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West Waterford Arts Group
@westwaterfordag.bsky.social
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A cross-pollinating community of artists meeting in West Waterford with a multi-disciplinary approach to creativity.

#waterford #ireland #arts #poetry #visualarts #novelists #photoartists #collage #playwrights #musicians #songwriters #sculpture #speirgorm
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West Waterford Arts Group @westwaterfordag.bsky.social · Nov 4
Next West Waterford Poets meet: Mon 17 Nov, 7:30pm. Prompt: write an acrostic, spoonerisms/malapropisms a bonus!

New members - of all abilities - always welcome!

#poem #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #skypoets #writingcommunity #booksky #poetrysky #waterford #westwaterfordpoet #SpéirGhorm
Event poster for West Waterford Poetry meet-up - third Monday of every month at 7:30pm in Tudor House, St Mary Street, Dungarvan.
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mollytwomey.bsky.social
Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 23 is an abstract from the sequence 'Crowd Work' in 'Crowd Work' by Sam Furlong 🌹✨
Cover of 'Crowd Work' is the text 'Crowd Work' over a black circle There is a girl whose body is too small, I am certain, to contain a voice box. The MC watches her ankle of a waist approach the stage, her lips kiss the mic and her only words are, watch this, so we oblige politely. She takes the metal machine to her mouth, unhinges herself tooth by tooth, and makes it disappear. The static of her pharynx booms through the speaker and we laugh easily to the tempo of her pain.
December 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
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jacqbetula.bsky.social
Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, will be the thirteenth anniversary of my brother Dennis' death, one week short of his 59th birthday.
Three years ago, I recorded this piece in his memory for RTE's Sunday Miscellany.

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...
Dennis at Christmas, by Declan O’Driscoll
A tribute to the much-missed poet from his brother, 10 years on.
www.rte.ie
December 23, 2025 at 6:25 PM
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irishwriterscentre.bsky.social
Have you checked out our monthly round-up of opportunities for writers?

See below for Irish Writers Centre opportunities as well as other prizes, bursaries, residencies and more!

irishwriterscentre.ie/opportunitie...
Opportunities for Writers: December 2025 - Irish Writers Centre
Our monthly list of submission windows, competitions, bursaries, residencies and general literary opportunities is now live. This list offers information on opportunities with December/January deadlin...
irishwriterscentre.ie
December 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
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the-engine-idling.bsky.social
3 / 3.

Here's a little clue into our upcoming awards.

From Jan 1 - 31 we'll be accepting open nominations from EDITORS, WRITERS, & READERS alike for poetic pieces published online in 2025.

It'll be FREE TO NOMINATE via Google Form.

Details will be posted on Jan 1st!

#writers #poetrycommunity
December 23, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
General submissions & Spangler Poetry Award submissions are due to RCC Muse by January 31. No fee for general poetry, fiction, & CNF. $5 fee to enter the poetry award. Winner receives $200 & publication.

#callforsubmissions #litmag #writers
RCC MUSE Now Accepting Submissions & Spangler Poetry Award Entries
Submit poetry or prose to RCC MUSE by Jan 31, 2026 for the Spring 2025 edition + poetry submissions are open to $200 Spangler Award.
www.newpages.com
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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newpages.bsky.social
JackLeg Press authors include Jennifer Tseng, Summer J. Hart, & David Welch. They are currently open to fiction, poetry, & CNF queries through December 30. $5 fee. They stress authenticity, collaboration, & bold thinking.

#writers #callforsubmissions
JackLeg Press is Looking for the Next Great Thing
Indie publisher, JackLeg Press is looking for the next great thing! Open to full-length manuscripts of poetry, short fiction, novels, & CNF.
www.newpages.com
December 23, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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newpages.bsky.social
Books written in English & published in the last 2 calendar years are eligible for the National Indie Excellence Awards. Books need to be independently published or published by a university press. $75 fee. March 31 deadline.

#writers #bookawards
2026 National Indie Excellence© Awards
Submit your book to the 2026 National Indie Excellence© Awards and get recognized for excellence and distinction in self and independent publishing.
www.newpages.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
Looking for a prompt that’s wintery without being holiday‑centric?

This week we’re diving into snow‑globe logic—tiny worlds, big questions, and the odd physics of glitter weather.

Great for fiction, poetry, hybrid work, visual art—whatever you’re building.

#writingprompt #amwriting #writers
Writing Within Glass Walls: A Prompt for Winter Creativity
Explore this unique snow globe writing prompt for fresh winter inspiration without holiday overload. Spark creativity and discover new possibilities in tiny, imagined worlds.
www.newpages.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:15 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
Bold voices & brave stories wanted! Palooka is open to submissions of chapbook-length manuscripts & general submissions to their journal year-round. There is a reading fee. Send daring prose, art, photography, & more!

