The Bridport Prize, one of the UK’s most prestigious writing competitions, is currently seeking your short stories, flash fiction, poems, memoirs and debut novels.

The deadline for all competition entries is 31st May 2023.

All entries are judged anonymously. To avoid disqualification, make sure you do not include your name, address, phone number, email, website, twitter handle etc on the document or in the file name.

Poems may be up to 42 lines in length (not including the title). There is no minimum line count. The entry fee is £12. The winning poet will receive £5,000.

Short stories may be up to 5,000 words long. The entry fee is £14. The winning short story writer will receive £5,000.

Flash fiction may be up to 250 words long. The entry fee is £11. The winning flash fiction writer will receive £1,000.

Novel extracts must be between 5,000 and 8,000 words long. You must also supply a 300-word synopsis, which should be the first page of your entry. The fee is £24.

First prize is £1,500 plus mentoring by The Literary Consultancy and consultations with literary agent AM Heath and publisher Headline.

Memoir extracts must be between 5,000 and 8,000 words. You must also supply a 300 word overview. The fee is £24.

Bridport Prize judges

Roger Robinson is the poetry judge. Rogerhas been awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize for A Portable Paradise, which was also a New Statesman Book of the Year. He has been commissioned by The National Trust, the V&A, and the National Portrait Gallery, amongst others, and is a co-founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and Spoke Lab.

Colin Barrett is the short story judge. Colin’s debut collection of stories, Young Skins, was awarded the Rooney Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. His stories have appeared in the Stinging Fly, the New Statesman, the New Yorker and Harper’s. His second short story collection, Homesickness, was published in 2022.

Christopher Allen is the flash fiction judge. Christopher is the editor-in-chief and publisher of SmokeLong Quarterly. A teacher, editor, and translator, he is the author of the flash fiction collection Other Household Toxins (Matter Press).

Sarah Hall is judging novel entries. Sarah is the author of six novels and three short story collections. She has won multiple literary prizes in the UK and overseas, including the BBC National Short Story Award twice, the Portico, Edge Hill and Commonwealth Prizes, and the EM Forster Award. She’s been shortlisted for the Booker prize and the Prix Femina Etranger.

Cathy Rentzenbrink is judging memoir entries. Cathy  is the author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book Write It All Down: How to put your life on the page was published in January 2022.

Don’t forget to check out the Writers’ Room on the Bridport Prize website for resources and inspiration.

Find full details and enter your creative works at www.bridportprize.org.uk. And don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter full of useful tips and inspiration.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud(dot)com.