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thumb|[[Portrait of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, by Henry William Pickersgill, 1831]]

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) was a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California until 2025. Entrants were invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, one which was deliberately bad.

According to the official rules, the prize for winning the contest was "a pittance". The 2008 winner received $250, while the 2014 winners' page said the grand prize winner received "about $150". In 2023, the prize was "a cheap certificate and bragging rights".

The contest was started in 1982 by Professor Scott E. Rice of the English Department at San Jose State University and was named for English novelist and playwright Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author of the much-quoted first line "It was a dark and stormy night". This opening, from the 1830 novel Paul Clifford, reads in full:

The first year of the competition attracted just three entries, but it went public the next year, received media attention, and attracted 10,000 entries. The contest eventually expanded into several subcategories, such as detective fiction, romance novels, Western novels, and purple prose. Sentences that were notable but not quite bad enough to merit the Grand Prize or a category prize were awarded Dishonorable Mentions.

The contest was discontinued in 2025 by a retired Scott Rice, citing the increasing burden of running it at an older age.

Winning entrants

The winning entries are available at the contest website.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Author

|-

| 1983

| Gail Cain <small>San Francisco, California</small>

|-

| 1984

| Steven Garman <small>Pensacola, Florida</small>

|-

| 1985

| Martha Simpson <small>Glastonbury, Connecticut</small>

|-

| 1986

| Patricia E. Presutti <small>Lewiston, New York</small>

|-

| 1987

| Sheila B. Richter <small>Minneapolis, Minnesota</small>

|-

| 1988

| Rachel E. Sheeley <small>Williamsburg, Indiana</small>

|-

| 1989

| Ray C. Gainey <small>Indianapolis, Indiana</small>

|-

| 1990

| Linda Vernon <small>Newark, California</small>

|-

| 1991

| Judy Frazier <small>Lathrop, Missouri</small>

|-

| 1992

| Laurel Fortuner <small>Montendre, France</small>

|-

| 1993

| Wm. W. "Buddy" Ocheltree <small>Port Townsend, Washington</small>

|-

| 1994

| Larry Brill <small>Austin, Texas</small>

|-

| 1995

| John L. Ashman <small>Houston, Texas</small>

|-

| 1996

| Janice Estey <small>Aspen, Colorado</small>

|-

| 1997

| Artie Kalemeris <small>Fairfax, Virginia</small>

|-

| 1998

| Bob Perry <small>Milton, Massachusetts</small>

|-

| 1999

| Dr. David Chuter <small>Kingston, U.K.</small>

|-

| 2000

| Gary Dahl <small>Los Gatos, California</small>

|-

| 2001

| Sera Kirk <small>Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada</small>

|-

| 2002

| Rephah Berg <small>Oakland, California</small>

|-

| 2003

| Mariann Simms <small>Wetumpka, Alabama</small>

|-

| 2004

| Dave Zobel <small>Manhattan Beach, California</small>

|-

| 2005

| Dan McKay <small>Fargo, North Dakota</small>

|-

| 2006

| Jim Guigli <small>Carmichael, California</small>

|-

| 2007

| Jim Gleeson <small>Madison, Wisconsin</small>

|-

| 2008

| Garrison Spik <small>Washington, D.C.</small>

|-

| 2009

| David McKenzie <small>Federal Way, Washington</small>

|-

| 2010

| Molly Ringle <small>Seattle, Washington</small>

|-

| 2011

| Sue Fondrie <small>Appleton, Wisconsin</small>

|-

| 2012

| Cathy Bryant <small>Manchester, England</small>

|-

| 2013

|Chris Wieloch <small>Brookfield, Wisconsin</small>

|-

| 2014

|Elizabeth Dorfman <small>Bainbridge Island, Washington</small>

|-

|2015

|Dr. Joel Phillips <small>West Trenton, New Jersey</small>

|-

|2016

|William Barry Brockett <small>Tallahassee, Florida</small>

|-

|2017

|Kat Russo <small>Loveland, Colorado</small>

|-

|2018

|Tanya Menezes <small>San Jose, California</small>

|-

|2019

|Maxwell Archer <small>Mount Pleasant, Ontario</small>

|-

|2020

|Lisa Kluber <small>San Francisco, California</small>

|-

|2021

|Stu Duval <small>Auckland, New Zealand</small>

|-

|2022

|John Farmer <small>Aurora, Colorado</small>

|-

|2023

|Maya Pasic <small>New York, New York</small>

|-

|2024

|Lawrence Person <small>Austin, Texas</small>

|}

Collections

Six books collecting the best BLFC entries have been published:

  • It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (1984),
  • Son of "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" (1986),
  • Bride of Dark and Stormy (1988),
  • It Was a Dark & Stormy Night: The Final Conflict (1992),
  • Dark and Stormy Rides Again (1996),
  • It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (2007), <!-- This is different from the 1984 book with the same title -->

An audio cassette of the winning entries in the BLFC was also released:

  • It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (1997), audio cassette, .

See also

  • Lyttle Lytton Contest, a derivative favoring extremely short first sentences
  • Purple prose
  • Bad Sex in Fiction Award run by Literary Review magazine
  • Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
  • International Imitation Hemingway Competition

Notes

References

  • Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest web site
  • "From Worst to First: Literary Award Marks the Pits of Prose" Chronicle of Higher Education News blog (2007)