Frances Everitt, Administrator of the Bridport Prize
Jendi Reiter conducted this exclusive email interview with Frances Everitt, administrator of the Bridport Prize. Launched in 1973 at the Bridport Arts Centre in Dorset, England, the Bridport Prize is one of the largest and most prestigious English-language creative writing awards, with prizes up to 5,000 pounds for unpublished poems and short stories and 1,000 pounds for flash fiction. The submission period is January 1-June 30 annually. Online entry and payment are accepted. Today many thousands of entries are received from over 80 countries worldwide. Notable writers who won the Bridport Prize at the start of their careers include Kate Atkinson and Tobias Hill.
Frances says about herself, "Although sadly not a writer myself (more of an avid reader), I've been administering the Prize since 2002 and associated with it since 1994. Prior to 2002 the competition was run totally by volunteers. Even now there are 30 volunteers who help me, the only paid professional.
"Before working on the prize, I was employed by its founder organisation, Bridport Arts Centre, as the administrator and visual arts programmer.
"Bridport is a small coastal town in the county of Dorset, in the south west of England, far away from the literary scene in London. But we have a thriving local arts scene including literature, visual arts and film; we definitely punch above our weight here!"
Q: Tell us more about the founding of the Bridport Prize. What was the literary landscape like in 1973? What contribution were you hoping to make to the culture?
A: The prize was started by the founder of Bridport Arts Society, Peggy Chapman-Andrews (who still helps out as a volunteer, aged 90!), as part of a local arts festival (I think in 1969). The competition was just for locals with an entrance fee of sixpence, prizes being £5-£10. In those days there were 3 categories: primary school entrants, secondary school and adults. The competition ran at a loss of approximately £5!
In 1973 the competition was first run on a regional basis, judges were to be paid and the first prize was increased to £50. This first year a small profit was raised.
Initially, entry forms were distributed to other arts centres in the region, and no advertisements were taken out. Extraordinarily though, that first year, two entries were received from overseas—France and Israel. Entries from other parts of the UK were also received, so "word of mouth" has always been important. Today we receive several thousands of entries from over 80 countries worldwide. The majority now enter online, through our website.
The original aim of the prize was to raise funds for the Arts Centre, and whilst that is still very relevant, our objectives today focus on developing opportunities for new writers, offering the chance to be published in our renowned anthology and increasing access to our contacts within the publishing industry.
The Bridport Prize offers further openings for winners: the top 13 stories are entered by us to both the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award (worth £30,000) and the National Short Story Award (worth £15,000, but only open to UK nationals or residents). Several of our previous winners have been long- or shortlisted for these prizes.
In addition we send the shortlisted stories to a leading literary agent in London. One of our previous winners was picked up by the agent and has just signed a book deal with Bloomsbury.
On the poetry front, we submit the top four poems to the Forward Prize for best single poem, a prize not open to the general public.
Q: How have the funding and publishing opportunities for creative writers changed over the years since the prize was launched? It seems to me that writers now have hundreds, even thousands, of contests to choose among, more so than 10-15 years ago. What market niche (so to speak) does the Bridport serve?
A: Funding and publishing opportunities have changed immeasurably since the founding of the prize. Grants from arts bodies are now available (though for how long is debatable, given the current recession); universities and other literary organisations support new writers. Competitions abound. It is important therefore to maintain integrity and commitment to our ethos: giving opportunity to new and upcoming writers, supporting them in their ambitions.
Every year 120,000 new books are published in the UK and it is the biggest creative industry. Since 2004 book sales have increased by 13%. Our prize is of interest to those agents and publishers looking for new talent. We are discovering the writers of tomorrow and can help both parties to come together. We are currently looking at ways to increase our presence within the industry.
Q: In the US, many of the major literary prizes are sponsored by universities. How are the Bridport's lucrative awards funded? Is this typical of arts funding in Britain? What's working especially well for you, and what are the challenges of this system?
A: There are some literary prizes sponsored by universities, such as the Manchester Writing Competition supported by the Manchester Metropolitan University (a prize for poetry and short fiction). Our prize is self-financing and many others are too. Corporations, news media and individuals sponsor the major prizes such as the Man Booker, the Costa Book Awards, etc. We would love to have a sponsor—suggestions please!
Q: Tell us about the judging process: Who are the initial screeners, and how are they selected? How many entries are passed on to the final judges?
A: We have a number of readers who do the initial sifting. Some have been involved with the prize for a while and bring a considerable experience to the task. Our readers come from a variety of backgrounds—retired teachers/lecturers, amateur writers, professional writers—and some are readers, not writers. After all, who reads books? It's all of us! We believe it is important to have this wide range of readers, including in age—ours are from 25-80 years old.
