International Student Short Story Competition - Rules

  1. The UK International Student Short Story Competition is organised by the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA) and any international students working with the NCLA will be ineligible to enter for the competition.
  2. The competition is open to all current international (including EU) students in UK universities and those who have graduated within the last two years. To be eligible students must be taking (or have taken) a full degree course at a UK university.
  3. The entry fee is £5 per story (entrants can send as many stories as they like). Cheques should be made payable to Newcastle University. You may also pay online at: http://webstore.ncl.ac.uk/ (click on 'Read More' and then click on 'Tickets').
  4. All entries must be in English, and must be stories drawn from the experiences of living as an international student in the UK.
  5. Entrants should not have had a full-length book published.
  6. Entries must be the entrant’s own original work, must not have been previously published, and must not exceed 4,000 words.
  7. Entries must be double-spaced, must show no name, address or identifying marks other than the title and word count, and sent as an email attachment (in MS word document or Rich Text Document format) to ncenla@ncl.ac.uk or posted to NCLA, School of English, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU, and marked ‘competition’.
  8. Entries must be accompanied by a covering letter containing the entrant’s full names, contact details, UK University, country of origin, and the title and word count of the entrant’s story.
  9. No corrections can be made after receipt of entries.
  10. The deadline for submission of entries is 31 January 2012.
  11. Entries will not be returned or acknowledged.
  12. The decisions of the judging panel are final and binding, and no correspondence will be entered into about the results.
  13. Winners will be notified by April 2012.
  14. Details of the winners and the shortlisted entries will be available on the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts website (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla) and on the competition’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/UK-International-Students-Short-Story-Prize/140335025993039) from April 2012.
  15. The top three entries will be rewarded with cash prizes: 1st prize: £1000, 2nd prize: £500, 3rd prize: £200.
  16. The shortlist of stories will be eligible for publication in an anthology. The shortlisted entrants will retain the copyright to their work but grant the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts the non-exclusive right to publish free of charge their entries.
  17. The authors of the published stories will each be entitled to receive two complimentary copies of the anthology when published.
  18. The Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts reserves the right to edit the shortlisted entries in consultation with their authors.
  19. Entries must not infringe any copyright or contain defamatory or otherwise unlawful matter.
  20. Each winner agrees to the use of his/her name and photograph for publicity purposes.
  21. Entry implies acceptance of all the rules.
  22. Failure to comply with the entry requirements will result in disqualification.
  23. All enquiries about the competition should be directed to ncenla@ncl.ac.uk.
  24. The NCLA reserves the right to amend these Rules where it is deemed necessary to do so or where circumstances are beyond NCLA's control. Any changes to the Rules will be posted on the NCLA website.