Welcome to the Munster Literature Centre submissions manager
Southword Literary Journal
Southword: New International Writing is a print literary journal published twice a year by the Munster Literature Centre. Southword has published the likes of Medbh McGuckian, Helen Ivory, Haruki Murakami, James Lasdun, Kim Addonizio, Tess Gallagher, Colm Tóibín and Vona Groarke. Our summer issue is composed of prizewinning and shortlisted entries from our Gregory O'Donoghue and Seán O'Faoláin competitions, as well as specially commissioned work. Unsolicited submissions of poetry and short fiction (for our autumn issue) are open as follows:
Unsolicited submissions of poetry and short fiction (for our winter 2024 issue) are open as follows:
POETRY: 1st December 2023 ‒ 28th February 2024
FICTION: 1st January ‒ 31st March 2024
Southword pays contributors €50 per poem and €250 per short story. We welcome submissions of up to four poems or one short story (of up to 5000 words) per submission period. If your work has been selected from an unsolicited submission and published in Southword before, we ask that you please don’t submit for one year before submitting again – for example, if you were accepted in the last open submission period (2023) it means you need to skip this one (2024) and wait for the next (2025).
Subscribe or buy individual issues here.
Other opportunities for publications, mentorships, readings and more will appear here periodically throughout the year.
Annual Competitions
Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition (open for entries 1st May to 31st July).
Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition (open for entries 1st June to 31st August).
Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition (open for entries 1st September to 30th November).
Questions/troubleshooting on using Submittable system
E-mail support@submittable.com or visit their help centre.
In a social justice initiative, the Munster Literature Centre is offering free entries of two poems each for thirty poets currently residing in a developing country (Africa, Central and South America, South East Asia, the Philippines, in the main) who do not have the financial means to pay the entrance fee for this year’s Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition. The places are offered on a trust basis. If you can afford the fee, we implore you not to use this facility as you will be depriving someone who really needs it. Only one free entry of two poems per person is allowed. Anyone who submits more than one free entry of two poems will have all their entries disqualified.
Submit the following information:
- Your name
- Titles of your poems (maximum of two)
- Your complete postal address
- Your email address
- Your complete phone number (including country code)
You will need to upload two documents:
- Cover letter containing a bio note and the same information listed above
- Your poems, maximum of two, each with a maximum of 40 lines in Word or other text documents – we cannot accept PDFs. Please use the title of the poem (or the first few words of the title) as the title of each document. As the competition is judged anonymously, we request that you do not write your name or personal details anywhere on this document.
Under no circumstances can any further fees-free entries be accepted once the Submittable portal closes. No changes to entries can be made after they have been submitted.
This portal is for fees-free entries only. For information on how to make a fees-paid entry and for more info on prizes and entry conditions, please go here.