#writers #callforsubmissions
Palooka Seeks Chapbooks, Prose, Poetry, Artwork, Photography
Palooka is a global literary magazine seeking bold voices and brave stories. Submit chapbooks, prose, poetry, artwork, photography, and comics year-round. Anonymous reading.
www.newpages.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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irishwriterscentre.bsky.social
Poets seeking to develop, and revitalise their work in 2026 can look to this brand-new course from Moyra Donaldson taking place online from January!

Shape your next collection at the link:
irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/the-...
December 22, 2025 at 10:55 AM
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mollytwomey.bsky.social
🎁 Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 21 is 'Tumor Response' from 'Blue Opening' by Chet'la Sebree 💙 @tinhouse.bsky.social
Cover of blue opening is a blue background with gold splatters TUMOR RESPONSE At North Star Bar, my aunt and I ordered most of the appetizers on the menu: rockfish bites, a pound of steamed shrimp, lemon-pepper hot wings. Over the feast, I saw her cry for the first time about the glioblastoma, about the invasive brain-tissue shift that would only extend her life by months. She murmured something about hair loss, and I searched for what to say-wishing her fate was one I could delay. It's gonna be alright, she whispered, recomposing. Careful, hands dusted in Old Bay, as she wiped what we were both digesting from her face. Will you take me to the water, she asked as she returned to peeling the carapace off a shrimp's body, exposing its pink flesh.
December 21, 2025 at 11:28 AM
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mollytwomey.bsky.social
🎁 Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 22 is 'North Street' from 'Over Here' by Alan Gillis 🌹✨ @thegallerypress.bsky.social
Cover of 'Over Here' is a painting of three men in suits looking into a black hole. North Street Sometimes this place gets up my schnozzle its smut, smooshed litter, stale fry smoor, ditched Buckfast bottles weeping at the nozzle. Then whiffs of bran, Guinness, the pure perfume of new hair-dos, nut-jobs, do-yer-head-in kids tugging their Ma's shopping bags, hum their overture. When the street smears my eyes, flinty and grim, deeper rhythms of hither and yon assuage: the shops' wafts of song, snitches of what's spoken So that's sausage 'n beans, wi no beans, 'n extra sausage? I close the windows of my eyes, open the doors of my ears, let the music in.
December 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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the-engine-idling.bsky.social
Issue 8 is OPEN FOR SUBS!

But what's the deal with rights?

Mind the Off Limits List: buff.ly/xboarlD

Rules: buff.ly/W6Q0BoP

#writingcommunity #artistcommunity #collage #art #indiepublishing #indielit #litmag #poetry #poetrycommunity #writingprompt
December 21, 2025 at 7:55 PM
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the-engine-idling.bsky.social
Special call for Subs!

Issue 8: Collage invites you to use much of our archive for your golden shovels, cut-ups, mash-ups, frankenpoems, & literary experiments!

Rules: buff.ly/W6Q0BoP

#collage #indielit #litmags #poetry #art #writers #artists #writingcommunity
December 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
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westtradereview.bsky.social
Ready? Our fifth annual fiction contest begins January 15th.

We want stories that make readers think and feel, work that humbles us with its joy, humor, embarrassment, anger, hope, grief, or all of the above, and gravitate toward writing that has something important to teach us.

#writingcommunity
December 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
The final NewPages Newsletter of 2025 has been released! Enjoy 120+ submission opportunities + new book releases, new issues of great #litmags, & a writing prompt to help "shake things up"!

#writingcommunity #literarycommunity
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Visit open.substack.com
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:15 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
Deadline alert! Wednesday, Dec 31 is the last day to enter unpublished story collections to the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction judged by Kevin Morgan Watson. $30 fee. Winner receives $1,000 advance, publication, & 53 copies.

#writers #writingcontest
2026 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Enter the 2026 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction—open to short story collections. Winner receives publication and $1,000.
www.newpages.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:59 PM
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eolai.bsky.social
A #painting I finished and sold last year. "Connemara Boats", a view from a small but storied bridge in south Connemara, east to the Rosmuc peninsula - a stunning part of the world. I painted it because I like the organic mish-mash punctuated by human made moments. #art #stunday #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm
Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Past a concrete slipway are two little rowing boats seen from the side, one black with a blue rim, the other white. They are resting on ground surrounded by dark rocks and orange seaweed. Past them and a 5-bar metal gate is more water, a deep burnt orange reflecting the seaweed that rings the grassy rocky outcrop or islet behind. Beyond, across a pale teal bay is a strip of land with fields, and the suggestion of stone walls among the small number of houses that are dotted there. Beyond it is a long low painterly purple hill and behind it further away is a long lilac ridge, also quite painterly, the both ends of which taper down to reveal distant blue mountains. Sky is a watery cloudy kind of pale blue. Signed bottom right in yellow, Liam Daly.
November 23, 2025 at 9:28 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
In just 2 weeks, the annual swamp pink Prizes will open to entries of fiction, essays, & poetry. $20 fee. Winner in each genre receives $2,000 & publication. Submissions open January 1 through January 31.

