Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding is launching a new prize for unpublished comedy writers in the north of England, with submissions opening later this month. The Bridget Jones Prize, managed by Newcastle-based charity New Writing North as part of its Northern Writers' Awards, is free to enter and open to writers without an agent.
Prize details and submission window
Submissions open on the New Writing North website on November 23 and close on February 1. Writers are invited to submit a funny 1,000-word piece of first-person stand-alone prose, a length nod to the diary-style chunks written by Bridget Jones that became a huge hit with readers and inspired a film franchise starring Renée Zellweger.
Fielding, who created the character in an anonymous diary column for The Independent in the nineties, said: "I always tried to make the Bridget columns exactly 1,000 words long - like making the petrol pump stop at exactly twenty quid." She described the prize as being for "the funniest standalone, first-person 1,000 words" and warned applicants: "If it's slightly under you won't be punished", adding: "Just don't make it any longer!"
Judging and prizes
Fielding will sit on the judging panel alongside representatives of New Writing North and her literary agency Aitken Alexander Associates. The winner will be announced at the Northern Writers' Awards ceremony in Newcastle next summer.
The winner will receive a bespoke package of writer support from the New Writing North team, a support session with Aitken, and £2,000. The highly-commended entrant will receive £1,000.
Celebrating northern comic voices
Fielding said her own comic creation was inspired by the everyday humour of people around her growing up and by "laughing together at our mess-ups; bringing the fancy and pretentious down to earth". While there are many famous northern comics, including the late Morecambe and Wise, Victoria Wood, Les Dawson, Thora Hird and Alan Bennett, she said the prize is "for the comic voices of people who aren't famous: just living their lives being quietly hilarious".
The Bridget Jones Prize will run each year from 2027 to 2029. Will Mackie, of New Writing North, said: "There is no one more fitting to identify an original comedy voice than Helen, who created one of the nation's most beloved comic characters of the last 30 years. This is the first time the Northern Writers' Awards have featured an award exclusively for comedy writing."
