Success Stories

We would like to hear from previous winners about successes they have had since they won a prize in Bridport Prize.

Please email.

Vanessa Gebbie won 2nd prize in the 2007 short story competition

Vanessa writes 'I won Second Prize in Bridport 2007, with my story I Can Squash the King, Tommo.
My debut collection of short fiction, Words from a Glass Bubble, was published by Salt in March 2008. It is currently longlisted for the Frank O'Connor Prize.

www.vanessagebbie.com

Liza Wieland won 3rd prize in the 2007 short story competition

Liza writes 'I wanted to tell you that my novel A Watch of Nightingales was selected as the winner of the Michigan Literary Fiction Award and will be published by The University of Michigan Press next year. An excerpt from the novel won the Indiana Review fiction prize.'

Judith Allnatt won a supplementary prize in the 2007 short story competition

Judith writes ' My novel 'A Mile of River ' has been published by Transworld in hardback ( Doubleday) and will be published as a Black Swan paperback. The novel was chosen as Simon Mayo's Book of the Month for Radio 5 Live, in April 2008. I am currently working on my second book for Transworld.

I was thrilled to be included in the Bridport Prize shortlist and the anthology and found it enormously encouraging that Tracey Chevalier, a writer whose work I admire, had chosen my story.

www.judithallnatt.co.uk

Carys Davies was a runner-up in the 2005 short story competition

Her first short story collection 'Some New Ambush' was published September 2007 by Salt, www.saltpublishing.com the Cambridge based publisher of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
The book has been reviewed in the Independent by Boyd Tonkin who compares her writing to Dylan Thomas and Margaret Atwood. He describes the 15 stories in the book as being a 'darkly funny and unsettling collection'.

The book has been long listed for the 2008 Wales Book of the Year prize. It's one of 10 books; also on the list are 7 novels, 1 book of poetry and 1 memoir.

Carys said "Winning a runner-up prize in the 2005 Bridport was SUCH an important step for me and I have been working hard ever since to put together this collection."

David Swann won three short story prizes in the Bridport - in 1996, 2000, and 2003. Two short stories were also placed on the shortlist in 2005.

He said "All five stories (one of them re-titled) were included in my debut short story collection 'The Last Days of Johnny North', published by Elastic Press of Norwich in January, 2006."

"The Bridport Prize helps writers when approaching publishers. It proves that you have a track record. Success in the competition has given my life a real boost, and I'm grateful to all the helpers (e.g. readers) who do such a wonderful, invisible job behind the scenes."

Dorene O'Brien from the USA. won 1st Prize and £3000 in 2004 short story competition.

She wrote to say "Just wanted to say that winning the Bridport in 2004 has been great for me and for my writing career. My short story collection, Voices of the Lost and Found , is available June 2007. I have put together a web site Dorene OBrien to promote the book (which includes the winning story).

Emma Darwin from London won third prize in the 2004 short story competition.

When Jim Crace gave my story 'Maura's Arm' third prize in 2004, I began to feel that my writing career was taking off. Sure enough, nine months later I was offered a two-book deal by Headline Review. My first novel The Mathematics of Love will be published on 3rd July 2006, and by Morrow in the US in January 2007. French, Russian and Polish translation rights have already been sold, and I'm now working on my second novel as part of a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths' College.

Graham Clifford, London, UK. won a supplementary poetry prize for his poem "Searching for Sleep" in the 2004 competition.

Graham was also shortlisted in the 2007 Poetry Competition.

2007 was pretty good for Graham, prize-wise. He won first prize in the Biscuit Competition, biscuitpublishing for a portfolio of 6 poems which included the poem from the Bridport Prize 2004 competition.

He says "I will certainly be having another go this year at the Prize- I still have very fond memories of the day and still regard Bridport as one of the important ones to win.

Mo McAuley from Kent, UK won a supplementary short story prize in the 2003 Bridport Prize.

She has a book called 'The A - Z Man' coming out in June 2008. It’s now up for pre-order on Amazon and Waterstones websites.

Adam Marek from Bedfordshire, UK won a supplementary short story prize in the 2003 Bridport Prize.

He has a story in the British Council's New Writing anthology, which comes out in June 2007, and Comma Press are publishing his first collection of short stories in October, so things are going really well. He is looking forward to meeting Rose Tremain at the Prospect event, as it was Rose that selected 40-litre monkey in Bridport 2003.

