Bristol Short Story Prize 2019 International writing competition for writers

Application Deadline: May 1st 2019

Welcome to the Bristol Short Story Prize – an annual international writing competition open to all published and unpublished, UK and non-UK based writers.

The Bristol Short Story Prize is an international writing competition based in Bristol, UK, which aims to publish great short stories and promote the stories and writers as much as possible.  Discovering  previously unpublished writers is central to our aims and we are absolutely committed to celebrating the short story genre and making it accessible and available to as wide an audience as we can.

The Bristol Short Story Prize is an international writing competition founded by the editors of the quarterly cultural magazine Bristol Review of Books in 2007.

Aims

• To publish a brilliant short story anthology every year full of fresh and original stories, and to get it stocked in as many bookshops as possible. This includes high street chains, independent shops and online booksellers.
• To inspire and encourage writers.
• To discover and promote previously unpublished writers.
• To provide an opportunity for writers to get published.
• To share our enthusiasm for short stories in as many ways and with as many people as possible.
• To establish Bristol as a short story centre.
• To raise the profile, support and raise funds for Bristol Review of Books magazine. (BROB magazine is not being published at the moment but we hope to be part of its return to publication at some stage in the future.)

Rules:

Please read the rules for the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize carefully before entering:

1. Closing date for receipt of entries is May 1st 2019 at midnight BST (‘midnight’ meaning the very last second of May 1st 2019).
2. Entrants must be over 16 years old on the closing date, May 1st 2019.
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 The 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all published and unpublished writers. There is no geographical restriction on entry – the 2019 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 must 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 – we do not specify any particular format for submissions. 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 £9 for each story submitted to the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize. Payment for online entries to the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize should be made via the website online entry facility. Entrants will be transferred to the Paypal website after they have submitted their story/stories to the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize to pay the entry fee. Payment for postal entries to the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize 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 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize and accepts the rules of the 2019 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 self-published, ebook, magazines, journals, websites, blogs, social network sites), or broadcast or won a prize in another writing competition on or before October 12^th 2019. 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, in print or online (including self-published, ebook, magazines, journals, websites, blogs, social network sites), or broadcast or has won a prize in another writing competition on or before October 12^th 2019.
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.

Please contact us via email in the first instance: enquiries@bristolprie.co.uk

Our address is: Unit 5.16, Paintworks, Bath Road, Bristol BS4 3EH. We share an office with leading Bristol publisher Tangent Books.

Phone number is: 0117 9720645 please ask to speak to our Co-ordinator, Joe Melia or to Richard Jones.  Office hours are 10.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday.

email: enquiries@bristolprize.co.uk

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Bristol Short Story Prize 2019 International writing competition