Entertainment · Books & Arts · 2 hrs ago
Helen Fielding launches prize for comic writers in northern England
Helen Fielding has launched a prize for comic writers in northern England called the Bridget Jones Prize for Northern Comedy Writing.
Entrants must submit a funny, stand-alone piece of 1,000 first-person words.
The winner will receive £2,000 and professional writing support from charity New Writing North and Fielding’s literary agency.
Fielding said writing opportunities are much greater in the south than in the north, where she grew up.
The prize is planned to run for an initial three years, from 2027 to 2029.
Fielding’s Bridget Jones began as a newspaper column in 1995 and later became a best-selling novel and a series of films.
Helen Fielding has launched the Bridget Jones Prize for Northern Comedy Writing to support comic writers from northern England.
The prize will go to the writer of the funniest 1,000-word first-person piece of stand-alone prose.
The winner will receive £2,000 and writing support from New Writing North and literary agency Aitken Alexander Associates.
The prize is planned to run for an initial three years, from 2027 to 2029.
Fielding said writing opportunities in the UK are very uneven, with more available in the south than in the north.
- Who
- Helen Fielding launched the prize with charity New Writing North.
- What
- The Bridget Jones Prize for Northern Comedy Writing will recognise the funniest 1,000-word first-person piece of stand-alone prose.
- When
- It was announced on 19 October 2026; the prize is planned to run from 2027 to 2029.
- Where
- It is for writers from northern England. Fielding discussed it at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
- Why
- Fielding said writing opportunities are very uneven across the UK, with more available in the south than in the north.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Fielding began publishing the Bridget Jones diary column in The Independent.
The column was published as the novel Bridget Jones's Diary.
Fielding discussed the new prize at an Independent event at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
The prize is planned to run for an initial three years.
- Prize name
- Bridget Jones Prize for Northern Comedy Writing
- Eligible entry
- Funniest 1,000-word first-person piece of stand-alone prose
- Prize money
- £2,000
- Planned run
- 2027 to 2029
- Writing support
- New Writing North and Aitken Alexander Associates
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What people are saying
It’s a bit uneven, the spread of opportunity for writing in this country. In fact, it’s very uneven,
There’s much more opportunity in the South than in the North where I grew up.
The idea is it’s for the funniest 1,000, first person words that stand alone and could be put in the newspaper,