Competition Rules

GENERAL RULES

The King Lear Prizes are open to any UK resident or British citizen overseas who is aged 60 or above on the application deadline date of 14 July 2023, subject to the following rules:

Section 1. Submission Rules

ENTRIES

There is no limit on the number of entries an entrant can submit.

All entries must be the entrant’s original work.

Entrants must submit at least one work created after 17 April 2023.

Entrants are allowed to submit works which they have created in the past, so long as:

(1) The entry has not been submitted to the King Lear Prizes in any previous year; and

(2) The entrant has submitted at least one work created after 17 April 2023.

Entries must not have been published, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition before 14 July 2023. You are permitted however to share your work with friends and family, and on personal social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter etc.).

Entries should be created by the entrant themselves with no assistance from generative technologies (such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion) or image editing software (e.g. Adobe Photoshop), besides cropping and resizing for submission. King Lear Arts reserves the right to disqualify entries which are suspected of using these technologies.

HOW TO SUBMIT

The online entry form on the King Lear Prizes website will open for entries on 21 April 2023.

An entry fee of £5.00 is payable for each entry into the competition, to be paid via the King Lear Prizes online form, to cover the costs of the competition.

Entries made via the website will receive automatic confirmation at the time of submission.

ENTRY RULES

Entries may be submitted by the entrant themselves, or by another person on behalf of the entrant (such as a friend or family member), with the permission of the entrant.

Entries should be submitted via the online entry form on the King Lear Prizes website, unless the entrant has extenuating circumstances which mean they are unable to do so.

Under no circumstances can alterations be made to submissions once entered.

Entries disqualified from the competition (for example, due to not following the category-specific rules) will not be eligible for a refund of the entry fee.

POSTAL ENTRIES (by exception)

Postal entries will be accepted for those who through extenuating circumstances cannot submit their entries through our online form.

Download your printable postal entry form here.

Postal entries should be sent to: King Lear Prizes, PO Box 704, 19-21 Crawford Street, London, W1H 1PJ.

Postal entries will only be accepted when accompanied by an entry form (forms may be photocopied). One entry form is needed for each entry. Printable entry forms will be available to download on the King Lear Prizes website from 21 April 2023.

If due to exceptional circumstances you are unable to print the application form or to print your entry, we will accept legible handwritten entries. Please provide all the details which would have been provided on the application form.

King Lear Arts cannot take any responsibility for your entry being lost in the post. If you would like confirmation that your postal entry has been received, please include a stamped addressed envelope / postcard with your entry.

Postal entries with a postmark on or before Wednesday 12 July 2023 will be accepted.

Postal entries will not be returned so please keep a copy.

Section 2. Judging Rules

All entries are judged anonymously and the entrant’s name must not appear on the work itself.

The judging team will read or view all the entries; their decision is final. Neither the judging team nor the King Lear Prizes team will enter into any correspondence on judging decisions.

Section 3. Creative Works and Eligibility Rules

ART

Entries can be in any artistic medium, so long as it can be photographed adequately in one photograph.

Entries can be painting, drawing, collage, photography, sculpture, pottery, prints, fabric, knitting, textiles, crafts or any other artistic medium.

All submitted works of art must have a title.

Works of art should be submitted via the King Lear Prizes website online form as a high-definition photograph(s) of their submission as a commonly used image file (e.g. jpeg, gif, png, tiff, with a file size less than 20MB)

Please try to photograph your work of art against a neutral background, for example a painted wall or a curtain.

Postal entries (by exception): Do not send your original work of art to us in the post. Please send a photograph of your work with your application form.

Eligibility for the Art Category

Entries will be judged against others from entrants with a similar level of experience. Therefore we have two separate categories: Experienced and Beginners. Please read the eligibility rules below to see which category you qualify for.

Professional Artists

The King Lear Prizes aim to encourage amateurs and beginners to actively participate in the arts. Active and retired professional artists are not eligible to take part in the Art category, including designers, cartoonists, but not including art teachers.

If you are not eligible for this category, you are free to enter other categories, so long as you fulfil their entry requirements, or we would encourage you to consider joining the King Lear Prizes judging team.

