Literature
BRIDPORT PRIZE WRITERS TAKING THE LITERARY WORLD BY STORM Dee Fenton, Operations Manager, Bridport Arts Centre
‘I
have enormously fond memories of the Bridport Prize,’ says best-selling author Kate Atkinson who won with her short story back in 1990. ‘It gave me one of the first affirmations that I could write. I felt I found that elusive thing - my ‘voice’. Without the Bridport Prize, I would probably not have found my agent and quite possibly wouldn’t have written Behind the Scenes at the Museum so I have a lot to be thankful to it for.’ The international writing competition, now in its 47th year, continues to discover new writers, set them on the road to publication and launch careers. The novel award honours Bridport Arts Centre stalwart, the late Peggy Chapman-Andrews. Here are the awards’ latest success stories, the writers to watch and the books to read in 2020. Deepa Anappara
Deepa’s debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, tells of three friends who venture into the most dangerous corners of a sprawling Indian city to find their missing classmate. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 alongside Hilary Mantel, Ann Patchett and Edna O’Brien. Published by Chatto & Windus in the UK and Random House in the US, it’s being translated into 20 languages. Born in Kerala, Southern India, Deepa worked as a journalist in India for eleven years. Her reports on the impact of poverty and religious violence on the education of children won the Developing Asia Journalism Awards, the Every Human has Rights Media Awards, and the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt Fellowship in 88 | Bridport Times | May 2020
Journalism. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she is currently studying for a Creative-Critical Writing PhD on a CHASE doctoral fellowship. Deepa won the Bridport Prize novel award in 2017. deepa-anappara.com Polly Crosby
Polly’s debut novel, The Illustrated Child, is set in the wild Suffolk countryside taking inspiration from where she grew up. It tells the tale of Romilly, a girl who lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, their reclusive life begins to change as fans appear at their door, convinced the books contain clues to a treasure hunt. As time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of the outside world and, with no-one else to help, Romilly turns to the secrets he has hidden in his illustrated books – realising that his treasure hunt doesn’t lead to gold, but to something far more precious…the truth. Polly now lives in Norfolk with her husband and son, and her much loved rescue cat. She is currently working on her second novel. The Illustrated Child is due to be published in Hardback, Ebook and Audiobook on 9th July. Polly was runner up in the 2018 Bridport Prize novel award. pollycrosby.com