Skip Navigation

Scout Archives

Home Projects Publications Archives About Sign Up or Log In

Browse Resources

Fiction -- Authorship -- Competitions

Resources

View Resource The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

"It was a dark and stormy night," so begins one of the most reviled first lines in literary history, composed by that somewhat obscure 19th century British author, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. Since 1982 the English department at San Jose State University has sponsored the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, challenging entrants to compose the opening sentence to "the worst of all possible novels." The...

https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/