T&Cs — The Hope Prize

Terms and Conditions of participation

The Hope Prize (the “Prize”) is operated and promoted by Hope Prize 72 401 067 792 (“us”, “we”, “our”). By using our website thehopeprize.com (the “Site”) and / or entering an application for the Prize via Submittable or any other format, you agree to these terms and conditions along with our Privacy Policy (together the “Agreement”). If you do not agree with the terms of this Agreement, you must not access or use our website or enter an application for the Prize via Submittable or any other format.

Overview

The Prize is a short story competition where eligible applicants may submit written pieces of original works in accordance with the terms and conditions set out below. These submissions will be reviewed and judged in accordance with the terms below and winners will be selected and awarded prizes of up to $10,000 AUD as well as publication of their submission.

Definitions and interpretation

This Agreement, and any other terms and conditions or information on the Site, are originally drafted in English and have thereafter been translated into the other languages. In the event that any translated version of this Agreement, and any other terms or documentation, conflicts with the English version, the English version shall prevail, except where prohibited and without limitation to any statutory rights of consumers.

In this Agreement:

“Applicant” means a person who submits to The Hope Prize.

“Intellectual Property” means all present and future intellectual or industrial property rights (whether or not registered) throughout the world, including, without limitation, in respect of patents, copyright, moral rights, trade names, trade marks, logos, systems, circuit layout, designs, software, plant breeder's rights, domain names, trade secrets and confidential information;

“Privacy Policy” means our Privacy Policy, accessible above, in the submission platform.

“Submission” means a valid submission made by an Applicant to apply for The Hope Prize, in accordance with the procedure set out in these terms.

“you” or ”your” means the person or entity accessing, using or relying upon the Site and includes, where applicable, an Applicant.

Interpretation

Any reference in this Agreement to the singular includes the plural, to any gender includes all genders, to any act or statute includes any Act or statute which supersedes, replaces or modifies any earlier Act or statute, to persons includes all bodies and associations both corporate and incorporated and vice versa.
Paragraph headings are for reference purposes only and all references to clauses are to clauses in this Agreement unless otherwise specified.
Any provision of this Agreement which is void or unenforceable may be severed from this Agreement without affecting the enforceability of other provisions.
A failure or delay by us to exercise a power or right under this Agreement does not operate as a waiver of that power or right, and the exercise of a power or right by us does not preclude our future ability to exercise that or any other power or right.

Eligibility + Submission Requirements

Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible to make submission to the Prize on the terms below
Applicants may be located anywhere in the world.
Submissions must be written in English.
Submissions should be no less than 2,000 words and no more than 5,000 words in length.
Submission should speak to the meaning of Hope as expressed in the guidelines and as experienced and/ observed by the author.
All entries are final, no revisions will be accepted.
The Prize is not open to employees of The Hope Prize or its affiliated companies and professional advisors, their immediate families, and anyone professionally connected with the Prize.
In entering the Prize, you confirm that you are eligible to do so and eligible to claim any prize you may win. The Hope Prize may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the Prize.
There is no cap on submissions, but each piece requires a separate submission form and payment of $22 AUD (per submission).

How to Enter

All entries must be received by 11.59pm (AUS) on 22 March 2024, the closing date of the Prize. Only entries that are duly received by us by the closing date will be eligible for the Prize. We do not accept responsibility for entries that are incorrectly submitted, or submitted in the wrong file format.
Entries must be submitted as a word document or PDF via the submittable platform only
Each submission requires a payment of $22 AUD (“Fee”)through the Submittable platform who will handle all financial details of the Applicant
You acknowledge that the Fee is non refundable
All entries must be the original work of The Applicant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The Hope Prize accepts no responsibility if the Applicant breaches third party rights
You agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless from any and all claims, loss and liability that may be brought against us, sustained or incurred as a result of your breach of your obligations under this Agreement and your breach of any third party Intellectual Property rights.

