Terms and Conditions | University of Chester

The Cheshire Prize for Literature 2024/25 - Terms & Conditions

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before submitting your competition entry as by entering the competition you will be indicating your agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions. You must have your parent’s or guardian’s consent to enter the Competition if you are under the age of 18

1. The Promoters

The Promoters are The University of Chester.

2. The Competition

2.1 The Cheshire Prize for Literature 2024/25 is a literature competition (Competition) for an original, fictional, unpublished piece of writing. There is no theme and you can write about anything that inspires you.

2.2 There are three age categories and the table below indicates which categories can be entered according to age.

Age range	Poetry	Short stories	Scriptwriting	Children’s Literature	Flash Fiction
Primary (4-11)	Enter	Enter	X	X	X
Secondary (11-17)	Enter	Enter	X	X	X
18 +	Enter	Enter	Enter	Enter	Enter

(a) Short story: an original, fictional unpublished short story, maximum 1,500 words

(b) Poetry: an original, unpublished poem, maximum 100 lines

(c) Children’s literature: an original, fictional unpublished short story, maximum 1,500 words or an original, unpublished poem, maximum 100 lines aimed at children aged seven to 14 years old.

(d) Scriptwriting: a playscript suitable for radio, theatre or television, no more than 15 minutes in length.

(e) Flash fiction: an original, fictional, unpublished short story, maximum 360 words including title.

2.3 The Competition will run from 28th November until 23:59 on 31st January, 2025(Closing Date) inclusive. All Competition entries must be received by no later than 23:59 on the Closing Date. Any Competition entries received after the Closing Date will be automatically disqualified from the Competition.

2.4 Entrants under 18 years of age must have permission to enter the Competition from a parent or guardian who will be required to agree to these Terms and Conditions before the entry is submitted into the Competition, by way of a check-box on the online submission form. The Promoters reserve the right to ask for proof of permission. Entries submitted by entrants below the age of 18 without permission will be disqualified.

3. Who Can Enter?

3.1 You must be the author of the submitted entry and must have been born, live or have lived, study or have studied, work or have worked, in the historical or modern county of Cheshire. For the purposes of the Competition, Cheshire is deemed to include the Wirral, as well as Warrington and Halton.

3.2 There are three age categories and the table in clause 2.2 indicates which categories are open to which age groups (Qualifying Entries). Only Qualifying entries will be considered.

3.3 Entries will not be accepted from members of the judging panel or from any person directly or indirectly involved in the running of the Competition or its administration, or direct members of their family or households.

3.4 By entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to enter and that you may be required to provide proof of your eligibility to enter the Competition (such as proof of age or address) to the Promoters.

3.5 The Promoters reserve the right to disqualify any entry which in their reasonable opinion, fail to comply with the Competition entry criteria or these Terms and Conditions.

4. Competition Entry Requirements

4.1 Entries must be submitted via the online-entry form (see clause 5 below on how to enter the Competition). Entries submitted by post, email or via any other method will not be considered.

4.2 Entries must be in English, and must be an original, fictional and previously unpublished work. The entry must be entirely your own work and must not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.

4.3 Entries that have won or are under consideration in other literary competitions are not eligible.

4.4 Entries should be original works and should not be a translation of another author’s work.

4.5 Entries must not infringe the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, trade secrets, privacy, publicity, personal or proprietary rights.

4.6 There is a limit of two entries to the Competition per person and these must be in different categories(Permitted Amount). If you submit more than the Permitted Amount, only your first two qualifying submissions will be accepted and in the order they are received by the Promoters up to the Permitted Amount. Any entries received by the Promoters from an entrant in excess of the Permitted Amount will not be considered.

4.7 Entries will not be accepted in bulk or on behalf of anyone else.

4.8 Joint submissions are permitted but all authors must be eligible to enter the Competition and must agree to the submission being entered and to these terms and conditions. For the avoidance of doubt, a joint submission must have been created by the authors together (i.e. writing support, editing or similar support does not count).

4.9 By submitting your entry, you confirm that:

(a) you are eligible to enter the Competition and that you will be able to provide proof of eligibility to enter the Competition if so requested by the Promoters;

(b) your entry has not been published before;

(d) your entry is a work of fiction and that you have not used personal details of any living persons in the work;

(e) your entry does not contain anything that is defamatory, obscene, unlawful, offensive, private or other unsuitable material. Entries must be suitable to be broadcast, published or used online by the Promoters for audiences of all ages;

(f) nothing in your entry constitutes an infringement of copyright or other intellectual property right, or breaches the rights of any third party;

(g) you have not and will not enter into any agreement or arrangement that affects the Promoters’ ability to take full benefit of clause 8 of these Terms and Conditions; and

(h) you (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian) will indemnify and hold the Promoters harmless against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses suffered or incurred by the Promoters arising out of your breach of these terms and conditions.

4.10 Entries which fail to comply with these Terms and Conditions won’t be considered.

4.11 If the Promoters reasonably believe that an entrant has acted contrary to these Terms and Conditions, the Promoters may, at their sole discretion, disqualify their entry from the Competition.

5. How to Enter

5.1 Entry to the Competition is free.

5.2 To enter the Competition:

(a) entrants must complete the online entry form available here and attach their competition entry to the form as a separate Word document attachment. As your entry will be judged anonymously, it is important that you do not include your name or any other personal identifiers on the entry itself or contain any personal details about yourself in the work. If you do this, your entry will be disqualified.

