The BRIDPORT PRIZE - Short story and poetry competition

Bridport Prize 2006 - Short Story Prizewinner's. Judge :- Jane Gardam

Judges short story report

Photographs of the Short Story prize giving

1st Prize Ł5000 Elizabeth Dalton, New York, USA. "Rue de Vaugirard"

Although I was born in New York City, I've lived in many parts of the United States, and also in France. I got a B.A., Honors in English, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California at Berkeley, and then studied in France on a Fulbright Scholarship. After two years, I returned to the U. S. and got a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. Until a few years ago I taught literature and creative writing in the English Department at Barnard College, the women's college affiliated with Columbia.

I've had fiction and criticism in The New Yorker, Partisan Review, and other publications. My book, "Unconscious Structure in "The Idiot,'" a psychoanalytic study of the Dostoevsky novel, was published by Princeton University Press.

I now live in Manhattan. My 27-year-old son, Matthew, who is a journalist, lives in Brooklyn. Now that I am no longer teaching, I want to devote my time to writing, especially - with the encouragement of the Bridport Prize - to writing fiction.

2nd Prize Ł1000 Katharine Braddick, London. "Cold Weather"

Katharine Braddick was born in Hertfordshire and grew up there and in Brussels. After studying at the universities of Warwick and Cambridge she moved to London, and now works at the Financial Services Authority. She has completed two novels, both unpublished, and also has an interest in film theory and criticism - she runs a blog, http://takingcarltothepictures.blogspot.com/ , on popular film and Jungian theory. 'Cold Weather' is her first published fiction.

3rd Prize Ł500 Kerry Swash, France. "Glad"

Since graduating from London College of Communications with an MA in Screenwriting Kerry has had interest in two of her feature scripts.
Hoping to find more time to write she recently moved to SW France where she is involved in setting up rural studio and workshop space designed to encourage opportunity and interest in les beaux arts.

Supplementary Prizes (alphabetical order) - Ł50 Each :-

Zac Barker, New York, USA. "Feeding Time"

Born 17th January 1978 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Educated in France, England and US. Un-employed.

Jon Bauer, Melbourne, Australia. "Running Around Without a God in their Hearts"

Jon stumbled across his passion for short fiction two years ago whilst working as an advertising copywriter - secretly tapping away at stories during the lulls in his workload (and some of the busy times). Now a writer all of the time and a copywriter none of the time, he lives in Melbourne with his imaginary wife and kids.

Andrew Craigs, Bristol. "Metal"

Andrew Craigs was born at the East End of Hadrian's Wall in 1964 (it was a Saturday and he had to sit in a bucket as there were no baths left). Since then, he has lived and spent time in North Wales, Bristol, Exeter, Canada and Eastern Europe, (with and without baths) before returning to live on the North East coast.
Most people call him Alfie, short for Alphabet, as his initials are A B C.
He accidentally graduated in Drama from the University of Bangor and has spent the last twenty years working as a writer and director in theatre of various stripes. He has also worked as a lecturer in theatre devising and theatre history for numerous colleges in the South West.
He has always written and collected stories.
He is currently working on a collection of interconnected short stories about sheets and a novel about washing.

Mischa Hiller, Cambridge. "The Sandwich"

Mischa grew up in Durham, London, Beirut, Dar El-Salaam and Brighton. He has written one novel based on his Beirut experiences and is completing a second, a thriller. He has also adapted his first novel into a screenplay. He has, however, only written one short story, but now plans to write more. Most of the time he is a self-employed IT consultant so that he can pay the mortgage, play poker with his friends, and keep his boys in trainers. He lives in Cambridge with his family and a slightly whiffy dog.

Greg Hrbek, Saipan & USA. "The Cliffs at Marpi"

Greg Hrbek is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His first novel, The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly, has been published in the US, France, and Norway. His short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Harper's, Salmagundi, and the Idaho Review. He lives with his wife and son in the Northern Mariana Islands, and teaches part of the year at Skidmore College in Upstate New York.

Elizabeth Koch, New York, USA. "Under the Table"

Elizabeth Koch graduated from Princeton in 1999 and received her MFA in creative writing from The New School in New York City in 2004, thesis pending. Since moving to New York in the fall of '99, she has worked as an assistant editor for Elle magazine, an editor/writer for digitalcity.com, a researcher/writer for John Stossel and other news journalists, and has published fiction, nonfiction, and humor pieces in a variety of publications. In 2004 she covered the Martha Steward trial for Reason magazine, and for the last two years has worked as a freelance editor for novelists, short fiction writers, and nonfiction authors, including John Stossel. She is currently working on a collection of short fiction, and is the Executive Editor of a literary humor publication called Opium. She lives in San Francisco.

