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Short story writers to vie for Michael McLaverty award

The late Michael McLaverty
The late Michael McLaverty The late Michael McLaverty

WRITERS are being invited to compete for an award set up to foster and encourage the tradition of the Irish short story.

The Linen Hall Library in Belfast launched the 2018 Michael McLaverty Short Story Award.

This prestigious award, which has run biennially since 2006, is named in honour of the late Michael McLaverty, who was one of the foremost proponents of the Irish short story.

McLaverty was the principal of the former St Thomas' High School on Whiterock Road in west Belfast. As well as his own writing career, he acted as mentor to Seamus Heaney, who credited him as a key influence.

His archive was donated to the library in 2005.

Entrants must have been born in, or are citizens of, or resident in Northern Ireland or the Republic. The prize is £2,000 for the winning story.

Adjudicators are multi award-winning writer Claire Keegan (Antarctica, Walk the Blue Fields and Foster), and Patsy Horton, Managing Editor of Northern Ireland’s Blackstaff Press.

"It is a pleasure to be associated with the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award, to honour the composition of new stories in remembrance and celebration of McLaverty's own fine and even prose," Claire Keegan said.