(b) entrants must tick to confirm that they have read and accept these Terms and Conditions; and

(c) for entrants under the age of 18 when submitting their entry to the Competition their parent or guardian must also tick the consent box on the form consenting to your entry into the Competition and agreeing to these Terms and Conditions.

(d) entrants submitting to two categories must complete a separate entry form for each entry.

5.3 Entrants cannot amend their work after it has been submitted to the Competition.

5.4 Entrants should keep a copy of their work as their entry will not be returned.

5.5 Late, ineligible, incomplete or corrupt entries will not be accepted. The Promoters will not accept:

(a) any responsibility whatsoever for any Competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit, regardless of cause, (including, for example, equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind) that may limit or prohibit an eligible entrant’s ability to participate in the Competition;

(b) any responsibility whatsoever for any inability to submit entries as a result of computer service, systems and/or server failure, error, interruption, defect or delay or any other technical malfunction; or

5.6 Enquiries about the Competition should be directed to:

Jenni Davies, The Cheshire Prize for Literature:

- Tel: 01244 511344
- Email: cheshireprize@chester.ac.uk

6. Judging and Announcement of Winners

6.1 Your entry will be judged anonymously by a panel of judges chaired by Dr Harry Parkin from the Department of English at the University of Chester.

6.2 One winner per category will be selected by the judges from qualifying entries received in accordance with these terms and conditions based on the following criteria: originality, plot, characterisation, relevance to theme, writing skill, use of language, suitability and enjoyment.

6.3 Winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in Summer 2025 (Announcement Date). The date, time and location of the Awards Ceremony will be notified in advance.

6.4 Winners will also be announced on the Promoters’ websites and social media accounts and all entrants to the Competition consent to the use by the Promoters of their name and age to announce winners of the Competition and to identify entrants in any publication of an entry in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

6.5 The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into concerning their decision. The Promoters will not give advice or feedback on unsuccessful entries.

7. Prizes

7.1 All winners in the age 4-17 categories will each receive a book token. All winners in the over 18 categories will each receive a cash prize.

7.2 There are no runner-up prizes. No cash alternative is available for any prize in any of the age 4 to 17 categories.

7.3 Where a joint submission wins, the prize will be split between the authors of that work. Where more than one winner is declared in any one category, the winners will share the prize between them.

7.4 The Promoters reserve the right not to declare a winner and to withhold a prize if insufficient entries are received for that category (a minimum of 5 qualifying entries per category is required) or if in the judges’ opinion, entries do not reach the required standard.

7.5 Prizes are non-negotiable and non-transferable. The Promoters will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of a winner’s enjoyment of the prize.

7.6 Winners may be required to provide proof of their eligibility to enter the Competition before receiving their prize.

7.7 The Promoters are not responsible for contacting or forwarding prizes to entrants who provide unclear or incomplete contact information.

7.8 The Promoter will make all reasonable efforts to contact the winners. If a winner cannot be contacted or if the winner has not claimed their prize within 30 days of the Announcement Date, the Promoter reserves the right to offer the prize to the next placed entry selected from the shortlisted entries in the same category. For the avoidance of doubt, in the case of a joint submission, all authors must claim the prize within 30 days of the Announcement Date.

7.9 The Promoters do not accept any responsibility if you unable to take up the prize.

7.10 The Promoters reserve the right to replace the prizes with alternative prizes of equal or higher value if circumstances beyond the Promoter’s control makes it necessary to do so.

7.11 Prize winners may be required to take part in related publicity and such participation is a condition of accepting a prize. For the avoidance of doubt, in the case of a joint submission, all authors must take part in related publicity.

8. Ownership of Competition entries, Intellectual Property Rights and Publicity

8.1 Subject to clause 8.2 below, each entrant retains the copyright in his or her entry. However, each entrant grants (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian grants) to the University of Chester an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence for the full period of copyright in their entry including all periods of renewal, extension and revival of the copyright a right to publish, edit, use, reproduce, distribute, sell, exhibit, licence for publication and otherwise make full use of the entry in whole, partial or adapted form in all current and future editions of Works from the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2024/25 (Work), without limitation and irrespective of its form or media (including those yet to be envisaged), in the English language and in any translations of the Work (Licence).

8.2 You agree (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian agrees) not to exercise the Rights in such a way as to adversely affect the University of Chester’ ability to take the full benefit of the Licence.

8.3 The University of Chester is under no obligation to publish an entry in the current or future editions of the Work.

8.4 By submitting your entry you agree (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian agrees) that the University of Chester may at its sole discretion revise, edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry for the purposes listed in clause 8.1 above.

8.5 The University of Chester reserves the right (but is not obliged) to publish all entries (including parts of an entry or entries) in addition to the winning entries in the current or future editions of the Work. You acknowledge and accept that publication does not mean that you have won a prize.

9. Use of Data

Any personal data received by the Promoters will be processed in order to administer the Competition and to contact any entrants in accordance with Data Protection Legislation.

10. General

10.1 The Promoters reserve the right to disqualify any entry (including any winning entry) which breaches any of these terms and conditions.

10.2 The Promoters reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions or suspend or cancel the Competition at any stage at their discretion or if circumstances arise outside of their control. Any changes will be published on the Promoters’ websites and will take immediate effect on publication.

10.3 To the extent permissible under applicable law, neither the Promoters nor the judges shall be liable to any entrant or to any winner for any loss or damage howsoever caused (whether in contract, tort (including without limitation, negligence, statutory duty or otherwise)) arising out of or in connection with the Competition.

10.4 These terms and conditions and any dispute arising out of them are governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

10.5 The Competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with any social network.