Myriad Editions signs Bristol Short Story Prize winner

Myriad Editions has signed a debut novel from Emily Bullock, a former winner of the Bristol Short Story Prize.

The publisher did the deal for The Longest Flight with Ed Wilson of the Johnson & Alcock literary agency. Bullock was discovered by Wilson’s former colleague, Fran Barrie.

Wilson said: “Fran Barrie spotted Emily’s story My Girl in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 4. When Fran left Johnson & Alcock she passed an early draft of The Longest Fight to me and I was completely captivated. Emily is a complete dream to work with - she’s a hugely talented writer and has a bright future ahead of her.”  

He added: "I’ve certainly been keeping an eye on the Bristol Short Story Prize ever since, the standard is very high.”

The Bristol Short Story Prize is an annual, international writing competition founded by the editors of Bristol Review of Books magazine in 2007 for entries of up to 4,000 words. Bullock won in 2011 with her story “My Girl”.

Bullock has a creative writing MA from UAE, and is currently a tutor for the Open University in literature and creative writing.

She said: ”The Bristol Short Story Prize was such a great opportunity. Their promotion and publication of my short story helped me to find an agent which led to an offer of publication for my novel.”

Joe Melia, Bristol Short Story Prize coordinator, said: “This is great news for Emily, but not surprising as she is a brilliant writer. One of our major aims is to discover great writers and bring them to the attention of literary agents and publishers. We’re thrilled to have been able to introduce Emily and her writing to the Johnson & Alcock agency and Ed Wilson."

Myriad will publish The Longest Fight in spring 2015.

The closing date for this year’s Bristol Short Story Prize is 30th April 2014.