Martyn Bedford - Writer

As someone who loves reading and writing short stories, I’m pleased and honoured to have been invited to join the judging panel for the 2020 Dinesh Allirajah Prize for short fiction.

The prize, in its third year, is named in memory of the renowned writer and creative-writing tutor who died in 2014 and is run by two organisations Dinesh Allirajah was closely involved with over many years: the Manchester-based independent publisher, Comma Press, and the University of Central Lancashire. Open to published and unpublished writers, the theme for the 2020 prize is Artificial Intelligence.

Creative writing students from the university will whittle the entries down to a shortlist of ten stories, to be judged by me and the other panellists: Northern Soul‘s Literary Editor Emma Yates-Badley; UCLan lecturer Robert Duggan; and Julie Fergusson from The North Literary Agency.

Stories of between 2000-6000 words should be submitted to commaprizes@gmail.com before 25th October 2019 to be in with a chance of winning £500 and publication in Northern Soul. All of the shortlisted stories will be published in an e-book anthology by Comma and showcased at a special event as part of the 2020 Northern Short Story Festival in Leeds next summer, when the winner will be announced.

For full details of the prize and the terms and conditions of entry, click on this link to Comma’s website.