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| Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest |
| Established | 1982 |
| Founder | Scott Rice |
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Prose, Bad Writing |
| Frequency | Annual |
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual literary parody competition that honors the opening sentence in the spirit of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author of the infamous line beginning "It was a dark and stormy night." The contest was founded in 1982 and has become a recurring event in American literature circles, drawing entries from across United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and beyond. It is administered by a nonprofit organization associated with a small press and engages participants ranging from students at Harvard University and Oxford University to contributors from The New Yorker, Slate, and independent blogs.
The contest was created in 1982 by Scott Rice, then a graduate student, as a tongue-in-cheek homage to the opening line of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author of works including Paul Clifford and The Last Days of Pompeii. Early publicity circulated through literary magazines such as Esquire and The Atlantic Monthly, and mentions in national newspapers like The New York Times increased its profile. Over time the contest developed categories that mirror literary genres recognized by institutions such as the Pulitzer Prize and the Man Booker Prize (now Booker Prize), and winners were occasionally noted by cultural critics at The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The contest intersected with academic discussions at conferences organized by the Modern Language Association and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, where panels referenced parody traditions stretching back to Jonathan Swift and Voltaire.
Entries are typically limited to a single sentence, following a tradition of epigram and aphoristic openings exemplified by writers like Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy. The contest’s rules emphasize deliberately florid, overwritten, and awkward prose; scoring criteria have been discussed in literary forums alongside standards used by the Goncourt Academy and judges with experience at journals such as Poetry Magazine and The Paris Review. Submissions are grouped into humorous categories—often echoing those used by the National Book Awards and genre awards like the Hugo Award and Nebula Award—including science fiction, romance, and noir. Entrants submit anonymously, a practice that parallels peer-review customs at outlets such as Scientific American when avoiding authorial bias; winners are selected by panels that have included editors from McSweeney's, columnists from Time (magazine), and satirists connected to The Onion.
Over the decades, winners and notable finalists have come from diverse backgrounds: undergraduate writers from Yale University and Stanford University, professionals associated with IBM and Google, and retirees in Florida and California. A frequently cited winner invokes imagery that calls to mind scenes from Dracula and Frankenstein while skewering melodrama reminiscent of Gustave Flaubert and Oscar Wilde. Media outlets such as BBC News, NPR, and CNN have showcased standout entries, and anthologies assembled by the contest have been compared in reach to collections issued by Penguin Books and Random House. Judges have noted parallels between winning sentences and the stylistic excesses found in some entries to the Romanticism of William Wordsworth and the baroque flourishes of John Milton.
Critical responses have ranged from amusement in popular press to scholarly skepticism in journals like Modern Fiction Studies and Critical Inquiry. Some commentators have argued that the contest encourages pastiche rather than original craft, echoing debates that surfaced around postmodernism discussions in the 1980s and reviews in The New Republic and Harper's Magazine. Others defended the contest as a form of restrained satire comparable to the parodic methodologies used by Molière and Alexander Pope, and as a pedagogical tool referenced in creative writing courses at institutions including Columbia University and Iowa Writers' Workshop. Coverage by cultural critics at Vogue and The Atlantic has alternated between playful endorsement and critiques of taste.
The contest influenced internet-era humor communities on platforms akin to Reddit, Twitter, and early weblogs, inspiring spin-offs and themed competitions (some organized by book clubs at Barnes & Noble and reading groups at Library of Congress satellite branches). Collections of entries have been sold by independent presses and cited in popular culture alongside comedic works from P.G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams. The contest also catalyzed discussions about taste and literary value in public fora such as panels at the South by Southwest festival and appearances on programs like Late Night with David Letterman. Its legacy persists in classroom exercises at secondary schools aligned with curricula from boards like the College Board and in anthologies used by community writing centers affiliated with the National Endowment for the Arts.
Category:Literary competitions Category:Satire