Terms and Conditions (the Rules)

Competition

The MAG Poetry Prize 2010 (the 'Competition') is organised by Poetic Republic Limited ('Poetic Republic').

Competitors

The Competition is open to anyone, except those working for Poetic Republic or Fluid Creativity (web design and administration). There is no age restriction. It is suggested that entrants be aged 16 years or above.

Entries

Entries must be in English. Entries may be on any subject. Entries must not exceed 42 lines (not including title). The name of the writer or any other identifying marks must not appear on the submitted entry. Alterations cannot be made to entries after they have been submitted, nor fees refunded. Entries should not be obscene, offensive, defamatory or libellous. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published or have won a prize in any other competition prior to the announcement of the winners (July 2010).

There is no restriction on the number of entries that any one competitor may submit.

Confirmation of entries will be emailed at the time of submission.

Entries will be made available (anonymously) to other entrants for the purposes of judging.

Where the entrant has chosen, entries will be randomly viewable on the website (anonymously) throughout the competition and after the Competition has closed these entries will be placed on a fully searchable open database. Poems will be displayed along with any associated comments left during the judging process.

The deadline for entries is midnight (UK time) 30^th April 2010.

Judging

The entries will be judged anonymously by the competition entrants. By entry, the entrant agrees to participate in the judging process. Failure to participate will result is disqualification from the Competition. Entrants considered to have cheated or been negligent in their judging will be disqualified, even if they haven’t benefitted from this.

The judging will take place in the two months following the closure of the Competition.

Judging will take place in 3 rounds. In each round, entrants will be given 12 entries to judge. From these, they will choose their top 4 entries and rank them in order of preference.

In Round 1, all entries will be included. The allocation of entries will be made on a systematic basis. Entrants will not judge their own work. All entrants will judge. 20% of entries will move into round 2. Entrants will not know which entries have advanced to round 2.

Round 2 will follow the same format as round 1. All entrants will judge. Round 2 will produce a final shortlist of 12 entries that will pass into round 3.

In Round 3, all entrants (including the shortlisted entrants) are free to choose whether they participate in the judging.

Entrants will be notified by email as each judging round opens.

In rounds 1 and 2 entrants will have the option to judge two further blocks of 12 poems.

In each round, entrants have the option to comment on the poems being judged. Only constructive comments should be made. All comments made will remain anonymous.

Entrants will receive an email confirmation of their judging choices.

If for whatever reason an entrant is unable to take part in the judging simply drop us an email via the contact page.

Poetic Republic maintains a full audit trail of all judging choices made by participants. This information is used to monitor and maximise the integrity of the judging process and will remain confidential however Poetic Republic may publish anonymous statistics thereon.

The organisers reserve the right to modify the above mechanics if it becomes apparent that doing so would more appropriately reflect the spirit of the Competition.

The organisers will not enter into any correspondence about the results.

Fees

The cost is £6.00 per entry. We only accept debit card payments, credit card payments or payments from a PayPal account. All cards will be debited with UK Pounds sterling. Once an entry has been made, our services begin immediately and we are unable to offer a subsequent refund.

Copyright

The copyright of each entry remains with the author. Entrants are deemed to grant Poetic Republic permission to publish the winning and shortlisted entries on the Poetic Republic website. Entrants retain all other rights over their entries.

Entrants making comments during the judging process grant Poetic Republic permission to publish these comments (on an anonymous basis) on the Poetic Republic website.

Prizes

The Prize Fund will accumulate at the rate of £2.00 per entry received (capped at £10,000).

The Prize Fund will be split as: 1^st Prize - 50%, 2^nd Prize - 25%, 3^rd Prize - 15%, 4^th Prize - 10%

Prizes will be awarded in July, 2010.

Donations

All profits from the poetry competition will be donated to the humanitarian organisation MAG (Mines Advisory Group).

General

Poetic Republic accepts no liability to any user of this site or any third party for any damage or loss suffered as a consequence of use of this site.

Poetic Republic cannot accept responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the Competition. In the event of any technical failure Poetic Republic's liability will be limited to the entry fee paid.

The Competition and Rules will be governed by English Law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. As a condition of entering the Competition, entrants must ensure that by doing so, they do not contravene any laws of their country of residence.

Poetic Republic reserves the right to amend these Rules where it is deemed necessary to do so or where circumstances are beyond Poetic Republic's control.

In the event of any dispute regarding these Rules or any other matter relating to the Competition, the decision of Poetic Republic shall be final and no correspondence or discussion shall be entered into.

Entry of the Competition implies unqualified acceptance of all the Competition's Rules.