#writers #litmag #writingcontest
The swamp pink Prizes in Fiction, Poetry, & Nonfiction
The 2026 swamp pink Prizes will be open to fiction, essays, and poetry during the month of January. $20 fee. $2,000 awarded per genre.
www.newpages.com
December 19, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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newpages.bsky.social
Happy Friday! Stop by the NewPages Blog to discover 101 submission opportunities (at least one closes today!) + some seasonally inspired creative inspiration on the idea of miracles.

#writers #submissionopps #writingprompt
Where to Submit Roundup: December 19, 2025
Stop by the NewPages Where to Submit Roundup for December 19, 2025, and discover 101 submission opportunities!
www.newpages.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:14 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
Accents Publishing's open reading period closes Dec 31! They seek unpublished manuscripts in every genre ie novels, story collections, memoirs, poetry collections, & more. No fee, but you need to purchase a book from the catalog.

#callforsubmissions
Open Reading Period at Accents Publishing
Accents Publishing is accepting unpublished manuscripts in all genres during its open reading period from November 1 to December 31, 2025. No fee—just purchase a recent title to submit.
www.newpages.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:15 PM
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newpages.bsky.social
Do you have a novel you are writing in verse? Livingston Press is open to unpublished manuscripts for its annual Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse. No reading fee. Winner receives $500, book publication, & 20 copies. Deadline is May 25.

#writers #writingcontest
Fourth Annual Changing Light Prize Novel in Verse from Livingston Press
Submit by May 25, 2026 for Livingston Press’s Changing Light Prize, awarded to a novel-in-verse manuscript. No entry fee.
www.newpages.com
December 19, 2025 at 10:15 PM
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mollytwomey.bsky.social
The problem with buying books as presents is I want to keep them for myself 😰😍 🎁 Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 19 is 'helen of troy in february' from 'Helen of Troy, 1993' by Maria Zoccola 🌹 @scribnerbooks.bsky.social
Cover of Zoccola's book is a close shot of a woman with red hair whose forehead is perplexed helen of troy in february do i love him? who, the big cheese? enough to be stood here in this walgreens with his gut pills in my purse and the baby slung on my chest, with bing crosby piped through the speakers and the slip-choke of pink and red and puff snowed in on every shelf, cards like you wouldn't believe, my honey bear, my shining star. his name's on the mortgage. on the title to the car. at night he says what did you do today helen and listens, i mean really listens, when i say well i changed the baby and took the car through the wash, all those words straight and tidy, little soldiers on the march, my mouth to that baking marsh of his insides where crooked things lie down and begin to sink. i give him arrows. my lover, hearts and kisses, silk petals in the centerfold, one ninety-nine before tax. envelope like fogged glass. line at the register snaking nearly to the exit sign, where sliding doors roar open to the snow.
December 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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mollytwomey.bsky.social
Poem-a-day advent calendar 🎁 Day 20 is 'Putting Up Your Crib' from 'Care' by Jennifer Horgan @doirepress.bsky.social 🌹✨
Cover of Care is a sunset over a lake, with trees painted on both sides. Putting Up Your Crib You explain where the donkeys need to go Above the baby Jesus so they'll breathe on him and he won't catch cold. I laugh, nestle them in. And the three wise men? Oh, no- they won't arrive until January sixth Pretty long, I say, for a baby to survive like this. You laugh then too, unoffended. Eager for me to finish and I do. Place the shepherds out front, silver star on the black crepe paper you've glued on top. You tell me the figures belonged to your mum. I fold the tissues up with more care than before, place them back inside the tin. See tiny fragments of clay chip of an ear, a slice from Mary's face. Offer to give them a lick of paint but you're not listening, too busy reminiscing. An orphan at thirteen between two dark-haired sisters, relying on their heat, their nearness. I wish I could shrink this room and everything in it. You, sitting on your wheels - evening sun fading. That I could preserve it all inside some tin. Look on your face when I finish, light on inside your crib.
December 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM
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irishlittimes.bsky.social
Don't miss livestream of Winter Solstice at Newgrange, Sunday 21 December 2025

"For 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Newgrange monument through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the ‘roof box’, to illuminate the Chamber."
heritageireland.ie/winter-solst...
Winter Solstice | Heritage Ireland
heritageireland.ie
December 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM