Could you be the next Bridget Jones – or at least come up with something (or someone) just as comical?
A new prize to find distinctive new comedy writing voices from the north of England has been announced to mark the 40th anniversary of The Independent.
It is to be judged by Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding along with representatives from her agents, Aitken Alexander Associates, and Newcastle-based New Writing North which is managing the competition.
Fielding, born in Morley, West Yorkshire, is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter whose unattributed column Bridget Jones’s Diary began appearing in The Independent in 1995.
The ‘Indy’, as it is often known, was a newspaper for the first 30 years of its existence but has been exclusively online for the last decade.
The column became a worldwide phenomenon, published in many countries and spawning novels and films and a peach of a role for American screen actress Renée Zellweger.
The competition, in an anniversary nod to Fielding’s famous column, is for the funniest piece of first-person prose, 1,000 words in length.
A winner and a highly commended runner-up will be selected.
To the winner will go a prize of £2,000, a writing support session with Aitken Alexander Associates and a package of support from the New Writing North team.
The runner-up will receive £1,000.
Helen Fielding said: “Bridget Jones’s comedy heart came from the everyday humour of people around me when growing up in Yorkshire – laughing together at our mess-ups, bringing the fancy and pretentious down to earth.
“There are lots of famous northern comics. But this prize is for the comic voices of people who aren’t famous; just living their lives being quietly hilarious.
“I always tried to make the Bridget columns exactly 1,000 words long – like making the petrol pump stop at exactly 20 quid.
“So this is for the funniest standalone, first-person 1,000 words. If it’s slightly under, you won’t be punished. Just DON’T MAKE IT ANY LONGER!”
The prize, which is free to enter, will be open for submissions from November 23 until February 1, 2027, through the New Writing North website which is where you’ll also find eligibility and submission details.
The Bridget Jones Prize will run for three years (2027, 2028 and 2029) as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards managed by New Writing North.
Will Mackie, New Writing North’s senior programme manager (talent development), said: “This is the first time the Northern Writers’ Awards have featured an award exclusively for comedy writing.
“We know there is a richness of comic talent in the north of England.
“It’s not easy writing humour. It takes great skill and sensitivity to bring funny stories to life on the page and we have huge admiration for writers like Helen Fielding who make this seem so effortless.
“There is no one more fitting to identify an original comedy voice than Helen, who created one of the nation’s most beloved comic characters of the last 30 years. We are massively grateful for her support.”