Brian Moore Short Story Awards Ceremony
   Sunday, March 31st May 2009, on Donegall St. in Belfast, the John Hewitt Bar in Belfast was buzzing  as writers from across the province, throughout Ireland and beyond, congregated to learn who had won the 2009 Brian Moore Short Story Awards. This exciting event is always eagerly anticipated and over a hundred guests packed the bar. The Awards are always well attended and, among the writers present were Sam Millar, Glenn Patterson, two of whose students at Queens turned out to be prizewinners, and Liz Weir. For the first time, we had trophies for all three winners and a permanent trophy to mark each contest winner, which is on display above the bar in the John Hewitt, where the awards ceremony takes place. These were designed by local sculptor Anto Brennan, renowned for his political chess sets, and feature a nib motif.
   American author Richard Bausch, this year’s contest judge, was on hand to present the prizes and congratulate all 15 writers short listed from over 350 entries. Richard, author of 19 books, including novels and short story collections, holds the Moss Chair of Excellence in the Writing Program at the University of Memphis. Richard was returning to Belfast after last year’s Over Here programme, when he had been the guest of CWN and during which he became enamored of Belfast and agreed to become the judge of this year’s competition. Richard spoke highly of the quality of submissions this year. Though judges often say that choosing overall winners is a difficult and lonely task, Richard was very clear that this was particularly hard for him in this contest, and he spend much time re-reading the shortlist stories and mulling over their respective merits. He also noted that while, for the first time in the competition’s history, the majority of submissions came from beyond these shores, all three winners came from Ireland, two of those from the North. This gives some idea of the quality of Irish writing relative to other countries, especially as all texts are judged with strict anonymity at every stage of the process.
   First prize went to Galway writer Hugo Kelly for his story Traffic Lights. Judge Richard Bausch said, ‘This story of a man’s settlement with himself to accept his life as it is, told in an even-handed and faintly rueful first person, is strangely moving and thoroughly engaging.’
One of the highlights of the evening most commented upon was Hugo’s reading of his winning entry. Short fiction does not always lend itself to public performance, but Hugo’s rendition of the winning story was delivered with a verve and verity which brought the story alive for everyone.
   Second and third prize winners were both from Northern Ireland and both just finished the MA in Creative Writing at Queen’s University. Second prize went to Sheena Wilkinson for her story Dissociation, and third prize went to Korrena Bailey for Rites ofPassage, both these stories are printed in this issue, while the winning story was published in Verbal Magazine.
   We would like to thank everyone who helps make the Brian Moore Awards possible, our sponsors, volunteer readers, Richard Bausch, both as judge and as a great supporter of the organization and, of course, the hundreds of writers who send in their stories and take an interest in the writing.
The Brian Moore Short Story Awards is Northern Ireland’s longest running and most prestigious writing contest, is run annually and is open to writers of Irish descent worldwide.