Powers & Irish Times Short Story Comp

guy83

tis a fine line wrote: »

Something tells me we won't know 'till the 26th...

Agree.
Considering the fuss made over the longlist, I can't see them just throwing out the shortlist and announcing a winner between now and Saturday.
Also the logistics of getting judges to read the shortlisted entries and agree a winner may be proving too taxing.

I'm thinking shortlist in this Saturday's magazine (maybe pre-released online on the Friday), then the winner published on the 26th. So they'd be contacting the winner some time next week.
Good Luck.

kieslowski

I was longlisted. I also had a great chance of deftly introducing Powers into the story but just couldn't do it! I just felt like a kiss-me-ar*e....

The information vacuum is a bit frustrating. Would be great to be shortlisted but the odds look daunting!

Whelpling

Congrats to everyone who got longlisted!

My fingers are crossed for you all for the shortlist - and of course for the win!

Madammoiselle

So is it only those who were long listed that will be short listed??

MOONlit

Madammoiselle wrote: »

So is it only those who were long listed that will be short listed??

I think we are all clueless about whats happening. The only word from the 'horses mouth' in this, is the last activity on the blog - which states, that there will be more additions to long list.
Id say take it one 'activity' at a time. Who knows anything else? God Luck.

LegacyUser

I didn't mention Power's whiskey in my story last year and it didn't get into the book.This year I mentioned Power's to give me more of a chance, and I'm still not on any of the shortlist's. Some of the stories I've read are well written, witty and thoughtful. Other's are awful. It's a bit insulting to read so many stories containing bad grammar and punctuation, clichès and boring plots that have still gotten through. Hopefully the winner's story will be deserving of the €10,000 prize, like last years winner.

LegacyUser

alfa beta wrote: »

I read last years winner...

I think it might have been liver failure that did for the oul fella!

Good one!

EileenG

Madammoiselle wrote: »

So is it only those who were long listed that will be short listed??

Traditionally, that's how it works. What's the point of a longlist if you are not going to use it to compile the short list?

No-one could wade through 4200 entries. Each judge will pick out the ones they think have some sort of a chance, and then they will pick the best ones from that list.

Madammoiselle

EileenG wrote: »

Madammoiselle wrote: »

So is it only those who were long listed that will be short listed??

Traditionally, that's how it works. What's the point of a longlist if you are not going to use it to compile the short list?

No-one could wade through 4200 entries. Each judge will pick out the ones they think have some sort of a chance, and then they will pick the best ones from that list.

Thanks for that Eileen. It was my first time entering anything like this so I'm completely clueless!

Chocolate Chip

So there is still a tiny hope if you are not on the long list? YAY!

Some of the entries are brilliant! I haven't read half of them yet, but my favourite so far is the one called the Rescue, I laughed out loud at it and that's some achievement for 450 words. I love the funny ones.

I read the one about the cats too and even if it's a good story, it's nothing to do with the theme no matter what way you spin it. Maybe we should all start writing now for next years competition!

anyon?

any more news on this? Didn't they say they would be adding to the longlist on a daily basis? It all seems a bit messy... or maybe i'm just bitter because i'm not on the list! Yet, anyway...

Madammoiselle

anyon? wrote: »

any more news on this? Didn't they say they would be adding to the longlist on a daily basis? It all seems a bit messy... or maybe i'm just bitter because i'm not on the list! Yet, anyway...

Not a tap of news on the subject. No update of the blog either today. They did say they would be adding to the longlist on a daily basis but that didn't happen. The last time they added 5 or 6 new lists rather than adding them one day at a time.
The next time there's an update it will be to add the short list I would imagine.
But here I am speculating again, we will just have to wait and see.
Perhaps we will have news today at some stage. Fingers crossed!

c68zapdsm5i1ru

It's been nearly a week since they posted any new sections to the long list. I'm not sure why the message is still up there at this stage.

I doubt they will post the short list on the website until it has been published in the IT on Saturday.

It would be nice, though, if they clarified on the website whether the longlisting is finished and when and how the short list will be initially announced.

Madammoiselle

Any new information about the whole thing would be nice at this stage!
It would be very nice to know what is going on & what their 'plan' is.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

I agree. They went very suddenly from being really buzzy and informative to dead silence. Kind of an anti climax.

MOONlit

Its almost feels like they have lost the plot (ha ha) like as if those 2 words - short list - on a long list or whatever, crashed their whole system for judging etc. OMG have they had to start the process all over again ? aghhhhhhhhhhhh.
Next thing they'll ask contestants to rewrite and resubmit!
must stay calm must stay calm

EileenG

My guess is that they have the longlist of a few hundred semi-passable stories, and which judge is now reading all of them, and they will then rank them or vote on them. Reading that many stories without wanting to poke your eyes out will take time.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

EileenG wrote: »

My guess is that they have the longlist of a few hundred semi-passable stories, and which judge is now reading all of them, and they will then rank them or vote on them. Reading that many stories without wanting to poke your eyes out will take time.

