Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. 💞

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

After 54 years, the organizers of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (which celebrates bad opening lines to novels) have brought an end to the contest. So bummed…a friend and I had a pretty good entry we’ve been workshopping!

Comments  4

Sort by: thread — thread . latest . faves

Jason KottkeMOD

Ok, here's the entry we've been working on:

Having worn out his welcome and little else, Larry Winkle stood on the front step of the house naked except for his contact lenses, which, given the -8.5 prescription in his left eye and -9.0 with a slight astigmatism in his right eye, were dearly needed to sort out his present predicament.

Someone needs to restart this contest...I think we've got a good shot!

Meg Hourihan

I’m sorry that’s not the worst opening to a novel, that’s great. I’d keep reading. What just transpired to put him outside the house? There’s tension with the poor vision: are his eyes worn out? Unclear since the text states only his welcome has worn. So he must be strong and fairly young in body and mind. And yet he’s got such an unfortunate name for a strapping lad. What transpired for him to be naked in this moment?! KDO English majors demand more of this tantalizing tale!

Reply in this thread

Scott Hillis

This is a bummer! They used to put out actual "best of" books and we always had them laying around the house when I was growing up.

Tom Moore

Sad to see this go. They're raising a few bucks to keep the archives online, which seems like a good use for a bit of my Venmo balance.

Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.

Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!