Experienced

You should enter your work into the Experienced category (clearly marked on the online entry form) if you meet any of the following criteria:

You have undertaken a taught course in art at art college, university level or equivalent. Degrees in art history are not included, unless they included a taught course specifically on creating art.
You are an active or retired art teacher.
Your work has been publicly exhibited, in a gallery or any other form of public exhibition
You have ever won, been a runner-up or been shortlisted in an art competition of any kind since the age of 18. This does not include being ‘highly commended’ in the previous round of the King Lear Prizes competition.
You have been creating art regularly (at least twice a week) for at least the last five years.
You believe that you are Experienced for some other reason and wish to enter the Experienced category rather than the Beginner category

Beginner

You are eligible for the Beginner category if you are not a Professional Artist and you do not meet any of the criteria for the Experienced category.

—

POETRY

Entries in the poetry category must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title). Entries can be on any subject.

Entries must be written in English.

Postal entries (by exception) should be typed and printed in black ink on A4 paper at a minimum type size of 12pt. Stories may span multiple pages, but pages should not be double sided. Entries can be double or single spaced. Please do not staple pages.

Eligibility for the Poetry Category

Professional Writers

The King Lear Prizes aim to encourage amateurs and beginners to actively participate in the arts. Active and retired professional writers are not eligible to take part in the Poetry category, including poets, journalists, editors, copywriters, or professional writers of any kind (fiction or non-fiction).

Experienced

You should enter your work into the Experienced category (clearly marked on the online entry form) if you meet any of the following criteria:

You have undertaken a taught course in writing (either fiction or poetry, not including non-fiction) at university level or equivalent. Degrees in literature or languages are not included, unless they included a taught course specifically on writing skills.
You have undertaken a taught course in poetry at any level for a period of at least 6 months.
You are an active or retired poetry teacher, including English teachers who teach poetry.
Your poetry has been published before (includes any publication which is produced by any organisation, but does not include self-publication)
You have ever won, been a runner-up or been shortlisted in a poetry competition of any kind since the age of 18. This does not include being ‘highly commended’ in the previous round of the King Lear Prizes competition.
You have been writing poetry regularly for at least the last five years.
You believe that you are Experienced for some other reason and wish to enter the Experienced category rather than the Beginner category

Beginner

You are eligible for the Beginner category if you are not a Professional Writer and you do not meet any of the criteria for the Experienced category.

—

SHORT STORY

Submit a short story of between 2,000 and 10,000 words.

The short story can be on any subject and in any setting.

The short story must be in English

Eligibility for the Short Story Category

Professional Writers

The King Lear Prizes aim to encourage amateurs and beginners to actively participate in the arts. Active and retired professional writers are not eligible to take part in the Short Story category, including journalists, editors, copywriters, or professional writers of any kind (fiction or non-fiction).

Experienced

You should enter your work into the Experienced category (clearly marked on the online entry form) if you meet any of the following criteria:

You have undertaken a taught course in writing (either fiction or non-fiction) at university level or equivalent. Degrees in literature or languages are not included, unless they included a taught course specifically on writing skills.
You have undertaken a taught course in writing at any level for a period of at least 6 months.
You are an active or retired writing teacher, including English teachers who teach writing.
Your written work (by which we mean substantive written work such as stories, poems, articles, drama etc.) has been published before (includes any publication which is produced by any organisation, but does not include self-publication)
You have ever won, been a runner-up or been shortlisted in a writing competition of any kind since the age of 18. This does not include being ‘highly commended’ in the previous round of the King Lear Prizes competition.
You have been writing regularly for at least the last five years.
You believe that you are Experienced for some other reason and wish to enter the Experienced category rather than the Beginner category

Beginner

You are eligible for the Beginner category if you are not a Professional Writer and you do not meet any of the criteria for the Experienced category.

—

Section 4. Group Prizes

There will be group prizes this year. Group entries will be judged by the following criteria:

50% quantity (i.e. how many entrants and entries each group has)
50% quality

For example, seven entries where all entrants have submitted good work will beat three excellent entries.

