The £10,000 Mogford Prize for Food and Writing has opened its doors for entries again in this, its eighth year.
And this year the judges are none other than English actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry and well-known television presenter, journalist, cookery writer and novelist, Prue Leith.
These two extremely distinguished judges will be choosing a winner for The Mogford Short Story Prize is accepting entries until Jan 13 2020, and the ‘Long List’ of 25 will be announced by March 11 2020.
Every year the two judges are a writer and a journalist involved in the food and drink industry. Past judges have included Lawrence Norfolk and Rick Stein in 2016; Philip Pullman and Mary Berry in 2017; Bill Bryson and Lorraine Pascale in 2018; and Julian Barnes and Tim Hayward in 2019.
Entries need to be 2,500 words max, and food and drink must be at the heart of the winning tale and The Mogford Prize 2020 Party, when the winner will be announced, will be held on April 1 2020.
As to why Jeremy Mogford started the prize eight years ago, he explained: “I am lucky enough to have enjoyed a lifetime in the hospitality industry with my involvement with Browns Restaurants, Rules in London and my current Oxford collection of the Old Bank and Old Parsonage Hotels, Quod Restaurant, Parsonage Grill and Gee’s Restaurant.
“Wishing to give something back to the hospitality industry which has been very good to me and combining it with my longstanding link to literary Oxford, in 2013 I decided to sponsor a brand new short story prize which had to specifically relate to the subject of food, drink or both.”
And so the Mogford Prize for Food & Drink Writing was born.
As well as printed story booklets of the winning short stories available in Mogford hotel bedrooms, all of the previous winning stories in the Mogford Prize can be read online and in audio format.
Previous winners include: Elisabeth Ingram Wallace, Jane Cammack, Nicky Winder, Martin Pevsner, Guy Carter, Guy Carter And Emma Seaman.
For more details or to enter go to: mogfordprize.co.uk/how-to-enter/
