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MOTH ART PRIZES MAGAZINE THEATRE





THE MOTH NATURE WRITING PRIZE 2024 IS NOW CLOSED. WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN EARLY DECEMBER


The Moth Nature Writing Prize aims to encourage and celebrate the art of nature writing. It is awarded annually to unpublished pieces of prose or poetry which best combine exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writers’ relationship with the natural world. 
 
Each year a single judge is asked to choose winners from entries worldwide. Previous judges include Richard Mabey, Helen Macdonald, Max Porter and Kathleen Jamie.
 
The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. 
 
 
THE PRIZES
 
1st prize €1,000 and a week at Circle of Misse in France
2nd prize €500
3rd prize €250
 
 
THE JUDGE
 
Cal Flyn’s first book, Thicker Than Water, was a Times book of the year. Her second book, Islands of Abandonment ‒ about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places ‒ has been shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, the British Academy Book Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize, among others. Her journalistic writing has been published in Granta, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times, The Economist and elsewhere. She is deputy editor of Five Books, and a regular contributor to The Guardian. She was made a MacDowell fellow in 2019, and in 2022 received a John Burroughs Medal for the most distinguished book of nature writing and was the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.
 
‘Extraordinary … Just when you thought there was nowhere left to explore, along comes an author with a new category of terrain … Dazzling.’ The Spectator
 
 
HOW TO ENTER

The Moth Nature Writing Prize is open to anyone over 16, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. There is a 4,000 maximum word limit (for prose and poetry).
 
The entry fee is €15 per entry (a single poem or piece of prose). You you can enter as many times as you like, along with €15 entry fee. 

You can enter online or send your entry along with a cheque or postal order made payable to ‘The Moth Magazine Ltd.’ with an entry form or a cover letter with your name and contact details and the title of your piece attached to: The Moth, Ardan Grange, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland H14 K768. 

Please read the rules before you enter. 

The Prize closes 30 September 2024.

The winning entries will appear in the Irish Times online. 
 
You will need to subscribe to our mailing list if you wish to be notified of the results 

 

Call 00 353 87 2657251 or email enquiries@themothmagazine.com for more details
 
 
TESTIMONIALS
 
‘If you are engaged with being alive on this planet just now … and you are not terrified about the future half the time, you are not paying attention.’ Max Porter, former judge

‘I wish that we would not fight for landscapes that remind us of who we think we are. I wish we would fight, instead, for landscapes buzzing and glowing with life in all its variousness.’ Helen Macdonald, former  judge
 
‘The answer to the still present threat of a silent spring is for us to sing against the storm.’ Richard Mabey, former judge

‘What a great competition to be running.’ Robert Macfarlane
 
‘It gives me so much confidence and it is wonderful to have my writing out there and enjoyed by others.’ Sammy Weaver, former winner
 
With this prize, I am grateful and honoured to be part of an international literary community and I cannot wait to continue the conversations with you.’ Libby B Bushell, former winner 
 
‘I am eternally grateful, however much of eternity I have left in me.’ Arne Weingart, former winner
  




Call 00 353 87 2657251 or email enquiries@themothmagazine.com for more details


 

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00 353 87 2657251