It seems very late in the day for the judges to be still ploughing through several hundred stories. I would have thought the short list would be ready by now for submission to the Irish Times magazine and the winner chosen and photographed looking all thrillled!

c68zapdsm5i1ru

MOONlit wrote: »

Its almost feels like they have lost the plot (ha ha) like as if those 2 words - short list - on a long list or whatever, crashed their whole system for judging etc. OMG have they had to start the process all over again ? aghhhhhhhhhhhh.
Next thing they'll ask contestants to rewrite and resubmit!
must stay calm must stay calm

Yes, longlist 17 seems to have triggered a deafening silence from the short story team. In fairness, it was just a human error which they dealt with quickly and I doubt many people even noticed. I don't know why they've effectively abandoned the website since.

Madammoiselle

Did anyone contact the Irish times to ask what's happening or is that too bold?

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Madammoiselle wrote: »

Did anyone contact the Irish times to ask what's happening or is that too bold?

It would be brilliant if somebody did. I don't want to because I contacted them before to query longlist 17 so I don't want them thinking 'that bloody pest'. But if anyone does, please post an update on here.

MOONlit

Well orna mulcahy used to mention it on twitter (isnt she one of the judges or?) As of early May she wrote 'still reading and shortlisting' type thing. Im not on twitter but I was able to see that by googling. Maybe she has stopped talking about it too!

Madammoiselle

13 days ago, she tweeted, #powers short story competition - still reading and short listing.
Nothing since!

c68zapdsm5i1ru

So they had started short listing 13 days ago? They must have the list complete by now then.

pickarooney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raNM0UvR_Bo

Madammoiselle

They have the longlist, shortlist & the winner already I'd say.
Just a matter of keeping it to the dates they have previously stated now.
Probably a small update tmrw, with the short list & winner published in IT mag on sat.
A whole feature of the winning story & winner sat 26th.

DermoLogical

Lilly Prehistoric Tin wrote: »

It would be brilliant if somebody did. I don't want to because I contacted them before to query longlist 17 so I don't want them thinking 'that bloody pest'. But if anyone does, please post an update on here.

I just sent the following to enquiries@irishtimes.com:
"Hello,
There is a lot of speculation on boards.ie (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056592487&page=15) about the status of the Long List, Short List and Winners announcement for the Powers Short Story Competition. The Long List was last updated a while back, but still shows “Check back soon – the longlist continues“. A post titled Short List was briefly available, but then disappeared.
Can you shed any light?
Thanks and regards"

Madammoiselle

Cool! Hopefully you will get a reply real soon. :-)

MOONlit

Madammoiselle wrote: »

They have the longlist, shortlist & the winner already I'd say.
Just a matter of keeping it to the dates they have previously stated now.
Probably a small update tmrw, with the short list & winner published in IT mag on sat.
A whole feature of the winning story & winner sat 26th.

If its really true, that when you are content, the writing dries up, then Id say, if we were to sit down now and write something, in such a wound up state of mind, then we'd be up for the booker. Eileen would win it with her incendiary 'poke your eyes out' metaphor.
Anyways im off to Lithuania tomorow for a few days, no ipod, no laptop, no memory.......

EileenG

MOONlit wrote: »

Eileen would win it with her incendiary 'poke your eyes out' metaphor.

Thanks. I think.

MOONlit

Yep. Made me realize with a start, what an awful job that must be - to read through hundreds and hundreds of stories. 6 Judges for 6 age groups ? Even with their own staff, Im sure they understimated it all ,and they kept encouraging folk to write write write.
Jeez we might be looking at June.

Madammoiselle

June?! Haha. Na, I think they will meet their deadlines.
Hopefully we will have some news today....

tis a fine line

DermoLogical wrote: »

I just sent the following to enquiries@irishtimes.com:
"Hello,
There is a lot of speculation on boards.ie (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056592487&page=15) about the status of the Long List, Short List and Winners announcement for the Powers Short Story Competition. The Long List was last updated a while back, but still shows “Check back soon – the longlist continues“. A post titled Short List was briefly available, but then disappeared.
Can you shed any light?
Thanks and regards"

Hey thanks for doing that

Hopefully we'll hear something soon.

According to my calculations of 4200 stories X 450 words = 1,890,000 words / 7 judges = 270,000 words each.

Would that be roughly equivalent to 3 novels??

-Yes, i know... I've too much time on my hands!!

