The Bulwer-Lytton Awards Founder: Scott Rice

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been around since 1982, when it was created by Professor Scott Rice of the English Department at San Jose State University, as a twist on the conventional literary contests. The annual parody contest aims to find the worst "bad opening sentence to imaginary novels", in the tradition of award namesake Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, author of the most infamous opening line in fiction, "it was a dark and stormy night".

A grand prize winner is awarded each year, in addition to winners from sub-genres such as Children's Literature, Detective, Historical and Purple Prose. Writers are also awarded dishonorable mentions for their efforts.

Suite101: 2008 marks the contest's 26th year. Why do you think accounts for the longevity?

Professor Rice: The contest owes its longevity to the entrants powers of invention. Every year thousands of people think up new ways to respond to our prompt. Also, we decided early on to let the entrants invent the contest, to define what is meant by 'bad'. Thus, the emergence of the 'Vile Puns' category. Also, let's face it, the contest allows the participation of writers with short-winded muses.

S: What do you think motivates people to enter such a tongue-in-cheek contest?

Rice: Our contest is a hands-on, user-friendly, come-one-come-all competition. It appeals especially to those who feel caught in the middle- appreciative of great writing but humble about their ability to produce it. Michael Jordan, by virtue of being the greatest basketball player of all time, inspired millions of kids to dedicate themselves to the game. By contrast, literary Michael Jordans often intimidate their readers. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest allows entrants to move unthreateningly from a spectator's to a participant's role.

S: What makes the winning entries stand out from the rest?

Rice: The winning entries travesty bad writing, calling attention to the kind of gaffs that you find in under-talented and over-aspiring writers. One common fault is that of allowing a metaphor to become a tar baby, something easier to pick up than to put down. Another kind of offense against taste is the metaphor that almost works, as in the 2000 winner by Gary Dahl (the Pet Rock guy):

The heather-encrusted Headlands, veiled in fog as thick as smoke in a crowded pub, hunched precariously over the moors, their rocky elbows slipping off land's end, their bulbous, craggy noses thrust into the thick foam of the North Sea like bearded old men falling asleep in their pints.

Actually, the image diminishes the heather-encrusted headlands. John Donne called this a 'conceit'. The imagined author has fallen in love with his own cleverness, distracting readers from the real business at hand. In modern argot, the writer has gotten off task and defeated his own purposes.

S: Parodying such a well-recognized opening sentence in literature is not as easy as it seems. Have you ever received any entries that were intended to be bad but were actually good?

Rice: The genius of the contest is that it invites people to define by example. Given that our entrees are deliberate attempts at bad writing, some are indeed examples of good bad writing. In philosophical terms, our best entries are transcendentally one, true, and good (of course technically, according to Thomas Aquinas, everything is one, true, and good).

S: What does the future hold for the contest?

Rice: What indeed! I tell people that I do not run the contest; the contest runs me. Every year thousands of entries flood my email so I feel obligated to oblige the submitters. Unless people lose interest sooner, I will continue until I become a driveller and a show, as Willie the Shake put it.

Visit Rice's Bulwer-Lytton website to read a collection of the best of the worst winners from past years, and find specific rules on how to enter next year's contest.

An interview with Scott Rice

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