Over 180 entries have been submitted for the 2024 Bridge Prize. (Photo 55565785 © Flynt | Dreamstime.com)

By Justin Goulet

Over 180 entries submitted for Bridge Prize short story competition

Jan 30, 2024 | 3:08 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Entries have been submitted and the judging is set to get underway.

The Bridge Prize is a post-secondary short story fiction writing contest. A total of 184 submissions from 36 different universities and colleges across nine provinces have been submitted.

Over the next four months, a jury comprised of 28 volunteers from the University of Lethbridge (U of L) and local cultural communities, will evaluate the submissions.

Each story will be read by a minimum of four adjudicators. The name and school of the author are not shared with jury members during the process and the local panel will identify up to 10 short stories. Those 10 will then be elevated to the main jury, who will read and adjudicate over the summer.

The main jury is made up of established authors from across Canada.

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Dr. Shelly Wismath of the University of Lethbridge’s School of Liberal Education said, “The Bridge Prize continues to grow in popularity as a meaningful national prize recognizing excellence in short story writing at the post-secondary level.”

Wismath was dean of the school when the contest was launched in 2020, with the support of lead donor Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), the U of L’s current Chancellor.

A winner will be determined by late July, and the U of L said the winner will work alongside a professional editor to create the final version of their submitted work. The competition winner and three finalists will be announced in September. Additionally, the winning author will have their short story published on the Bridge Prize website.

The winner will also receive $7,500 and three finalists each receive $1,000 and a $200 gift card from Munro’s Books in Victoria, British Columbia.

A $500 award will go to the top story written by a U of L student. The winning author also receives a bronze sculpture created by Niall Donaghy of the U of L Faculty of Fine Arts.

More than $11,000 is awarded during each competition and since its inception in 2020, over 1,000 students have been submitted and $22,000 in prize money has been awarded.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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