Yesterday I popped over to Bristol to attend the Bristol Women’s Literature Festival. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow, but today I want to mention something I came across while I was there. I got handed a postcard advertising the Bath Short Story Award.

This appears to be a fairly standard such project. There’s a £500 first prize, and the prizes are financed by a £5 entry fee. The award is backed by the Cornerstones Literary Consultancy, which is essentially a writing training and talent scout organization: you pay then to critique your novel, and if they like what they see they submit your work to agents. I’m always slightly suspicious of such things, but the important bit of the rules looks OK:

By entering, competitors accept that prizewinning stories, with the authors’ names, may be published on the BSSA website or in local media and/or be read out on local radio stations for up to a year from the closing date without extra remuneration. Competitors also accept that Cornerstones Literary Consultancy will be in receipt of entrants’ names and addresses and may contact them. Copyright remains with the author.

The word limit for stories is 2,200, and the deadline for submission is March 30th, so you need to get a move on. The lady who gave me the postcard said they are happy to receive SF&F submissions.