Richard Lambert, Bristol, "Turtles"

Richard Lambert was born in London in 1971. He has lived in Bristol for 12 years. Richard completed his second novel this summer and he wants to find a literary agent. He hopes that being a runner-up in the Bridport will help him in his search!

Annie McDowall, Surrey. "Phantoms"

Annie is forty nine. She lives in south London with her partner, two cats, and a garden full of loose bowelled foxes. She wrote her first novella at the age of eight. The Adventures of Bolomokey Island has yet to be published. Creative writing became overshadowed by the constraints of university dissertations and business writing. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, a workshop with VG Lee in York, and evening classes with Leone Ross at the City Lit in London sparked Annie's imagination, and now writing is an important part of her life. Her short story Going, Going.. was published on the PitWit website in 2006. Annie is chief executive of a voluntary organisation in south London.

Geraldine Ryan, County Durham. "Me and the Motorway"

Graduate of Bath Spa University College with a first class honours degree in English and Creative Writing. Writer in Residence at HMP Rye Hill since October 2005 and Creative Writing tutor for the Open College of Arts. First novel near to completion. Spend most of my time writing in a caravan in the middle of nowhere.

Deborah Willis, Victoria BC, Canada. "Caught"

Deborah Willis grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and moved to British Columbia to study at the University of Victoria. She recently completed a degree in literature and she currently works as a bookseller in Victoria, Canada's almost-British city.
I've published fiction in the Canadian literary journals Event Magazine and Grain Magazine. Also, my story "Vanishing" won this year's fiction contest in Prism International.

Bridport Prize Short Story Long List (no particular order)

	Title	Name		Title	Name
1	Flash Photography	Alison Carter, West Sussex,UK	20	A Lifelong Love of Learning	Emma Kelly, Winchester, UK
2	Fingernail Dances	David Cobb, Essex UK	21	Romance Languages	Deborah Willis, Victoria BC, Canada
3	Port Bou	Polly Tuckett, Brighton UK	22	The Fruit Fly	Chris Killen, Warwickshire, UK
4	Any Deadly Thing	Roy Kesey, Beijing, China	23	The Lych-Warmer	Vanessa Gebbie, East Sussex, UK
5	The Wolves and the Howling Wilderness	Simeon Shoul, London UK	24	Death in the Woods	Jonathan Page, Cambridge, UK
6	Belson	Pat Winslow, Oxfordshire, UK	25	Strawberry Picking	Andy Seale, London, UK
7	Voiceover	Lisa Sabbage, London, UK	26	M_ST_KE	Sid Langley, Northants, UK
8	Gilbert Gillinwater Was Here	Eileen Church Riley, London, UK	27	The Princess and the Showman	Petricia Middleton, France
9	Bandstand in the Rain	Huw Lawrence, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK	28	And all the while knowing	Jan Hargreaves, Stockport, UK
10	The Man in the Luxembourg Gardens	Stephanie Pribil, Canberra, Australia	29	The Body of the Father of Daoud	Selma Dabbagh, Bahrain
11	Love: The Rough Travel Guide	Cheryl Alu, LA, USA	30	The Day She Comes For Her Things: The Survival Guide	Michael Hulme, Norwich, UK
12	Calling the Engineer	Katherine Hannaford, London, UK	31	Slow Thursdays Amongst the Cabbage Roses	Ellie Phillips, London, UK
13	Movement	Ben Hinshaw, London, UK	32	Working Late	Kathy Page, Canada
14	Precipitation	Jon Bauer, West Sussex, UK	33	Stories	Eddie Wilson, London, UK
15	A hole full of butterflies	Rosalind Corfe, Bath, UK	34	The Goldrush	Louis Malloy, Nottingham, UK
16	The Excavation	Anne Tillyer, London, UK	35	Mines	Linda Ruhemann, Abergavenny, Wales, UK
17	The Exiles	Susan O'Connor, Liverpool, UK	36	Left-handed jumpers	Peter Blair, Chester, UK
18	Bones	Julie Stradner, Cambridge, UK UK	37	Funny Time of Year	Andrew Lloyd-Jones, London, UK
19	Such Games	Cheryl Moskowitz, London, UK