Welcome

Thanks for stopping by.

The Bridport Prize is one of the most  prestigious awards in the literary world, so you’re in good company.

Whether you’re writing poetry, a short story, flash fiction, novel or a memoir, we can’t wait to read your words.

Let's begin...

Poetry is soul music

Write 42 incredible lines about absolutely anything
£5,000 first prize

Let's begin...

Short stories that linger

5,000 impossible to forget words
£5,000 first prize

Let's begin...

Fiction in a flash

250 words that tell a story in seconds
£1,000 first prize

Let's begin...

Your novel idea

Book your place on the bestsellers list
£1,500 first prize

Let's begin...

Memoir. A moment of truth

Reveal the untold story about a slice of your life
£1,500 first prize

Memoir Award
All categories Enter Now

For writers everywhere

We are committed to discovering new writers in poetry, short story, flash fiction, the novel and memoir. Our alumni reads like a Who’s Who of the literary world: Kate Atkinson MBE, Gail Honeyman and Kit de Waal. Judges have included Roger McGough, Monica Ali and Zoe Heller. Our patron is Kit de Waal. We are a route to being published so send us your words and it could be your name up here next year.

 

Poetry, short story, flash, novel?

Our competition in these categories is now open!

Deadline 31 May 2024. Believe in your words.

For added inspiration, read last year’s winners in our latest anthologies available from our online shop.

 

Memoir

Our next memoir competition launches 15 June 2024, deadline 30 September 2024. Good luck!

 

Bursary applications now OPEN!

Applications for our bursaries for under represented writers are now open in Poetry, Short Story, Novel and Flash Fiction and continue until 31 March 2024.

A bursary offers a FREE entry to our competition. It does not include any additional funding for writing.

Find out more and apply for a bursary here.

 

Background Elements

I have enormously fond memories of the Bridport Prize. It gave me one of the first affirmations that I could write. The story I wrote for the competition was the first time I felt I found that elusive thing – my ‘voice’. Without the Bridport Prize I would probably not have found my agent and quite possibly wouldn’t have written Behind the Scenes at the Museum so I have a lot to be thankful to it for.

Kate Atkinson, Novelist
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Meet the Judges

Liz Berry

Poetry Judge

Liz Berry is an award-winning poet and author of critically acclaimed collections Black Country (Chatto); The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto); The Dereliction (Hercules Editions) and The Home Child (Chatto), a novel in verse. Her poem Homing is part of the GCSE English syllabus.

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Wendy Erskine

Short Story Judge

Wendy Erskine is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an interviewer and broadcaster. She has published two short story collections Sweet Home and Dance Move with Stinging Fly Press and Picador. A past Seamus Heaney Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, she is a secondary school teacher.

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Jasmine Sawers

Flash Fiction Judge

Jasmine Sawers is a Kundiman fellow and Indiana University MFA alum. Their work has won awards from Ploughshares, NANO Fiction, Fractured Lit and Press 53, appearing in Norton’s Flash Fiction America, Best Microfiction, SmokeLong Quarterly and Wigleaf. Their Anchored World book was a PEN finalist.

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Ross Raisin

Novel Judge

Ross Raisin has written four novels: A Hunger, A Natural, Waterline and God’s Own Country. His work has won and been shortlisted for over ten literary awards. He won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award and was named the Best of Young British Novelists on Granta's once in a decade list.

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Kit de Waal

Memoir Judge

Kit de Waal began writing in her fifties. She won the Bridport Prize twice for flash fiction. Her recent memoir 'Without Warning & Only Sometimes' tells of 'hunger, hellfire and happiness.' Her first novel, MY NAME IS LEON was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and adapted into a BBC drama.

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