The 2024 All Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Award winners have been announced
The winners in the Alumni and Public categories of the All Ireland Scholarships Creative Writing Awards have been announced.
The winner of the 2024 AIS (Alumni) award is Rites of Passage by Surnaí Molloy. In second place is On the Platform, by Chess Law, and in third place is Mouse, again by Surnaí Molloy. Shortlisted writers were Lorraine McEvoy and Eoin Corcoran.
The judges also picked Mouse by Surnaí Molloy in third place. This is a very special achievement and speaks to her writing talent and craft
A range of superb fiction, non-fiction and op-ed entries were received and reviewed by judges Emma Corcoran, Donal Ryan, Marian Keyes and Roddy Doyle.
“On behalf of this year’s judging panel for the AIS Alumni Association’s Roger Downer Award for Creative Writing, I’m absolutely delighted to announce that Rites of Passage by Surnaí Molloy has been selected as the overall winner,” said Chair of the 2024 award, Professor Sarah Moore. “The judges also picked Mouse by Surnaí Molloy in third place. This is a very special achievement and speaks to her writing talent and craft.”
Marian Keyes said that Rites of Passage is written with an insistent rhythm, which gathers force as the piece continues. “The way it’s written mirrors the steady accumulation of daily aggressions women are met with. As the piece progresses, each new violation stacks up on the previous, building to an intolerable weight. It’s truthful and powerful.” Roddy Doyle praised the story, saying it was chilling, frightening, and very well told.
This year for the first time there was a public category in the awards, inviting submissions from all across the island, judged by Donal Ryan, Marian Keyes, and Roddy Doyle.
Winning first place was Beautiful Like Her, a short story by Jennifer McMahon. In second place was Dinner at Jim’s, by Jamie O’Donoghue, and in third place was The Sparrow, the Bear, and the Chimney Pot, by Oonagh Montague.
Shortlisted entries were by John Merkel, Sadhbh Moriarty, Ferdia Foley, Neil Tully, Jessica Grene, and Ailín O’Dea.
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald thanked everyone who entered, saying that the winning story was “beautifully written and skilfully executed,” while Donal Ryan said that there were some beautiful turns of phrase, with “moving, natural, well-crafted dialogue.” Roddy Doyle praised the story as “well-paced and chilling, with great use of language.”
The All Ireland Scholarships (AIS) Alumni Association Creative Writing Competition was established in 2020 to create a new and engaging platform for recipients of the Scholarship to enter, with a new public category opening in 2024.
