Louise Watts wins Bridport Prize memoir competition for 'visual and poetic' entry

Louise Watts has won the 2024 Bridport Prize memoir competition. 

Watts, from Oxford, was named winner of the prize for The Words for Go Away and has won £1,500 and manuscript mentoring with The Literary Consultancy.

Memoir judge Kit de Waal said of the winning entry: “Never lapsing into too much interiority, the writing is often matter of fact and the descriptive passages are highly visual and poetic."

Tamsin Cottis, a child psychotherapist from London, was named runner-up with her memoir Has Anyone Seen the Kids, winning £750 and manuscript feedback from The Literary Consultancy. 

De Waal says about Has Anyone Seen the Kids: “This memoir is written with an affecting mixture of affection and honesty. There are some acutely observed set pieces especially the relationship between the siblings.” 

The Bridport Prize began over 50 years ago. It has a prize fund of more than £20,000 across Novel, Short Story, Poetry and Flash Fiction and added Memoir as a category in 2022.

The deadline for Novel, Short Story, Poetry and Flash Fiction entries is 31st May 2024.