Tiffany Atkinson won a supplementary poetry prize in 2002

Congratulations to Tiffany Atkinson who has won the 2007 Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize for her collection 'Kink and Particle' . The news was announced at this year's Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - Tiffany will receive £3,000 a week's paid protected writing time plus a paid invitation to read and participate at the 2008 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. Kink and Particle has also been shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Morgan McDermott from Chicago, USA won a supplementary short story prize in the 2002 Bridport Prize

The Ohio State University Press and the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at OSU are pleased to announce that Morgan McDermott has been selected as the 2006 winner of The Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction for his collection of short stories Owner's Manual.

The OSU Press will publish Owner's Manual in the Spring of 2007. In addition to publication, the award carries with it a cash prize of $1500

Rowland Molony from Beer in Devon won first prize in the 2001 Bridport Prize Poetry competition.

In 2007 his novel, 'After the Death of Alice Bennett', was published by Oxford University Press.

Kate Long from Shropshire, UK won a supplementary short story prize in the 2001 Bridport Prize.

A year after Kate Atkinson picked my short story Wish Lists out to win a supplementary prize, I landed a two-book deal with Picador. In March 2004 my first novel, The Bad Mother's Handbook, got to number one in the Times bestseller chart, was serialised on Radio 4 and nominated for a British Book Award. The novel has now been sold to twenty four countries and is being made into a tv film starring Catherine Tate. I’ve since had two more novels published, Swallowing Grandma and Queen Mum, and my fourth, The Daughter Game, will be published in 2007.

"What winning a supplementary prize in The Bridport did for me - apart from being a grand day out - was to give me an important signpost that my writing was on track; a big thumbs-up from fate that I should keep going with the novels. It was especially thrilling to have my story chosen by one of my very favourite authors, Kate Atkinson". October 2004

1999 Poetry Winner: Mario Petrucci

Capturing the winning slot with Negatives (composed in those first nervy days of my residency at the Imperial War Museum) provided a booster rocket in that long, deep-space journey many writers endure: of feeling they might just have permission to place themselves somewhere among the literary constellations. Something in my poem had seized the judge's attention across the starless divide of anonymity, thereby reaching thousands of observers. I've since had several near-misses, including a prose longlisting (2007); but Negatives continues to spread its dark petals at the heart of my most recent collection, Flowers of Sulphur ( Enitharmon). Of course, poetry isn't ever about awards; but there's nothing wrong with aiming (quietly, linguistically) for the moon. Bridport 1999 was a temporary protractor and slide-rule to help me gauge the trajectory, and required power, of my work.

Richard Aronowitz 1999 poetry runner-up

I was a runner-up (poetry) in 1999 when Tobias Hill was judge and I have since then had eleven poems published in the anthology “Anvil New Poets 3” (Anvil Press, 2001); single poems published in “The Guardian” and “The Interpreter’s House”, three in “Envoi” (forthcoming), etc. My debut novel, “Five Amber Beads”, came out in 2006 from Flambard Press to good reviews.

www.richardaronowitz.com

Kathy Page was a winner in 1994 and a runner up in 1996

Winning the award in 1994 was a great boost. I think writers published, unpublished and in between need all the encouragement they can get. Since winning, I've gone on to publish two novels: Alphabet, nominated for the Governor General's Award here in Canada, and The Story of My Face, long-listed for the Orange Prize. I have continued to wrote short fiction too, and have much enjoyed writing commissioned stories for both Radio 3 and 4. www.KathyPage.info

Elizabeth Kay won third prize in the short story competition in 1987.

I won third prize in the short story competition in 1987. I know this is a long time ago now, but it was so lovely to be taken seriously and it really did make a difference to the way I looked at my work. Since then I've had a lot of things published. The best known is the Divide trilogy, published by Chicken House, for chidren of 9+., which has been translated into several languages. In March 2008 Fury will be published by Barrington Stoke, and I have another one due out in 2009. I have a website: www.elizabethkay.co.uk

And we are proud that that these writers entered Bridport Prize:-

Kate Atkinson (1990)

Helen Dunmore (1990)

Paul Farley (1994)

Tobias Hill (1994, 1996, +?)

Sheena Pugh (1995, 1997, 1999, 2003)

Mario Petrucci (1999, 2000)

Glyn Maxwell (1989)

Jane Draycott (1998, 2000, 2002)

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