CAROLINE WALSHwith the literary news stories of the week

JG Farrell award goes to Co Cork writer

The JG Farrell Fiction Award, for the best novel in progress by a writer resident in Munster, was won this week by Daisy Wilson- Morrow from Co Cork. Farrell, the author of Troubles, which in May won the Lost Man Booker prize, drowned at the age of 44, when he was swept into the sea near his home in Kilcrohane, in west Co Cork. Wilson-Morrow, who was born in Dunmanway, started writing while living for 10 years in Seattle, on the west coast of the US, where she studied creative writing at the University of Washington.

Having won the David Guterson award for her fiction, she then had the benefit of having the Snow Falling on Cedarsauthor help her shape the outline of the novel that has now won the JG Farrell prize. "It's about a teenage girl trying to cope in the aftermath of her best friend's suicide, and I pretty much have finished it now," says the winner, who is looking forward to reading the work of Farrell, which includes The Siege of Krishnapurand The Singapore Grip. The prize, which was adjudicated by the novelist Peter Cunningham, was a place on the fiction workshop at West Cork Literary Festival, of which the award is a part and which continues today.

Call for Seán Ó Faoláin competition entries

Short-story writers have until July 31st to get their entries in for the Seán Ó Faoláin competition. As usual, the first prize is €1,500, the second prize is €500 and four runners-up receive €120, all with publication in Southwordonline. It's all part of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story festival, which runs in Cork from September 14th to 19th, and during which the winning story will be read at an event that will also feature readings by the winners of this year's Hennessy and Francis MacManus awards. The competition is judged by the British short-story writer Tania Hershman. Entries are accepted online and by post (see munsterlit.ie).

‘Stinging Fly’ workshop for first-time novelists

The writer Sean O'Reilly, who guest-edits the summer 2010 issue of the Stinging Fly (issue 16, volume two, €7), which was launched during the week, will run a Stinging Flyfirst-novel workshop in Dublin this autumn for between eight and 10 participants. Starting in October, it will run until April, with a fee of €1,500. Details from stingingfly@gmail.com. O'Reilly's issue of the magazine includes new fiction by John Kenny and Keith Ridgway – and boasts a new design by Fergal Condon. Another addition is Comhchealg, a section dedicated to Irish-language poetry alongside translations into English. Aifric Mac Aodha is the first featured writer; from now on she will edit the magazine's Irish-language poetry. Also in October the Stinging Fly Press publishes Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails, an anthology of stories, edited by Philip Ó Ceallaigh, by Kevin Barry, Julian Gough and Christine Dwyer Hickey, among others.

Kavanagh fellowship open to poets in need

The €8,000 Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship for Irish poets in their middle years who have published a body of work and are in need of assistance is being offered again this year by the trustees of the estate of the poet’s widow, Katherine. The deadline for applications is August 23rd; the fellowship will be awarded in October. Applications to 3 Selskar Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.