The Bristol Short Story Prize. Deadline: April 30th 2015.

Rules | Bristol Prize

2015 BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE IS OPEN

October 29, 2014   Joe Melia

We are thrilled to announce that the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize is open for entries.

Once again, we are delighted that our panel of fantastic judges will be chaired by Sara Davies. Sara has been at the forefront of short stories in the U.K. for the past two decades, producing stories by scores and scores of the most celebrated writers in the world for BBC Radio 4, as well as introducing and championing numerous new writers.

Sara will be joined on the panel by leading literary agent, Rowan Lawton, of the Furniss Lawton agency, writer and TV presenter, Sanjida O’Connell, author of four critically acclaimed novels, and the celebrated writer, journalist and performer, Nikesh Shukla, recently voted one of the most influential and innovative people in publishing and writing in the h100 Club Awards.

For more information on our judging panel please click here.

Stories can be entered online or by post. The closing date for entries is midnight (BST) on April 30th 2015. First prize is £1,000 plus a £150 Waterstones gift card, 2nd prize is £700 plus a £100 Waterstones gift card and 3rd prize is £400 plus a £100 Waterstones gift card. The 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony will be held in Bristol in October 2015. There is no theme or subject but stories must not have been previously published or broadcast. There is an £8.00 entry fee for each story entered.
20 stories will be shortlisted and published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8. The top three winning stories will be selected from the shortlist of 20. The anthology will be launched at the awards ceremony in October next year. Please visit our Rules page for full details.
The 2014 Bristol Short Story Prize was won by Mahsuda Snaith for her brilliant story, The Art of Flood Survival. Mahsuda was announced as the winner at our annual awards ceremony four days ago, held at Spike Island arts centre in Bristol. Mahsuda’s winning story plus the 19 other brilliant stories are available in our latest anthology.

RULES

2015 BRISTOL SHORT STORY PRIZE RULES

Please read the rules carefully before entering.

1. Closing date for receipt of entries is 30th April 2015 at midnight BST.

2. Entrants must be over 16 years old on the closing date, 30th April 2015.

3. The maximum length of submissions is 4,000 words (does not include title), there is no minimum length. Stories can be on any theme or subject and are welcome in any style including graphic, verse or genre-based (Crime, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, Children’s etc..) .

4. The 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all published and unpublished writers. There is no geographical restriction on entry- the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to everyone, whether they are based in the UK or outside the UK. Entries can be made online or by post.  All entries should be in English. Online entries should be submitted via the online entry facility, usually in Word document, pdf or equivalent. Postal entries will only be accepted as printed typescripts. There are no specific formatting requirements – font type, font size, line spacing etc.. Writers may format their work in the way they feel is most appropriate. Please send postal entry/entries to : Bristol Short Story Prize, Unit 5.16, Paintworks, Bath Road Bristol BS4 3EH

5. Authors may enter as many stories as they like. There is an entry fee of £8 for each story submitted. Payment for online entries should be made via the website.  Payment for postal entries should be made by cheque. Cheque payments must be in pounds sterling and cheques should be made payable to ‘Bristol Short Story Prize Ltd.’. Each postal submission must be accompanied by a signed entry form confirming an entrant has read the rules of the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize and accepts the rules of the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize.

6. Entries will not be returned. Please keep a copy. No corrections or alterations can be made after receipt of an entry.

7. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been previously published, in print or online (including websites, blogs, social network sites), or broadcast or won a prize in another writing competition.  Any entry found to have been plagiarised will be disqualified. Simultaneous submissions are welcome – but please let us know as soon as possible if a story is to be published elsewhere or has won a prize in another writing competition.

8. Entries will be read and judged anonymously; entrants names and contact details should only appear on the entry form and not anywhere on their stories/manuscripts. The stories/manuscripts must be free of all personal information about the author. This includes age and address.

9. If you require acknowledgement of receipt of your postal entry then please enclose a stamped addressed postcard marked ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Online entries will be acknowledged by email. If an entrant does not receive an email acknowledgement for an online entry they are very welcome to contact Bristol Short Story Prize to confirm their entry has been received. Contact via email in the first instance is preferable.

10. All entrants must agree to have their work published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8, in both print and ebook formats, should they be the author of one of the 20 shortlisted stories. Authors will retain worldwide copyright on their work (including film and dramatic rights) but Bristol Short Story Prize has first publication rights to publish the 20 shortlisted stories in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8, in both print and ebook formats.

11. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive 2 free copies of the paperback version of Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8 and will be able to purchase further copies at a discount of 50%. All shortlisted writers will be able to purchase any number of copies of any volume of Bristol Short Story Prize Anthologies at a discount of 50%. Any profit from the sale of the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8 will go towards developing ShortStoryVille events and our cover design project with University of the West of England Illustration degree course.

12. No competitor may win more than one prize. Entries will be read by a panel of professional publishers, reviewers and published writers. They will select a longlist of 40 for the judging panel. The judging panel will select the 20 stories to be published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8 and the top 3 prize winning stories. The judges decision is final and no individual correspondence will be entered into. Judges or readers will not comment on individual stories or give feedback on individual stories.

13. Prizes for 2015 are: 1st-£1000 plus £150 Waterstone’s Gift Card, 2nd -£700 plus £100 Waterstone’s Gift Card, 3rd -£400 plus £100 Waterstone’s Gift Card. Each of the 17 remaining shortlisted finalists will receive £100.

14. Prizes will be awarded at the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony in October 2015 and will be sent to any of the 20 finalists who are unable to attend the awards ceremony. Prizes, including free copies of the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 8 as well as cash prizes, are not dependent on winners attending the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize Awards Ceremony. Entrants will notbe contacted individually about the competition results unless they are selected for the shortlist. The 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize longlist and shortlist will be announced on the Bristol Short Story Prize website. The 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize longlist will be posted on the Bristol Short Story Prize website on Wednesday 22nd July 2015 at 2pm (BST) and the 2015 Bristol Short Story Prize shortlist will be posted on the Bristol Short Story Prize website on 5th August 2015 at 2pm (BST). The top 3 prize-winners will be displayed on the website within one week after the awards ceremony.

15. Any entrant wishing to withdraw a story from the competition before the closing date and time of midnight (BST) 30th April 2015  will receive a full refund. Please contact us by email. We will not be able to refund any withdrawn stories after the closing date and time of midnight (BST) 30th April 2015.                  .                             .

16. Entry implies an acceptance of all the Bristol Short Story Prize rules. Entries that fail to comply with the entry rules and requirements may be disqualified.