Following a successful annual conference, the British Society for Literature and Science and the Journal of Literature and Science would like to announce an extension to the 2014 prize deadline for the best new essay by a postgraduate or an early career scholar on a topic within the field of literature and science. The deadline, previously April 1st, has been extended to May 31st 2014.
Essays should be currently unpublished and not under consideration by another journal. They should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words long, inclusive of references, and should be send by email to both John Holmes, Chair of the BSLS (j.r.holmes@reading.ac.uk), and Martin Willis, Editor of JLS (m.willis@westminster.ac.uk), by 12 noon on Saturday, 31st May, 2014.
The prize is open to BSLS members who are postgraduate students or have completed a doctorate within three calendar years of the deadline date. The Prize committee will consider on a case by case basis whether to accept submissions from anyone whose doctorate was completed more than three years prior to the deadline but whose career has been interrupted during that time (due to illness, maternity leave, etc.). Those who have submitted to the essay prize in previous years are very welcome to submit again. This includes any previous prize winners or honourable mentions.
The prize will be judged jointly by representatives of the BSLS and JLS.
To join BSLS (only £10 for postgraduates and unwaged members), go to https://www.bsls.ac.uk/join-us/.
The winning essay will be announced on the BSLS and JLS websites and published in the JLS in the next available issue (most likely December 2014). The winner will also receive a prize of £100. The judges reserve the right not to award the prize should no essay of a high enough standard be submitted.
The winning essay for 2013 was Rachel Crossland’s ‘”Multitudinous and Minute”: Early Twentieth-Century Scientific, Literary and Psychological Representations of the Mass’ which was published in issue 6.2 of the JLS in December 2013. Also published in that issue was Josie Gill’s essay, ‘Science and Fiction in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth’, which received an honourable mention from the judges. Read these at www.literatureandscience.org.