Bridport Results

The Bridport short story and poetry results are out. There are a few Irish addresses for those who are interested. I didn't recognise any names except Carolyn Jess-Cooke shortlisted for short story and Michael Farry for poetry - congrats! The first prize in the short story section was the first Jenny Clarkson had submitted.

I recommend reading the judges reports. They can be very insightful and you may take notes on how to stand out in a pile of entries.

Ali Smith on Short stories

Not many asked much of the form when it came to structure; ... A fair few were about marital break-up and gender anger. An awful lot were about death, or dying, or hospitals. This isn't surprising: it's a matter of life and death, after all, the short story. Its nature concerns itself with the shortness of things; by its very brevity it challenges aliveness with the certainty of mortality, and vice versa too, which is why I got very excited when I read anything which leaned towards the story form as a force and source of life. I wish there had been more of these.

I don't completely follow the comment on story form as a force and source of life. Is she refering to challenging or non-standard story structures? Ali, if by any chance you read this, please explain.

The wonderful Jackie Kay said

I read all my favourite poems aloud to see how they lived off the page, and each of my choices make a good sound read as well as a paper one, the test of a good poem.

So true. Read your poems AND your prose aloud.