WRITERS have until June 30 to submit their entries for the internationally renowned Bridport Prize.

If past years’ submissions are anything to go by most authors will wait until the last minute to send their work in for the Bridport News-backed contest.

Poems are to be judged by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, while short stories and Flash Fiction will be judged by AL Kennedy.

Both are giving performances during Bridport Arts Centre Open Book festival in November when the prize winners will be announced.

There have already been 3,000 submissions, with 30 per cent more coming via the internet this year, all vying for a chance for critical acclaim and £5000 in prize money.

Prize administrator Frances Everitt said: “We had 15,000 come in last year and that just shows you how many we get at the last moment.

“We used to get more poems, then it evened out and this year we are back to more poems, which looks like the Carol Ann Duffy effect.”

The 250-word Flash Fiction category looks like being on a par with last year’s 2,500.

The up-to-the-wire entries are a challenge for the volunteers who help compile a shortlist to send on to the judges.

None would know that better than John Wyatt who has been a reader virtually continuously for nearly 30 years.

With a career in publishing and journalism he was an ideal volunteer.

He said: “It was 1982 when I first read for the prize.

“I have been doing it more or less ever since, although there were a few years when the judges read all the entries.”

And he can say from personal experience that was insane.

In the beginning entries were in the hundreds but now there can be more than 7,000 short stories to critique with a team of 12 to do it.

But good or bad Mr Wyatt said it was always enjoyable.

He said: “I can still remember stories I read 20 years ago that I thought were absolutely amazing – even though they didn’t win a prize and to the best of my knowledge the writers have never gone on to do anything else.

“Of course there are always some true shockers but surprisingly not as many really terrible ones as you might think.

“Even the quite bad ones have a terrible compulsion about them – rather like watching a soap opera, you can’t really get involved but you still kind of want to know what happens in the end.

“I always know when I have found a good one – really good fiction suspends critical faculties.

“We all exercise criticism on what we read and watch and listen to but when something really works you just enjoy it. The best stories you become a reader, you are no longer a judge or a critic you just becomes bound up in it.”

He is particularly proud to have picked out acclaimed writers Kate Atkinson, Helen Dunmore and Tobias Hill all of whom had their first published fiction thanks to the Bridport Prize.

“The quality is very high – that’s been proven by the fact that so many of the winners go on to be published,” he added.

Entries must be in by June 30.