After the first readings, we have a second level of two sifters—Jon Wyatt, who previously worked in the publishing industry, reads the fiction and has been with us for at least 15 years; and Candy Neubert, a professional poet (and previous winner of the prize) who reads the poetry. Between them, they put together the long lists, which then go to the named judges.
Q: Well-known authors who have judged the Bridport Prize include Margaret Drabble, Jo Shapcott, Zoë Heller, Andrew Motion, and Tracey Chevalier. Tell us about the philosophy behind how these judges are selected. Are most of your final judges from the UK? Are you looking for a particular aesthetic, or a wide range of styles and backgrounds?
A: Finding a writer who is willing is a good start! We've been very blessed with these wonderful authors who have been prepared to take on the judging—it is a challenging and responsible task. They have all been very generous with their time and commitment to the prize. Until recently (Zoë Heller, whilst from UK, now lives in the US) our judges have been from the UK, but we are very much hoping to persuade writers from other countries to judge for us in the future. We do look for a wide range of styles and backgrounds in our judges but prefer the fiction writers to have written short story collections. For some reason, we have more female writers willing to say yes, when asked to judge! But we do try to have a gender balance.
Q: With the advent of online submissions, your contest has continued to attract writers from around the world. Tell us about some prizewinners you've discovered from outside North America and Great Britain. What made their voices unique? Have you seen any distinctive aesthetic trends among writers from particular regions?
A: Over the years we've had winners from many countries but particularly from the US and Canada (Jendi being one in 2010!). In one year, 2006, both the top prizes were won by US writers, there were six US runners up, one Canadian, and two from Australia. The second prizewinner, Joel Toledo, was from the Philippines. In fact the judge had picked three of his poems. Sadly for him, we only allow one prize to be won in each category! In 2010 we had our first winner from Japan. Miwa Ota's poem was the first she had written in English.
We have recently enjoyed stories and poems from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Burundi, India, Namibia, Latvia, Vietnam...and we look forward to welcoming a winner from any of these countries.
Q: Are there particular techniques and topics, in both poetry and fiction, that you (and the judges) feel are over-represented, and conversely, are there other perspectives that you'd like to see more often?
A: Every year, the main themes (our competition is open, i.e., you can write about anything) that come through from the writers are universal: love, death and war. Reading them can make you feel quite despondent! Several of our judges have commented on the lack of humour in the stories and poems: 2010 fiction final judge Zoë Heller said, "I was disappointed by the paucity of humour...very few of them took the risk of striking a comic note. 2011 entrants, please take heed: making a reader laugh does not compromise your claim to being taken seriously as a writer of literary fiction."
Q: What types of writing do you frequently receive that would not be a good fit for the Bridport Prize?
A: There is nothing really we receive that would not fit our competition. We do, of course, get the occasional obscene offering, but we don't censor. We take all the entries very seriously and give them the rigorous consideration that is due.
Q: The interconnected genres of flash fiction and prose poetry appear to be increasing in popularity. What are the special challenges of writing a good flash fiction piece, as compared to a full-length story? Is there a difference between flash fiction and prose poetry, and does it matter?
A: We are thrilled by the response to our new category of flash fiction. It seems to offer everyone the chance to "have a go". But that said, I think it is an extremely difficult genre to pull off successfully. I believe that a short-short story should encompass the literary elements of a longer story—plot, setting, character, narration, and an intense impact on the reader—very hard to achieve in just 250 words!
As a non-writer (or civilian!) I would say there is a difference between flash fiction and prose poetry. In prose poetry there is often a poetic or lyrical quality and it may also include some of the usual techniques such as repetition and rhyme. That said, we do get the occasional entry where we are not sure on initial reading whether it is a poem or story, and in which category it should go!
Q: Which contemporary authors, books, or literary journals do you (and the Bridport Prize judges) especially admire, as representative of the kind of work that you seek to publish? What can contestants learn from them?
A: I can't speak for the judges, of course, on which contemporary authors they admire. But I know that for our competition, they will be looking for a unique voice, something that stands out from the rest.
There are a number of literary journals in the UK which are very well thought of: Ambit, Chapman, Aesthetica, Poetry Review, The Liberal, Granta, Mslexia, The New Writer, Stand magazine, (check out Tania Hershman's very helpful list). And, of course there are many new ezines: The Short Review, Stride, Sentinel and so on. The Poetry Kit website is also a fund of knowledge.
If you read our anthologies of the winning entries you will see that there is a wide representation of all kinds of stories and poems, both in subject matter and in form. Really the only requirement from them is to give pleasure to the reader.
Spring 2011
