Brontë Society Creative Competition 2014: Three Winners

Abstract

At the Bronte Society Annual General Meeting in June 2014, the prizes were awarded to the winners of the Society’s 2014 Creative Competition. In total there were nearly 200 entries over the three categories. The largest section, with seventy-five entries, was the short story category. The quality of these entries was particularly impressive. The remit had been to create a new story about a minor character from one of the Bronte novels. Nearly all the entries were highly imaginative works, many very moving and several quite witty; a few even threw new light on the novel chosen. Thirteen stories were short-listed to be sent to Dame Margaret Drabble for the final decision. The first prize was awarded to Tracey S. Rosenberg for her story ‘May the Bell be Rung for Harriet’. The remit for the poetry section was more personal: the judges were looking for personal responses to the Brontes’ works. Of the sixty-nine entries, thirteen were short-listed to be sent to the final judge, Simon Armitage CBE; the first prize poem was read aloud by its author, Diane Pacitti, at the AGM. The new category this year was visual: illustrations for any of the Bronte novels. This group, understandably, had fewer entries than the two literary sections, but certainly stimulated some very interesting responses. The judge, Victoria Brookland, a Yorkshire artist, selected for first prize the illustration of Jane Eyre’s arrival at Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre, Chapter Eleven, by Nicki McNaney.