Entry for the Ninth Annual Mogford Prize for Food & Drink Writing is set to open on 04 November. Entries for the 2021 prize will be accepted from then until 13 January 2021 through an online form on the Mogford Prize website at https://www.mogfordprize.co.uk/
Your short story should have a maximum of 2,500 words. There is no minimum and the title is not included in the word count. There is an entry fee of £15 per submission, payable at the time of entry, a proportion of which will be donated to the charity Pen International.
Food and drink must be at the heart of the winning tale, and the short story could, for instance, be about crime or intrigue; about a chance meeting over a drink; a life-changing conversation over dinner; or perhaps the details of a relationship explored through food or drink.
The prize was founded by Jeremy Mogford, owner of a collection of independent hotels and restaurants in Oxford comprising the Old Bank Hotel and Old Parsonage Hotel, Quod Restaurant, Parsonage Grill and Gee’s Restaurant. Jeremy founded Browns Restaurants in 1973 with then-business partner John Mayhew, before selling the group in 1996 to Bass Brewery.
Every year Jeremy invites two judges to join him in choosing the winner of the £10,000 award – one a writer and the other 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; and Bill Bryson and Lorraine Pascale in 2018.
