University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize
Terms and Conditions
When you enter the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize ('Prize') you are indicating that you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. Entrants must conform to all terms and conditions to be eligible.
Administrators ('the Administrators') will be appointed each year of the Prize by the University of Canberra through the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research.
The Prize Administrators reserve the right to cancel or amend the competition and these Terms and Conditions without notice in the event of catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the Administrators' control. Any changes to the competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by the Administrators.
Who can enter
Entries may be submitted from any place in the world and you don't have to be a previously published poet to enter.
All entrants must be 18 years of age or over when they enter the Prize.
Entries may not be submitted on someone else's behalf.
The following persons are not eligible to enter the competition or assist any eligible person to enter: judges; the Prize Administrators; University of Canberra academics, general staff or other University of Canberra employees, or immediate family members of these people.
How to enter
All entries must be submitted online through the VC Poetry Prize website. No other form of entry is permitted.
The text documents containing poems entered for the prize MUST NOT include the author's name anywhere in the text of the entry or anywhere else in the document, such as in headers, footers or in any other place. The text document of any entry that includes the author's name will be disqualified.
No responsibility can be accepted for entries that are not received for whatever reason.
Confirmation of receipt of all Prize entries will be sent by email only to those who provide a valid email address. No other correspondence about the receipt of entries will be entered into.
Entry specifications and rules
An entry fee of: AUD$22 for the first entry during the early entry period; AUD$25 for the first entry if submitted during the later entry period. Every additional entry $20 per entry.
For developing nation residents and tertiary (university) students : AUD$12 for the first entry during the early entry period; AUD$15 for the first entry if submitted during the later entry period. Every additional entry $10 per entry.
For developing nation residents the entrant’s country of residence must be provided. The country of residence must be classified as one of the following: economy in transition, developing economy, least developed country, heavily indebted poor country and/or small island developing state by the United Nations. See table B, C, F G and H in: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_current/2014wesp_country_classification.pdf
For tertiary (university) students a student number and name of the institution must be included on the payment form.
If it is determined that an entrant has not paid the correct fee for an entry, then that entry will be disqualified from the Prize.
It is not possible to complete the entry process without making payment via the Prize website (Visa/Mastercard Credit/Debit cards only) for your entry or entries. No other payment method will be accepted.
Entries must be submitted as either an MS Word file (.doc or .docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf) or as a PDF (.pdf). Other computer file formats will not be accepted.
Entries that are uploaded to the Prize website must be in a clear, legible font
Poems should be set out and spaced so that they are easy to read. If the judges determine that an entry does not meet these requirements, that entry will not be considered further.
All poems entered for the Prize must be single poems with a maximum length of 60 lines (not including the poem's title, any short epigraph, blank lines, numbered sections, etc.) and be no more than 1,000 words in total.
Entries must be poems on any subject. Entries must be written primarily in English (only a few words in another language or languages are permitted). Translations will not be eligible for the Prize.
Entries must be original works by an individual author (not a company or other collective entity).
Entries must be unpublished works that have not been previously broadcast publicly, in whole or part (either in print, online or in any other format, including radio broadcast, personal blogs, you-tube and social media).
Entries must not be created (i.e. authored) by a computer program.
Entrants must retain copies of the poems that are entered. Once entered, the text of a poem cannot be retrieved or altered.
Entrants warrant that: (i) they have personally created their entry and own all rights to it; (ii) all related intellectual property belongs to the entrant; and (iii) the entry does not violate any laws of any country or infringe upon another party's trademark or copyright. Entrants indemnify the Prize and its Administrators against any loss or damages resulting from a breach of this warranty.
Simultaneous submissions will not be permitted during the competition period (i.e. a poem cannot be submitted to other prizes and/or publications). The competition period is 1 March 2024 to 31 August 2024. The Longlist will be published on the University of Canberra website by 31 October 2024. A poem will be ineligible if it is under contract to any publisher or broadcaster.
No changes will be permitted once an entry has been submitted.
Poems not selected for the major prizes or shortlist, or selected for publication in the Longlist Anthology in one year may be submitted again in a subsequent year provided that the poem meets all of the Prize terms and conditions in the year that it is submitted.
