The diversity of voices and themes is reflected in the shortlist of ten stories to be broadcast, a mix of the challenging, entertaining, reflective and surreal.
Vincent Woods, writer, broadcaster, judge READ the stories at www.RTE.ie/Culture #RTEshortstory
RT has announced the shortlist for this year's RT Short Story Competition in honour of Francis MacManus, having received a record number of entries, over 4000, for this year's competition, which coincided with the global pandemic and the national lockdown.
The shortlisted stories are:
Beneath the Trees, Where Nobody Sees, by Julie Cruickshank, Dublin 8
Everything Will Be Recorded, by Se n Mackel, Co. Donegal
Flower Wild, by Shane Tivenan, Madrid, Spain
Guinness & Coke, by Lochlainn McKenna, Cork
Hands; A Downpour, by Aengus Murray, Valencia, Spain
Nead , by Ceri Garfield, Co. Clare
Kissing Booth, by Alan Walsh, Co. Wicklow
Tactics, by Andrew Maguire, Co. Tyrone
The Brow of the Hill, by Edel Moloney, Co. Dublin
The Shape on the Strand, by Katherine Duffy, Dublin 14
As a measure of the particularly high standard of this year's entries, the judges also wished to give special mention to a further five stories:
The following 5 stories are in the Highly Commended category:
The Atlantic's Cold Edge, by Kieran Marsh, Dublin 5
Fata Morgana, by Paul Duffy, Co. Wicklow
Cast Offs, by Lem Kinlon, Co. Kildare
Eggs Bed, Bed Eggs, by Rory Duffy, Co Westmeath
Dead Water, by James Martyn Joyce, Co Galway
Writer, broadcaster and current judge, Vincent Woods says: The standard of entry this year was very high. There was a palpable sense of unease running through many of the stories that came to us - a reflection of pandemic times, perhaps? The diversity of voices and themes is reflected in the shortlist of ten stories to be broadcast, a mix of the challenging, entertaining, reflective and surreal.
Danielle McLaughlin, who is also a previous prize-winner in this competition, says: This country produces such a kaleidoscope of writing talent and this has been abundantly evident right across the record entries we have received this year. I'd really like to congratulate all the writers on the shortlist, whose stories are right up there with the best of my reading during this whole pandemic. Through this competition, they now all have a great opportunity to bring their stories to a wide audience.
Journalist and editor Madeleine Keane commented: Judging the RTE Short Story Award was a complete joy in the midst of all the strangeness and upset of this year. It was so uplifting to read the richness and range, the diversity and imagination of these short fictions.
All 10 stories on the shortlist are now available to read at www.rte.ie/Culture, in advance of a special Arena programme on RT Radio 1 at 7pm on Monday 28th September where the three competition judges will announce their top prizes ( 3,000 to the winner, 2,000 and 1,000 the second and third place prizewinners respectively).
The broadcast of the full shortlist series begins with the winning story that same evening, Monday 28th September, on RT Radio 1 at 11.20pm, and continues every weeknight at 11.20pm until Friday 9 October. The stories will also be podcast.
Producer of the competition series, Sarah Binchy, said: This is a really strong, vibrant shortlist. These stories are diverse in style, setting and tone, but what they have in common is an assurance of voice. Also it sounds paradoxical a great radio story will often have a strong visual quality and that's very much the case here. There are some powerful images in these stories that will linger a long time in the listener's mind. It's been a pleasure to inhabit the unique world of each story as I've recorded them for broadcast with some greatly talented, insightful actors, ably assisted by RT 's sound engineering team. I'm looking forward to sharing these recordings with a wide audience.
This year's stories will be read on air by Cathy Belton, Lalor Roddy, Ingrid Craigie, anna Hardwicke, Liam Carney, Br d N Neachtain, Bl ith n MacGabhann, Ignacy Rybarczyk, Derbhle Crotty and Jane Brennan.
Free to enter, the RT Short Story Competition is open to anyone over 18 living on the island of Ireland, or living abroad who holds an Irish passport. Next year's competition will open for entries in spring 2021. To read the stories visit www.rte.ie/Culture. You can also stay up to date with RT on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn using #RTEshortstory.
ENDS
About the RT Short Story Competition
A competition for original short stories for radio was first established in 1986 in memory of Francis MacManus (1909-1965), the Kilkenny-born novelist, biographer and former Head of Talks and Features at Radio ireann. Since its establishment, the competition has been a launching pad for many writers who have gone on to receive national and international acclaim, including Claire Keegan, Molly McCloskey, Anthony Glavin, Danielle McLaughlin and Nuala N Chonch ir.
The RT Short Story Competition in honour of Francis MacManus is produced by Sarah Binchy.
About the judges
Danielle McLaughlin
Danielle McLaughlin's short story collection, Dinosaurs on Other Planets, was published in 2015 by the Stinging Fly Press. Her stories have appeared in the Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Southword, and The New Yorker and have been broadcast on RT Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. In 2019, she was a Windham-Campbell Prize recipient, and won the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. Her first novel, Retrospective, will be published in 2021.
Vincent Woods
Vincent Woods is a writer and broadcaster whose plays include At the Black Pig's Dyke, Song of the Yellow Bittern and A Cry from Heaven; and for radio, The Leitrim Hotel, The Gospels of Aughamor
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
The diversity of voices and themes is reflected in the shortlist of ten stories to be broadcast, a mix of the challenging, entertaining, reflective and surreal. 
