Competition terms and conditions

Please know that any work you submit will be credited to you and belong to you – you’ll give us the right to publish it in the anthology, but we’ll never claim it as our own.

EDIT 26th September 2021: Points 11 and 12. These terms and conditions have been modified to allow under 18s to enter the writing competition if parental/guardian consent has been sought and confirmed in advance and contact details have been provided to allow this consent to be confirmed if required. We take data protection very seriously and are not able to accept entries from under 18s if parental/guardian consent has not been confirmed. Clarifications were also added to specify how consent should be sought for under 13s entering the postcards competition.

Terms and conditions

1. The competition is open to both unpublished and published writers from anywhere in the world.
2. Only one entry of any kind is permitted per person (e.g one poem or short story per person).
3. Cost: Submission to the competition is free to all.
4. Submissions are made by the entrant without expectation of payment or cash prizes.
5. Receipt of a submission will not be confirmed automatically. If you require confirmation, please email submissions@createthefuture.earth with CONFIRMATION REQUEST in the subject line.
6. Only submissions received by 23.39 on 13th February 2022 (UK time) will be considered. Entries received after this date will not be considered unless there has been a formal extension to the deadline.
7. The story must be the entrant’s own creation and not infringe upon the right or copyright of any person or entity.
8. Entries must adhere to word limits (2,000 words for prose and 40 lines for poetry)
9. Language: Entries must be written in English or may be written in any language but translated into English. Please mark any translation as such; we will not judge the quality/grammatical accuracy of the prose in these instances.
10. Cover sheet: When submitting, please include a cover sheet with your name, age, contact details and title of the story.
11. Age restrictions: The writing competition is open to all ages but all entrants under the age of 18 must have sought and confirmed consent from a parent or guardian to enter the competition and submit their personal data to Create The Future, to be used purely for the administration of the competition and directly associated activities such as providing prizes and contacting the winners. Under 18s will be required to provide a means of confirming this consent if required, such as a parent’s email address or phone number.
12. Schools and personal data: Where submissions are made by a teacher or other responsible adult on behalf of a group of under 18s, Create The Future asks that the responsible adult first gains permission from the parent or guardian. If this needs to be confirmed later, Create The Future will contact the teacher or responsible adult.
13. Personal data: Personal data supplied may be passed on to third party suppliers only insofar as required for fulfilment/delivery/arrangement of the prize. They will not be shared with any other third party without the express permission of the individual.
14. Format: Online and email submissions may be in word-type formats (.doc, .docx or .odt) or PDF
15. Notification of success: Longlisted and shortlisted entrants will be notified by email on the day of the longlist and shortlist announcements
16. Unsuccessful entrants will not be contacted and due to the expected volume of submissions we will not be able to offer editorial feedback on these pieces.
17. Create The Future will have the exclusive right to publish the longlisted, shortlisted, and winning entries for six months from first publication. Subject to publication decisions, readers may be able to access these stories freely or for a small donation to charity. If there is a charge to access the anthology, it will be made available to contributors without a fee. After six months, rights revert to the authors and the piece can be published elsewhere.
18. If a submission is to be published elsewhere during the running of the competition, the entrant must inform Create The Future and we will make a decision as to whether the work can be included or whether the submission must be withdrawn, depending on the stage of the competition in progress and any potential impact on the final anthology.
19. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.
20. By entering the competition, each entrant agrees to all terms and conditions and competition eligibility criteria.

Please note: We’re still working on how best to reward all winning writers. Do you know someone who would like to sponsor the competition and provide a prize for our hard-working writers? Get in touch!