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V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize 2017

Information
Closing date: 
14 June 2017
Entry: 
UK residents only Entry fee £5 Short stories
Prize: 
£1,000

The RSL is delighted to announce the 2017 V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for unpublished short stories. In addition to a prize of £1000 and publication in the RSL Review and Prospect Magazine online the winner (and shortlist) will have the opportunity to appear at an RSL event with established short story writers in autumn 2017.

This prize was founded by the RSL at the beginning of the new millennium to commemorate the centenary of an author widely regarded as the finest English short-story writer of the 20th century, and to preserve a tradition encompassing Pritchett's mastery of narrative.

V.S. Pritchett (VSP), whom the New Yorker called ‘our language's presiding man of letters', is an inspirational figure to aspirant short story writers. His own output was prolific - throughout his long life he wrote in every literary form save poetry - and it is for his subtle, lucid, sensitive short stories that he is best remembered and admired.

His son Oliver Pritchett said:

‘The short story, my father once wrote, is ‘exquisitely difficult'. For the author, that is. All the same, I hope that many, many people will enter this competition in his memory. And if they want encouragement and inspiration they may find it in one of his own short stories. There are so many to choose from, but I would particularly recommend ‘The Evils of Spain', one of my favourites, from the very beginning of his amazingly long writing career, or the wonderful ‘Cocky Olly', written more than half a century later.'

The judges for this year's prize are Aamer Hussein, Chibundu Onuzo and Michèle Roberts.

Stories should be 2,000 to 4,000 words in length.

Submit online or by post.

For more details

 

Closing date: 
14 June 2017
Entry: 
UK residents only Entry fee £5 Short stories
Prize: 
£1,000