Intellectual Property

All entries must be the entire original work of the submitter and can in no way be manipulated, formulated or reviewed by Artificial Intelligence programs including Chat GPT.
Entries must not contain defamatory, obscene, offensive, or any other unsuitable material; The Hope Prize reserves the right to disqualify entries containing such matter. Entries must be suitable to be published by The Hope Prize for all intended audiences.
Each entrant retains the copyright in their entry but grants to The Hope Prize a perpetual non-exclusive royalty-free license to publish, broadcast (across all media) and post the entry online and on any other platforms yet to be envisaged, together with the author’s name. This license will be deemed to include all the necessary rights and permissions to enable such use by The Hope Prize, to fulfill the total functioning of the Prize and to complete the administration of this Prize.
By submitting an entry, you agree that The Hope Prize may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, translate or abridge the entry for the purposes listed in these terms and conditions, such as part of an anthology book or on our own or a third party website, such as one of our partners. Even if you don’t win we may, for example, publish your piece or excerpts from it as a highly regarded or placing entry in the Prize. You grant permission to The Hope Prize, and to those acting under The Hope Prize’s authority, to use your supplied information including your name, picture, likeness, voice, biographical information and statements for promotional purposes without additional compensation, in all media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide and on the Internet , without notice, review or approval so long as such use relates to the Prize or the administration of the Prize.
The above license lapses if an entrant is not contacted by 1 September 2024 by The Hope Prize for shortlisting or publication of the relevant Submission.

Judging Process

The judging process remains at all times in our discretion. We intend to run the process as follows:
- All submissions will be read and longlisted by the Hope Prize team who will then provide a longlist of approximately 250 entries to Readings staff. Readings staff will then further refine a shortlist of approximately 30 submissions for the judging panel.
- A judging panel of at least five people will read and review the shortlist. This panel will be responsible for shortlisting what it judges in its discretion to be the best entries, and the panel will then choose the winner, placing entries and highly commended from that shortlist.
The decision of the judging panel is final, and at its sole discretion. No correspondence, feedback or discussion will be entered into by us in relation to that decision.
Winners and highly commended entries will be announced after August 2024 and will be announced on our website.
The winners and highly commended entries will be notified by email, or phone, using contact details provided by the relevant Applicants in their submissions.

Prizes

The winner of the Hope Prize will receive $10,000 AUD in prize money and will be published in an anthology book
Second place will win $2,000 AUD in prize money and will be published in an anthology book
Third place will win $1,000 AUD in prize money and will be published in an anthology book
Highly commended entries to the prize, of which there will be up to 20 including first, second and third place, will be published in an anthology book to be published by Simon & Schuster Australia in 2024.
You acknowledge and understand that any prize money you may receive is issued in AUD. You must take responsibility for converting any sum of money received from the Hope Prize to your local currency if you should wish to do so.
The prizes do not include any items other than those expressly stated.
It is the sole responsibility of each Applicant to provide accurate and up to date contact information, the Hope Prize takes no responsibility for contact details that are out of date or incorrect and in any instance prevent the winner/ finalist from collecting prize money or being made aware of their status.
We may alter arrangements or prizes should this be deemed necessary by us. Prizes are not transferable.
We may ask you to provide documentary proof or your identity and/or address before award of the prize. The use of a false name or address will disqualify you from receiving any prize.

Use of Your Information

We will use any personal information that you give us in accordance with the law and our privacy policy for the purposes of the Prize, in the ways described in these terms and conditions, and for any marketing or other purposes you may indicate your consent to. We may also share your details with our service providers and agents for the purposes of providing prizes on our behalf, and any sponsors or Prize partners involved in this Prize.
If you have any questions or concerns about the use of your personal information please contact us by email.

Liability

We are not liable for any damage, loss or disappointment suffered by you taking part or not being able to take part in this Prize, or from being unable to claim your prize or otherwise participate in any relevant events or publications of any kind.
We are not liable for any indirect, consequential, special or incidental loss or damages of any kind.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, guarantees or warranties expressed or implied by law arising out of, or in connection with this Agreement.
Insofar as is permitted by law, The Hope Prize, employees and all partners in the prize will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the winner or accept any liability for any loss or damage as a result of taking up a prize.
Without limiting the generality of the above, our total liability to you or any third party (whether based on warranty, contract, tort, statute, misrepresentation or otherwise) arising out of, or in connection with, this Agreement, for any one event or a series of related events, will be limited to the submission fee.
In the event of unforeseen circumstances, we may alter, amend or foreclose the Prize without prior notice. We reserve the right to change these terms at any time. The Prize is void wherever prohibited by law.
These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, you submit to the jurisdiction of the Victorian courts.