Alison Wells Author

On Friday 30th April I attended the inaugural WOW awards in the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill. The WOW awards were organised by the Words on the Street Publishers, a publishing house set up in 2006 and run by Tony O’ Dwyer and his business partner Geraldine Burke, both writers themselves.  The publishing house, says Tony is an act of love, they publish what they are passionate about, what they themselves enjoy and what they believe deserves to be published. They publish mainly Irish writers but also foreign works eg. from Belgium that they believe should be accessible in this country.

The WOW anthology includes the work of 10 poetry and 10 fiction writers, many with fairly illustrious publishing backgrounds in various journals. Some have had collections or novels already published. The story I had included was ‘Sad about the Plumber’s Uncle’, a wry account of a housewives brave attempt to ‘lure..(a plumber) to my suburban, little bit upmarket four bed home’ and the plumber’s fascination with funeral going.

I tremendously enjoyed meeting and chatting with the finalists and look forward to following their progress over time. James Lawless (also a Hennessy shortlistee) took first place in the fiction competition and Patricia O’ Callaghan the first prize in poetry. For more details on the winners, Words onthe Street, or to order the anthology, see here. The new competition for next year’s awards is open now and worth a look!