4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Award winning author set to host Donegal fiction competition
The 2025 Allingham Festival will take place in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal from November 5 to 9.
Headline events will include a keynote speech by human rights activist Nelofer Pazira, a performance of The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong starring Don Wycherley, and an interview with broadcaster John Creedon.
Nuala O'Connor will judge the entries in the 2025 Allingham Flash Fiction Competition.
Judge Nuala O'Connor's sixth novel Seaborne about Irish-born pirate Anne Bonny was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the 2024 An Post Irish Book Awards, and it was nominated for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award.
She won the Irish Short Story of the Year Award at the 2022 Irish Book Awards, and her novel Nora was selected as the One Dublin One Book choice for that year.
Menagerie, her fifth poetry collection, has been published by Arlen House.
Alongside her judging duties, Naula will also interview award-winning author Donal Ryan at the festival.
Donal Ryan, winner of the 2025 Orwell Prize for his novel Heart, Be at Peace, will be at the Allingham Festival on Saturday afternoon 8 Nov in the Abbey Centre.
The 2025 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions are open for entries through September 28, 2025.
Details and tickets for all events, including the Literary Lunch and the Donal Ryan interview, will be available through the Festival website.
Winning entries will be announced and read at the Literary Lunch on Saturday, November 8.
