Bristol Short Story Prize 2020 International writing competition

The 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize is open for entries. Closing date is midnight (BST) on April 30th, 2020. 1st prize is £1,000, 2nd prize is £500, 3rd prize is £250. 17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the remaining shortlisted writers.

Requirements

Closing date for receipt of entries is April 30th 2020 at midnight BST (‘midnight’ meaning the very last second of April 30th 2020). Entrants must be over 16 years old on the closing date, April 30th 2020. 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..) .

The 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all published and unpublished writers. There is no geographical restriction on entry – the 2020 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 Authors may enter as many stories as they like. There is an entry fee of £9 for each story submitted to the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize. Payment for online entries to the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize should be made via the website online entry facility.

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Entrants will be transferred to the Paypal website after they have submitted their story/stories to the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize to pay the entry fee. Payment for postal entries to the 2020 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 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize and accepts the rules of the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize.

Entries will not be returned. Please keep a copy. No corrections or alterations can be made after receipt of an entry. 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 10th 2020.

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 10th 2020.

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.

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If entrants require acknowledgement of receipt of a postal entry they must 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: enquiries@bristolprize.co.uk