stories, In a Time of Drought and Hunger, for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award 2015.

Green, Amber, Red by Jane Casey

Born and raised in Dublin, Jane Casey published her first novel, The Missing, in 2010. She also published the first in her Maeve Kerrigan series in that year.  She has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards many times and won Best Crime Novel in 2015. She has also published a number of titles for young adults, most recently Hide and Seek (2015).

The Birds of June by John Connell

John Connell is a writer and producer. His debut novel The Ghost Estate was published in 2015. He lives in rural Ireland and is currently working on a short story collection and non-fiction book about his family’s beef farm.

K-K-K by Lauren Foley

Lauren Foley is Irish and Australian. Her stories have been published in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland. Lauren won the inaugural Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize with Overland Literary Journal, for her short story, K-K-K and she is currently shortlisted for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award.

Here We Are by Lucy Caldwell

Lucy Caldwell was born in Belfast in 1982. She’s the author of three novels and several stage plays and radio dramas. Her awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Two other stories from Multitudes have also been shortlisted for prestigious prizes.

Lucy Caldwell photo credit: Tom Routh