Monaghan writer Peter Hughes has been awarded second prize in the 2019 Seán Ó Faoláin International Short Story Competition. Mr Hughes, who is editor and journalist with the Northern Standard newspaper, received the prize for his short story ‘The Rules’, which the author describes as “a black comedy centred around some terrible events that occur during a smalltown Irish wake.”
Mike Allen from Norfolk, England is this year’s first prize winner in the competition for his story ‘Come Closer’. Mr Allen will read his winning story on Saturday September 28 next as part of the Cork International Short Story Festival. Four authors had stories shortlisted in the 2019 awards, which are organised by the Munster Literature Centre and commemorate the celebrated Cork short story writer Seán Ó Faoláin. The stories of those shortlisted – Cristina Ioana Aramă from Bucharest in Romania, Shelley Hastings from London, Kelly Kirwan, New York, and Jean Roarty of Dublin – and those of Mr Allen and Mr Hughes will be published next March in issue 38 of Southword, the journal of the Munster Literature Centre.
