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Christopher Fielden’s Biennial Short Story Competition:
A Humorous Writing Contest The 2021 To Hull And Back Competition The 7th To Hull And Back humorous short story contest is OPEN Submissions close on 31st July 2021 1st Prize: £1,200 2nd Prize: £600 3rd Prize: £300 3 x Highly Commended: £150 14 x Shortlisted: £50 That's a total prize pot of £3,250 All winners and short listed entries will be published in the To Hull And Back Short Story Anthology. This will be available as a professionally published, printed book and as a Kindle download. The book will have an ISBN number. If you’re published in the book, a writer’s profile will appear alongside your story and on my website. This will consist of a delightful picture of you, a short bio telling readers all about how amazing you are and details of your website, if you have one. In addition to this, an author interview with the winner will be published alongside their story. The winner’s face will appear on the front cover of the To Hull And Back Anthology. They will be depicted riding a flaming motorcycle and holding a quill of wrath. The covers from previous competitions can be seen below. Each year, the cover will be unique and created by a different artist. Entry Fees 1 entry - £13.00 2 entries - £21.00 3 entries - £26.00 Schedule for future competitions: To Hull And Back 2023 (opens 1st August 2022, closes 31st July 2023) To Hull And Back 2025 (opens 1st August 2024, closes 31st July 2025) To Hull And Back 2027 (opens 1st August 2026, closes 31st July 2027) Maya Jasanoff Chair
Horatia Harrod Natascha McElhone Chigozie Obioma Rowan Williams A tale shall accomplish something.
The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. The personages of the tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit sufficient excuse for being there. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighbourhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. When the author describes the character of a personage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. When a personage talks like an uneducated loser, he shall not act like an Oxford graduate. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader by either the author or the people in the tale. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people and hate the bad ones. The characters in a tale should be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. A tale can be interesting, the characters believable - but the reader won't read enough of it to find out if the language of the story is awkward or unclear. To prevent this, Twain's Rules require that the author shall: SAY what he is proposing to say, not merely come near. USE the right word, not its second cousin. Eschew surplus matters. NOT omit necessary details. AVOID slovenliness of form. USE good grammar. EMPLOY a simple, straightforward style. 2020
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Peace Talks by Tim Finch The Less Dead by Denise Mina The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey Winner announced 4th January 2021 2020 - The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey
2019 Jonathan Coe - Middle England 2018 Sally Rooney - Normal People 2017 Jon McGregor - Reservoir 13 2016 Sebastian Barry - Days Without End 2015 Kate Atkinson - A God in Ruins 2014 Ali Smith - How to Be Both 2013 Kate Atkinson - Life after Life 2012 Hilary Mantel - Bring up the Bodies 2011 Andrew Miller - Pure Blue ribbon 2010 Maggie O'Farrell - The Hand That First Held Mine 2009 Colm Tóibin - Brooklyn 2008 Sebastian Barry - The Secret Scripture 2007 A.L. Kennedy - Day Blue ribbon 2006 William Boyd - Restless 2005 Ali Smith - The Accidental 2004 Andrea Levy - Small Island 2003 Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 2002 Michael Frayn - Spies 2001 Patrick Neate - Twelve Bar Blues 2000 Matthew Kneale - English Passengers 1999 Rose Tremain - Music and Silence 1998 Justin Cartwright - Leading the Cheers 1997 Jim Crace - Quarantine 1996 Beryl Bainbridge - Every Man for Himself 1995 Salman Rushdie - The Moor's Last Sigh 1994 William Trevor - Felicia's Journey 1993 Joan Brady - Theory of War 1992 Alasdair Gray - Poor Things 1991 Jane Gardam - The Queen of the Tambourine 1990 Nicholas Mosley Hopeful Monsters 1989 Lindsay Clarke - The Chymical Wedding 1988 Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses 1987 Ian McEwan - The Child in Time 1986 Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World 1985 Peter Ackroyd - Hawksmoor 1984 Christopher Hope - Kruger's Alp 1983 William Trevor - Fools of Fortune 1982 John Wain - Young Shoulders 1981 Maurice Leitch - Silver's City 1980 David Lodge How Far Can You Go 1979 Jennifer Johnston - The Old Jest 1978 Paul Theroux - Picture Palace 1977 Beryl Bainbridge - Injury Time 1976 William Trevor - The Children of Dynmouth 1975 William McIlvanney - Docherty 1974 Iris Murdoch - The Sacred and Profane Love Machine 1973 Shiva Naipaul - The Chip-Chip Gatherers 1972 Susan Hill - The Bird of Night 1971 Gerda Charles - The Destiny Waltz  Booker Prize Winner 2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
1981. Glasgow. The city is dying. Poverty is on the rise. People watch the lives they had hoped for disappear from view. Agnes Bain had always expected more. She dreamed of greater things: a house with its own front door, a life bought and paid for outright (like her perfect – but false – teeth). When her philandering husband leaves, she and her three children find themselves trapped in a mining town decimated by Thatcherism. As Agnes increasingly turns to alcohol for comfort, her children try their best to save her. Yet one by one they have to abandon her in order to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. But Shuggie has problems of his own: despite all his efforts to pass as a ‘normal boy’, everyone has decided that Shuggie is ‘no right’. Agnes wants to support and protect her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her, including her beloved Shuggie. Laying bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride, Shuggie Bain is a blistering and heartbreaking debut, and an exploration of the unsinkable love that only children can have for their damaged parents. Previous Winners
2019 Tie: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo 2018 The Milkman by Anna Burns 2017 Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 2016 The Sellout by Paul Beatty 2015 A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James 2014 The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan 2013 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 2012 Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 2011 The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 2010 The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson 2009 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2008 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright 2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai 2005 The Sea by John Banville 2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre 2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel 2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey 2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 1999 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee 1998 Amsterdam by Ian McEwan 1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift 1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker 1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman 1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje 1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri 1990 Possession by A.S. Byatt 1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey 1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively 1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis 1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme 1984 Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner 1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee 1982 Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally 1981 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie 1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding 1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald 1978 The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch 1977 Staying On by Paul Scott 1976 Saville by David Storey 1975 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer Holiday by Stanley Middleton 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G.Farrell 1972 G. by John Berger 1971 In a Free State by V.S.Naipaul 1970 Troubles by J.G.Farrell 1969 Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby |
