The advisory board of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction has announced an extension of its application and reading period, with plans to announce the winner of the first Bellwether Prize at next year’s Book Expo, June 2000. Newly revised application procedures will solicit and review a larger number of submissions before a manuscript is selected for the $25,000 prize and publication. This year’s jury, which included writers Russell Banks, Martín Espada and Ursula K. Le Guin, was unanimous in its decision not to award the prize in 1999. Due to a short lead time and other factors in the contest’s first year, the relatively small number of entries received did not fulfill the expectations of the judges, who noted that passion and moral sensibility were present but not the level of literary excellence required by the Bellwether Prize.

"This award is the only one of its kind in this country, and our first selection will set a standard for the kind of book we want to honor," said Barbara Kingsolver, founding director of the prize. "It will be a novel of outstanding literary quality, whose politically engaged content establishes it as a work of conscience. Clearly there are a lot of writers, and readers, who share our belief in a literature of social responsibility. We're excited about the changes in our process that will open the competition this year to a much broader cross-section of writers."

Applicants who wish to submit an unpublished manuscript for the competition may be eligible if they have some publication record, but have not published a book with a print run of more than 10,000 copies. For guidelines and an application form send SASE to:
     Bellwether Desk
     National Writers United Service Organization
     113 University Place, 6th Floor
     New York, NY 10003-4527