We will be awarding a number of group prizes to the winning combination of entries, including:

National Writers Group of the Year
National Poetry Group of the Year
National Art Group of the Year
National Mixed Arts Group of the Year

GROUP ENTRY RULES

One person (the key contact) must register your group using the group entry form.

When submitting entries in the submission form, each member of the group must select their group from the dropdown menu. If your group does not feature in the dropdown menu, type the name of the group into the text box.

Members of a group can submit as many entries as they wish to the group prize. As long as there are at least three different entrants in the group, individual entrants can submit multiple entries to be considered for the group prizes.

If you have already submitted your work without selecting your arts group and you would now like your piece to be considered as part of a group, please get in touch with us by emailing support@kinglearprizes.org. Explain the issue and tell us the group of which you are a member. We will try our best to ensure that your piece is entered for the group prizes.

ELIGIBILITY FOR GROUP ENTRY

At least three entrants have to submit work as part of the group entry in order to be considered for one of our group prizes.

Examples of eligible groups include, but are not limited to:

Local University of the Third Age Groups
Age UK Local Groups
Local Arts Clubs
Women’s Institutes
Groups of Friends

Informal groups are welcome to register for the group prizes. There is no need to be an established group and we encourage groups of friends to come together to enter this element of the competition.

Group Entry Judging Rules

All group entries are judged anonymously and the group’s name must not appear on the individual works themselves.

The judging team will read or view all the group entries; their decision is final. Neither the judging team nor the King Lear Prizes team will enter into any correspondence on judging decisions.

Section 5. Results of the Competition

Shortlisted entries may be asked to provide their identification and date of birth. We reserve the right to disqualify entrants who cannot provide sufficient proof of identification.

The King Lear Prizes team conducts online background checks on all shortlisted entrants to verify their eligibility, and we reserve the right to disqualify anyone who has included false information on their application.

Prizewinners will be notified as soon as possible. All winners will be expected to provide the King Lear Prizes with a biography and photograph.

There will be prizes of £200 each for the winners of each category (Short Story, Poetry and Art) in both the Beginner category and the Experienced category (a total of six winners’ prizes).

Shortlisted entrants will be awarded a certificate, feedback on their work, and King Lear Prizes will issue a press release to their local newspapers / websites.

Further prizes will be announced during the course of the competition. Participants will be notified by email and the King Lear Prizes website will be updated.

All entrants who provide a valid email address will be notified about the outcome of their entry.

The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judging team without notice and not to award any of the prizes if, in the judges’ opinion, the quality is not satisfactory.

Section 6. Copyright and Use of Entries

The copyright of each submission remains with the entrant. This means that they are free to publish their work after the competition winners are announced, to sell it, and to profit from it commercially.

By entering the competition, the entrants who are creators of the ‘highly commended’, shortlisted and winning entries grant King Lear Arts the right to publish or broadcast their submitted work for free, for the limited purposes of celebrating the achievements of the entrants of the competition, raising money for charitable activities supporting active participation in the arts, promoting the King Lear Prizes, and other similar activities supporting active participation in the arts.

Examples of the uses the King Lear Arts may wish to make of entrants’ submission are as follows (though this list is not exhaustive): organising an exhibition of the best artistic works, publishing an anthology of the best works, organising a concert of the best musical performances, having professional actors perform readings of the winning poem, sharing entries with the press to celebrate the talent of the entrants, publishing the best works online to share with the public and publishing the best works on the King Lear Prizes social media accounts.

The King Lear Arts is a registered charity with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (no. 1194586)

Section 7. Updating these Rules

These rules are current as of 27 April 2023

The King Lear Prizes reserves the right to update these rules in order to encourage as many people as possible to participate in the arts. Any changes will be notified to participants and subscribers by email and any changes will be flagged prominently as ‘Updated’ on this page.

Section 8. Queries

If you have any questions regarding these rules, please contact the King Lear Prizes team on support@kinglearprizes.org or write to us at: King Lear Prizes, PO Box 704, 19-21 Crawford Street, London, W1H 1PJ.