HEATHER Chadwick, from Stockleigh Pomeroy, is is one of just five writers to have been shortlisted in this year’s Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel for her story Heartwood.

Heather’s winning entry was selected from almost 1,000 others by the judge, novelist Jane Feaver.

Heartwood is one of two novels Heather has written inspired by living in Paris. She is currently working on a novel on the theme of Retribution and set in Devon.

She co-ordinates a local writers’ group and runs the website Raddonlines which features some of her short stories and brings together images, fiction, poetry and memoir from people who live and work in the Raddon hills. To view the website see: http://www.raddonlines.co.uk .

As part of her prize Heather will receive a manuscript assessment and attend an Industry Day for writers at The Literacy Consultancy in London.

The Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel, named in honour of the Prize’s founder, was a new category for the Bridport Prize in 2014. The Award is run in partnership with A.M. Heath Literary Agency and The Literacy Consultancy.

The Bridport Prize based in Dorset, is one of the most prestigious open writing competitions in the English language with categories in poetry, short stories, flash fiction (stories of 250 words or less) and the PC-A Award for a first novel.

Established in 1973 and with more than £16,000 in prize money to be won annually, the competition attracts entries from across the globe.

This year almost 15,000 entries from 78 countries competed for one of the 34 winner and highly commended awards.

The Bridport Prize is the flagship project of Bridport Arts Centre and known as a tremendous literary stepping-stone – the first step in the careers of writers such as Kate Atkinson, Tobias Hill, Carol Ann Duffy and Helen Dunmore.

The competition is open to anyone aged 16 or over as long as the submitted work is previously unpublished.

The competition for 2016 is launched on November 16 with a closing date of May 31, 2016. Entries can be made by post or online with full information on how to apply available on the website: https://www.bridportprize.org.uk .