£1k literature prize for unpublished female authors

[ScarlettOhHara]

This prize just popped up in my Facebook newsfeed but as an alumna of the College, I can't enter it

So my writing will continue to just be enjoyed by DH and my friends!

I thought some of you creative vipers might like to give it a go.

www.lucy-cav.cam.ac.uk/news-blog/latest-news/unpublished-female-writers-invited-to-enter-prestigious-literature-prize

Ooh thanks, I have got two finished novels that I have never had the courage to do anything with. I might dig them out but I'm a bit scared they are no good

Well, I have just clicked send! I figure someone has got to win so fingers crossed

Whoo!

I've entered this. I got very stressed trying to stick to all the terms and conditions and I'm sure I've buggered it up somewhere along the line, but he who dares wins, Rodney...

Thank you, Scarlett - that was very selfless of you as an ineligible alumna! I didn't know about this, and have entered.

Yes, scarlet, thank you for posting about it.

anyone heard back from this?

btw thanks Scarlett, v generous!

I forgot I entered, tbh! The acknowledgement email said they would contact shortlisted candidates by April 30th...?

Oh, OK. I had forgotten too and have an email that I am too much of a wuss to open.

You mean, you just got a possible 'you're on the shortlist' email? Open it!

A possible 'sorry chuck' email you mean! I've just had sooo many, Burnt, I can't take another! OK, I'll do it when I get to work so that I don't have time to think about it after. I'll update if it's anything!
Thanks

I doubt they email people they're not shortlisting, somehow. But I hear you, I'm a bit ground down by the novel I'm trying to get representation for being ignored, too. Hope it's good news!

fingers crossed for you and if not, keep plugging away x

I got an email saying I haven't been shortlisted, using my name and the title of my novel, which really softened the blow. How thoughtful!

yeah was a no! lol fusty, mine was titled Fiction Prize! (...you haven't won it)
Burnt, that's what gave me hope - you don't normally hear! sadists, lol
Maybe you're in with a shout still! good luck
Thanks Countess - as ever x

Oh, I'm sorry, Guilianna and Fusty - G., sorry too if I gave you false hope. It's pretty odd (thoughtful? Sadistic?) to email people individually to tell them they haven't been shortlisted in advance of a shortlist actually being announced, isn't it? Or am I being naive about fiction prizes, about which I know nothing?

I'll almost certainly get an email tomorrow - if they're doing individual ones, they're probably working through alphabetically or something. God knows how many entries there were - the Bath novel prize got over 800 this year.

Burnt - not alphabetically! unless they started at Z....

I am sure they are trying to be thoughtful - probably working on the principal that it's better to get a rejection than for the person submitted to to never bother replying.

Oh, I'm sure the intention was thoughtful. I sent queries to seven agents in a batch a while back, and the two thoughtful rejections were much less soul-destroying than the 'never heard back from' five... It gets to feel a bit like shouting in a soundproofed room.

BS it certainly does! But unless 'a while ago' is six months I wouldn't rule out a reply - things move soooo slowly ...
Still smarting about the silence which greeted the requested R&R I did, following an edit from a list of agent's recommendations. Weird and rude!

I just went onto the LC fiction prize web page, saw that there was a link to a 2015 shortlist, but while it says they shortlisted five, there's only one shortlisted author and extract once you click through...?

Shortlist now up. Not on it, though I never got an email!