The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition

Published by Leonarda

Deadline: 31 May 2019
Open to: writers of any nationality writing in English, 16 years old and over
Benefits: cash prizes

Description

The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition is an open writing competition that is dedicated to finding and encouraging the most promising new writers from across the world. Each year the judges award over GBP18,000 in prize money for your best submissions in poetry, short stories, flash fiction and first novels.

As well as cash prizes, winners of the poetry, short story and flash fiction competitions are published in the Bridport Prize anthology. Winners of the Peggy Chapman Andrews First Novel Award will receive mentoring with their partner The Literary Consultancy – the UK’s first and leading editorial and manuscript assessment service.

The prize was founded in 1973, in a small town in Dorset, UK, by Peggy Chapman-Andrews. Today it is a global writing competition and many winners have gone on to see their work published and have become household names.

Eligibility

• The Prize is open to writers of any nationality writing in English, 16 years old and over at the time of the closing date;
• Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and by submitting you are confirming that the work is your own. Any evidence to the contrary will result in immediate disqualification;
• Entries must never have been published, self-published, published on any website, blog or online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed (as in 2nd, 3rd, runner-up etc) in any other competition; **
• If your entry has been long-listed or shortlisted in other competitions and provided it has not won a prize or been published, then it is eligible for the Bridport Prize;
• Simultaneous submissions are allowed but will become ineligible should they win a prize or be published prior to the prize-giving
date; entry fees will not be refunded;
• You must inform the Bridport Prize immediately should your entry be published or win a prize elsewhere;
• Entries submitted posthumously will not be eligible.
`** The Novel Award has a slight variant on this rule. Entrants to this category must not have previously published a novel, (although self-published and ebooks are accepted). Novel entrants who have had other types of books traditionally published e.g. poetry, memoir, nonfiction, are eligible to submit.

Benefits

The Bridport Prize will award the following prizes:

  • Poetry: 1st prize GBP5,000, 2nd prize GBP1,000, 3rd prize GBP500, Highly Commended 10 x GBP100;
  • Short story: 1st prize GBP5,000, 2nd prize GBP1,000, 3rd prize GBP500, Highly Commended 10 x GBP100;
  • Flash fiction: 1st prize GBP1,000, 2nd prize GBP500, 3rd prize GBP250, Highly Commended 3 x GBP100;
  • Novel award: 1st prize – GBP1,000 plus up to a year’s mentoring from The Literary Consultancy through their Chapter & Verse mentoring scheme (worth GBP2,340), a short, written report on the winning entry from the named judge. If, after the mentoring process, the finished novel is suitable, A.M. Heath Literary Agents will have first option to represent the winner and to offer it to a publisher they recommend;
  • Runner-up – GBP500 plus full manuscript appraisal from The Literary Consultancy;
  • The first three chapters of the winning and runner-up novel will be published on the Bridport Prize website after 22 October 2018.
  • 3 shortlisted prizes of GBP100 plus a 50-page manuscript appraisal from The Literary Consultancy;
  • All five winners will be invited to a TLC Industry Day.

How to apply?

In order to enter the competition, firstly you must create your account here.

For further information ,please visit the official website.