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Ulster-Scots Writing Competition 2026

EVERYBODY KENS A WEE BIT O’ ULSTER-SCOTS AND THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO GET CREATIVE WITH IT!

With the support of the Ulster-Scots Agency, The Linen Hall will be hosting its sixth annual Ulster–Scots writing competition this summer, launching on 3 July 2026.

There will be two competition categories, one for prose and one for poetry. The winner for each section will receive £500 and one runner-up for each section will receive £250.

The winners will be announced during the Ulster-Scots Language Week in November and the winning entries will be published in a special edition anthology.

A distinguished panel of judges has been assembled to adjudicate; Steve Dornan, Helen Mark and Lee Reynolds.

The deadline for entry is Tuesday 1 September 2026 at 5 p.m., and below you can find the Entry Guidelines.

ENTRY GUIDELINES:

 

  • The competition is open to writers born or resident in Ulster or Scotland over 16 years of age.
  • Entries MUST be written in Ulster-Scots.
  • No entry form is required.
  • Entries must NOT have been, by the date of submission, published or broadcast in any medium.
  • Entries will be considered ineligible if they are not entirely human‑created. The use of AI, machine learning, or automated writing tools to generate or significantly edit content is prohibited. 
  • Entries must be typed, in double spacing. Please write on one side of the page only if you are submitting in hard copy.
  • Prose entries must NOT exceed 3,000 words and poetry entries must NOT exceed 40 lines.
  • Entries can be emailed to info@linenhall.com or posted to the Linen Hall Library at the address below. Hard-copy entries will not be returned.
  • If submitting by email, please submit your entry as a Microsoft Word file attached to your entry email – PDF files will NOT be accepted.
  • Please use Ulster-Scots Writing Competition 2026 as the title of your email or write this on your hard-copy submission.
  • No indication of the writer’s identity should be placed on the entry (story or poem) itself. With your entry, you must include your name, address, telephone number and email address either in the body of your email, or on a separate page if entering via hard copy.
  • You may only submit one entry in total for the competition.
  • The winners of the competition in any given year will be ineligible to enter the competition in the year following their win.
  • The decision of the judges is final.
  • Only winners and runners-up will be notified.
  • Staff, board members or volunteers from The Linen Hall and/or Ulster-Scots Agency are ineligible for entry.
  • The winners will be awarded their prizes in The Linen Hall during Ulster-Scots Language Week in November 2026.
  • The Linen Hall reserves the right to select for publication such entries as may be deemed appropriate, in any year.
  • The Linen Hall will liaise with successful authors in preparing texts for publication.

 

About the judges:

Steve Dornan

Steve Dornan grew up around Comber and Newtownards in County Down. His postgraduate work at The University of Aberdeen drew on the poetry of Robert Burns and Ulster-Scots writers such as James Orr as well as the novels of James McHenry. He won The Linen hall Ulster-Scots poetry prize and the Frances Browne poetry prize in 2022. His poetry collection Tha Jaa Banes (2020) was nominated for Scots book of the year. He has studied and written widely on the Ulster-Scots literary tradition and has published poetry in Ulster-Scots in Irish Pages, The Honest Ulsterman and Modern Poetry in Translation. He lives and works in the north-east of Scotland.

Helen Mark

Originally from Kelso in the Scottish Borders, Helen Mark has been working in broadcasting, both radio and television, for almost forty years. She started locally at Radio Foyle and across the years has been involved in an array of programmes, including Your Place and Mine, Gardeners’ Corner, Countryfile, Greenfingers, WW1@Home and BBC Radio 4’s Open Country, on which she was a presenter for over twenty years. Her involvement with Ulster-Scots broadcasting began in 2000 on programmes such as A Kist O Wurds and more recently as the presenter of the weekly Kintra programme.

She is a Deputy Lieutenant for Londonderry and was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2025.

Lee Reynolds

Lee Reynolds is Northern Ireland’s inaugural Commissioner for Ulster-Scots and Ulster-British Tradition, appointed to the role under The Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022, which was agreed in the New Decade, New Approach Agreement 2020.

The principal aim of the Commissioner for Ulster-Scots and Ulster-British Tradition is to enhance and develop the language, arts and literature associated with the Ulster-Scots and the Ulster-British Tradition with three functions of promotion, policy guidance, and complaints.

Born in Coleraine, Lee graduated with a degree in Economic and Social History from Queen’s University Belfast. His career blends community engagement, public policy, strategy development and cultural advocacy; he previously worked served as Chief Executive for the Community Convention and Development Company, Policy Director for the DUP, Special Adviser to former First Minister, Arlene Foster, and subsequently as the Co-Head of the Ireland and Northern Ireland team of the Institute of Physics.

Deeply involved in cultural preservation since the 1990s he formerly worked with the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council and co-authored the 2022 Ulster-Scots Panel of Experts report on the development of the Ulster Scots Language, Heritage and Culture Strategy.

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