All authors must provide their own name for record keeping purposes. If you wish to have your poem published under a pseudonym, this may be included as part of your details on the entry form.
Every Prize entrant is fully responsible for the consequences that arise from providing false or misleading information. Any poem that is submitted under a false name, or is accompanied by false information, will be automatically disqualified from the Prize.
Number of entries permitted
Poets may submit up to six (6) of their works for the Prize in any one year.
Prizes
The winner will receive AUD$15,000 and the winning poem will be published in the 2024 Prize Anthology in print and online.
The runner-up and international prize will receive AUD$5,000 each and will be published in the 2024 Prize Anthology in print and online.
Four shortlisted poems will be published in the 2024 Prize Anthology, and will receive no additional payment beyond the payment of AUD$50.
All poems selected for the longlist will also be published in the 2024 Prize Anthology in print and online. All published entrants, excluding the winner and runner-up, will receive AUD$50 per poem upon publication. Correct bank details will be required within 30 days of notification to receive payment.
Open, close and judging
Poems may be submitted from 1 March 2024 until 14 July 2024, 23:59 GMT.
The Longlist will be published on the University of Canberra website by 31 August 2024, and prize-winners will be notified prior to the Prize announcement. The Prize announcement will be on or before 30 October 2024.
Any poem that is determined by the judges to be plagiarised will be disqualified from the Prize and the author of that poem will be permanently disqualified from entering the Prize in the future.
Entry fees will not be refunded under any circumstances.
Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and poems will not be returned.
The prize will be judged by a judging panel comprising three (3) judges appointed by the University of Canberra. One of the panel will be a representative of the University of Canberra.
Once the deadline for entries has passed, de-identified entries will be distributed to the judging panel by the University of Canberra. The judges will choose a maximum of 60 poems that will constitute the Prize Longlist, from which they will select a shortlist of 6 poems, the runner-up and the winning poem.
The University of Canberra will publish a maximum of 60 longlisted poems online, including the winning and second-prize entries and the shortlisted poems, in its online University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize Longlist Anthology ('Prize Anthology'). All authors published in this anthology will receive a payment of AUD$50.
The Administrators' decision in respect of all matters to do with the competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
All decisions concerning the Prize are final. No editorial comments will be provided. No correspondence will be entered into about the submission or selection processes, or any other aspect of the Prize, or its administration, except for correspondence initiated by Prize Administrators.
Copyright, moral rights, privacy, and liability
Copyright in the poem(s) remains with the authors.
By submitting an entry, the winner, runner-up and all longlisted entrants grant a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-commercial licence, in perpetuity to the Prize Administrators to (i) permit it to publish the entry in the 2024 University of Canberra's Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize Anthology, in print and on the University’s website; and (ii) permit it to record and broadcast the public readings of any published entries, online and in any other media, for a period of two years from the date that the poem was submitted to the Prize, without fee, for the purpose of promoting the University of Canberra and the Prize.
A poem must be available to be published in the 2024 Prize Anthology to be eligible to win first or second prize or to be shortlisted. Refusal by an entrant to accept the Prize or to allow publication in the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's International Poetry Prize Longlist Anthology will disqualify the entry from eligibility.
If we publish or use a longlisted poem we will always acknowledge the entrant as the author.
We will not modify or edit the work without the permission of the author.
By entering the Prize, you guarantee that the personal information you provide in: setting up your Prize account; the entry form; and in any subsequent dealings with the Prize, is accurate. Personal information will only be used in administering the Prize. When you provide this information you consent to it being used for this purpose. Entrants can view the Administrators' privacy policy here.
Except for any liability that cannot by law be excluded, the Administrators (including its respective officers, employees and agents) are not responsible for and exclude all liability (including negligence), for any personal injury; or any loss or damage (including loss of opportunity); whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising in any way out of: (a) any technical difficulties or equipment malfunction (whether or not under the Administrators' control); (b) any theft, unauthorised access or third party interference; (c) any entry that is late, lost, altered, damaged or misdirected (whether or not after their receipt by the Administrators) due to any reason beyond the reasonable control of the Administrators; and (d) any variation in prize value to that stated in these Terms and Conditions.
