There is one month to go until the entry deadline for the 2016 Bristol Short Story Prize. The closing date for submitting entries to the international short story competition is midnight (BST) April 30th 2016.
20 stories will be shortlisted and published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 9. The winning writer will receive £1,000, 2nd prize is £700, and 3rd prize is £400. The other 17 shortlisted writers will each receive £100. Prizes will be sent to any shortlisted writers who are unable to attend the awards ceremony in October.
The judging panel will be chaired by celebrated writer and short story champion, Tania Hershman. Tania is joined on the panel by acclaimed writer, Niven Govinden; Simon Key, owner of the award-winning Big Green Bookshop in London; and Juliet Pickering, literary agent at Blake Friedmann.
Tania says “I love all sorts of stories, ones that are similar to the kinds of things I like to write and ones that are vastly different. I love being taken to other worlds, other planets, other times, inside other people’s heads, or just down the high street, but in a way I’ve never seen before… Trust yourself to tell your story the way you want to, not the way you think judges of a competition may be looking for.” 
The winner of last year’s Bristol Short Story Prize, Canadian writer Brent van Staalduinen, says that his triumph has given him “an incredible sense of gratitude and awe that my little story had somehow managed to shine bright enough to get noticed over 2400+ other entries….It also provides an opportunity to present a more accomplished face to the world—i.e. adding “Winner of The Bristol Short Story Prize” to websites, Twitter, Facebook, and every biography I send out with journal, publisher, and contest submissions. This will help this writer get noticed, which is becoming more and more difficult to do in the mad stampede of our ultra-connected world.”
For full details of this year’s Bristol Short Story Prize and how to enter please visit www.bristolprize.co.uk
ShortStops 
Folks, I have been, quite enjoyably, receiving your newsletter for a few years now. I’m a published writer, but by chance, have never had a short story published independently; still, I’m intrigued by what you have to offer. Something that I’ve never known: How important is it that I am anything but local to you…I live – and have done – in San Francisco for the last three plus decades? I’d love to get some sort of reply…one way or the other…thanks for being out there. Yours, Ed Willard – Author of “The End of the World” – NOT science fiction! It’s memoir style 1st person…soon to be available on my website…for now you should look on Amazon.
Hi Ed, this particular competition as well as the the great majority of literary magazines and competitions on ShortStops would be delighted with international entries! Only when it’s specified as “UK writers only” or aimed at writers from a particular area of the UK or Ireland is an opportunity just for local writers. Good luck!
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