JoJo35

On the Powers FB page they say the winner will be announced on the 26th May, so not this Saturday. Kind of makes sense when you think about the "3 novels" each judge had to read, then for them to reach agreement and then to meet the print deadlines of the paper.
Some great stories in there, I'm not feeling too confident.

Chocolate Chip

The standard is really high isn't it? I hope they leave them up online for a while so I can get through them all.

How exciting. The 26th is it so. (still hope)

Madammoiselle

Blog has been updated finally!
Short list is being announced on sat!

anyon?

So presumably this means that there's the 16 lists that make up the longlist, and no more to come? Disappointing!

Delgado88

Thats curtains for a lot of us so; good luck anyone whose name is on the blog

Chocolate Chip

Yes I read it that way too, it looks like that's it so.
I just read through the whole list again and I'm definitely not there. Booo. I'm very dissapointed. (just for today though)

best of luck everyone else!

tis a fine line

Noooooooooo!!!

Is that the end of the long list? :eek:

I didn't make it -Boo!

Ah well, there's always next year

I'll be rooting for one of our Boardsies to win

The very Best of Luck to you all, and congrats for being Longlisted

DermoLogical

That's another 2 days of waiting for the few hundred names on the longlist and another week again for those 'lucky' 50 who make the shortlist.

I'll have no fingernails left. Cruel cruel judges...

hcass

So how many are in the long list altogether?

Jesus I hope I make the short list, I'd be thrilled. That in itself would be an achievement.

D-FENS

Question still remains…what happened to the phantom longlist no. 17, which was marked as the shortlist “in error” for a few days.
Were they always intended to make up the shortlist, removed when the feck up was spotted and will reappear this Saturday? If so ,there is still hope for anyone not in the 16 sections of the longlist, because none of the people in section 17 were either, and there was only 29 names not 50
If they are not part of the intended shortlist, why were they deleted?...
I don’t know if I’m clinging onto hope or just enjoying the conspiracy theory at this stage

Madammoiselle

Congrats to everyone who made the longlist and best of luck on the short listing!
I was hoping the long listing wasn't over with yet due to the check back soon for more blah..

It's the end of the road for me, so disappointed, I guess my writing just isn't up to scratch.
Good luck everyone! :-)

GlassofPowers

DermoLogical wrote: »

That's another 2 days of waiting for the few hundred names on the longlist and another week again for those 'lucky' 50 who make the shortlist.

I'll have no fingernails left. Cruel cruel judges...

I totally agree with you. I have checked so many times I think I must have developed PISS -COD (Powers Irish Short Story Compulsive Obsessive Disorder ) They really have been very very naughty about announcing what is going to happen - I wrote a poignant story about a lonely man I had visited - I should have made him an alcoholic then given back his POWERS. Anyway in my search for fame I read all of your comments and it made me laugh -that's not LOL cos I didn't do it outloud- anyway back to the whisky!

psicic

It's down to personal taste, I suppose, but up until now I thought some of the stories on the longlist were there simply because they had under 450 words! Some of them were a bit... underwhelming... I suppose.

I'm not too bitter about not appearing on the longlist - I still enjoyed the exercise and I can see how my story would have been too bland and, almost, passive - but I'll certainly be interested to see the shortlist.

Now... what's the next competition we're all going to enter en masse? Half the fun of this has been coming to boards to see the reaction to updates

anyon?

The RTE Arena Flash Challenge winners were announced today as well (or yest maybe?)... two rejections in one day is never good!

GlassofPowers

psicic wrote: »

It's down to personal taste, I suppose, but up until now I thought some of the stories on the longlist were there simply because they had under 450 words! Some of them were a bit... underwhelming... I suppose.

I'm not too bitter about not appearing on the longlist - I still enjoyed the exercise and I can see how my story would have been too bland and, almost, passive - but I'll certainly be interested to see the shortlist.

Now... what's the next competition we're all going to enter en masse? Half the fun of this has been coming to boards to see the reaction to updates

Maybe we could all meet up and drink Powers & write silly stories?

LegacyUser

Any tips for the winning story?
I've had a read of quite a few of them and I really like Christina Galvin's one ( on longlist number 7).
It's beautifully written and very evocative. Think it might have only been added today as hadn't noticed it before and have definitely read everything else on number 7.

Just googled her and she has an M.A in Writing.

I also like Eileen Gormley's one about the hypnotist on the same longlist. Very funny but not as literary.

I didn't like Brendan Sayer's story about the cat. Found the writing quite dull.

Anyone tipping other stories?

Chocolate Chip

I've been thinking about this all day, and I'm still trying to get over the dissapointment of my entry getting lost. Computers these days eh.