Win £1,000 in the Bodley Head/Financial Times Essay Competition & Have Your Work Published!

The Bodley Head/FT Essay Prize aims to attract the best talent in long-form essay writing. Open to writers aged 18 to 35, the competition prize is £1,000, an e-publication with Bodley Head, an imprint of Random House UK, and a mentoring session with a Bodley Head or FT writer.

The Bodley Head, an imprint of Random House UK, and the Financial Times, are proud to announce their first annual essay prize, which aims to reward the best young talent in long-form essay writing. They are looking for a dynamic, authoritative and lively essay of no more than 3,500 words on a topic of your choice. In keeping with the ethos of both sponsors, essays can address any topic – from finance to history, current affairs or scientific discovery – the key component being quality writing. It can be journalistic, it can be a case study; it can be wide-ranging or minutely focused. They aren’t looking for a particular subject – we are simply looking for quality.

The prize for the winner will be £1,000, an e-publication with Bodley Head and a mentoring session with the Financial Times/Bodley Head. All eligible entries will be read and considered for the prize. The winning essay will be the one that, in the opinion of the panel, displays the most potential in terms of writing and subject matter.

The judging panel will include Simon Schama (professor of history and art history, Columbia University and an FT contributing editor), Stuart Williams (publisher, Bodley Head), Dan Franklin (digital publisher, Random House), Caroline Daniel (editor, FT Weekend) and Lucy Tuck (editor, FT Life & Arts).

In addition to one winner, four runners-up will be involved in a separate e-publication with the winning essay. The deadline for entries is November 18, 2012 (midnight GMT).

Entries can be sent via hard copy or by email but must be accompanied by the official entry form. For a competition entry form and a copy of the full terms and conditions click here.

Prizes – The following prizes shall be provided by the Promoter:

(a) £1,000 (one thousand pounds Sterling) to the winning entrant will be awarded in December (date TBC)
(b) Epublication to the winning entrant of their winning entry will be published in December 2012 (date TBC); epublication to the four runners-up entries (date TBC)
(c) One mentoring session for winner to be arranged in January 2013 (date TBC)

Entry Specifications – Entrants are advised to retain a copy of entries as the Promoter will be unable to return any submitted entry. Each entry must be:
(a) in English
(b) an original work of which the entrant is the author which has not been previously professionally or commercially published and is not in breach of any third party right
(c) complete in itself; (i.e. not a fragment of a larger work)
(d) submitted by email or hard copy with the following specifications: double-spaced, set in 12-point type, with numbered pages.

For more information on the Essay contest, please click on this link!

Deadline: Sunday 18th November 2012