Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009

Sponsored by Davy Byrnes

Organised by The Stinging Fly in association with The Irish Times

The Stinging Fly in association with The Irish Times is delighted to announce the return of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award, Ireland's biggest short story competition and the world's richest prize for a single short story.
Next year's award will see €25,000 going to the best short story and five runners-up receiving €1,000. The acclaimed American novelist and short story writer Richard Ford will judge the competition.

The Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award was previously held in 2004 as part of the Bloomsday Centenary celebrations. Over 1100 entries were received with Anne Enright eventually being declared the winner for her short story 'Honey'. Also featured on the 2004 shortlist were Kevin Barry and Philip O Ceallaigh, who have both since won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for their debut story collections. In making the decision to sponsor the award for a second time, Redmond Doran of Davy Byrnes pointed to the huge success of the competition in 2004 and said that he hoped that the 2009 award would 'seek out and reward writers with a similar level of talent and promise.'

Timeline for 2009 Award:

Open for Entries: October 1st 2008
Deadline for Entries: Monday Feb 2nd 2009
Shortlist: late May/early June 2009
Winner Announced: June 2009