Ragaire Literary Magazine’s open call for poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction and cover art for Issue 4 will close on July 15th.

Ragaire is a Galway-based magazine edited by Cormac Culkeen, Aileen McCarthy and Lucy Bleeker that champions emerging West of Ireland writers, as well as other Irish and international writers who offer fresh perspectives and different approaches to telling a story.

Submissions of stories and nonfiction essays can be up to 3,000 words, and up to 3 poems of no more than 40 lines in total. Ragaire is looking for daring work, stories that raise the pulse, essays that bring knowledge to the reader, poems that move and thrill the heart and imagination.

The submission window is open until 15^th July, and Issue 4 is planned for launch in Nov 2025.

“It can be challenging to make the selections for each issue”, says Cormac Culkeen. “We read all work blind to the identity of the author, so decisions are made strictly on the quality of the writing. We always receive a lot of exciting, fresh work, more than we could ever publish. We try to ensure each edition of Ragaire is distinctive.”

“There’s good writing everywhere,” says Aileen McCarthy.  “While we want Ragaire to be a point of focus for Irish and West of Ireland writers, we also want to see what can be sent to us from the rest of the world. We want a range of perspectives to choose from, stories and poems that are moving or provocative in their language and ideas.”

Lucy Bleeker joined the Ragaire Editorial team for Issue 3. “We pride ourselves on finding something different; secretive stories and unwitnessed moments.”

All guidelines and submission links can be accessed via the website. To see what the team at Ragaire like to publish, Issue 3 is available to purchase on the website www.ragairemagazine.com or in independent bookshops such as Kenny’s, Charlie Byrne’s and Bell Book and Candle in Galway, or Raven Books and The Winding Stairs in Dublin.

Ragaire Literary Magazine is proudly supported by The Galway City Arts Office.