Children’s writing competition in Dalkey opens for entries

Children aged 13 or younger invited to submit fictional stories of 440 words or fewer

From left: Lucy McWilliams, Molly Pugh-Molloy, Dalkey Book Festival director Sian Smyth and Tadhg Murnane. The festival begins on June 14th. Photograph: Maxwells
From left: Lucy McWilliams, Molly Pugh-Molloy, Dalkey Book Festival director Sian Smyth and Tadhg Murnane. The festival begins on June 14th. Photograph: Maxwells

Dalkey Book Festival is seeking entries for a children’s short story competition this year ahead of the festival opening on June 14th.

Children aged 13 or younger are invited to send in fictional stories of 440 words or fewer to mark the fourth year of the south Dublin book festival and 40 years of its sponsor, KBC Bank, in Ireland.

Prize winners in two categories, aged nine and under, and 10 to 13, will receive gifts including book tokens to the value of €250, Dalkey Book Festival tickets, a festival lunch and a two-night family stay with dinner in Fitzpatrick’s Castle Hotel.

The competition opens today and closes on June 3rd at 10.30am. Entries will be accepted online and must be fictional.

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Organisers have emphasised they are not looking for stories based on real events and entrants must not use the personal details of any living persons or themselves in the story, as the winning stories will be published.

For further information and to book tickets for the festival visit dalkeybookfestival.org.

Tickets will also be available from the box office at 20 Railway Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin, from June 8th.

Fiona Gartland

Fiona Gartland

Fiona Gartland is a crime writer and former Irish Times journalist