2025 Competition Rules​

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General 

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1. Entrants to all competitions must be a minimum of 18 years old at time of entry.

2. The main Hastings Book Festival prize entry is open to all, including non-UK based writers. There is no geographical restriction on entrants.

3. The Sussex Prize is open to residents of East or West Sussex.

4. The Founder's Prize is open to new writers living in Hastings or St Leonards on Sea

5. Closing date for all entries is 10pm on 30 June 2025. Late entries will not be judged.

6. A full list of the winners will be published on our website shortly before the Hastings Book Festival in September

7. Entry is confirmation of your acceptance of all rules and conditions.

8. Judging is anonymous and all  judges’ decisions are final.

9. There are no refunds.

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Word count 

1. Hastings Book Festival main competition and Sussex prize for short fiction: 2,500 words per story. 

2. Hastings Book Festival main competition and Sussex Prize for poetry: 40 lines per poem.

3. Founder's Prize for creative non-fiction: 1,000 words on the theme of Reflections. 

4. Entries over the word count will not be judged.

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How to submit your entry please read carefully and ensure you follow this guidance!

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1. Submissions must be written in English.

2. Remove all identifying details such as name and email from your document and filename.

3. Please format your document with 12-point font Arial or Times New Roman. For Fiction, please double-space your text.

4. We can only accept entries in MS-Word compatible formats, which is .docx. Please do not upload PDFs, Apple Pages or any other format. Unfortunately entries in other formats will not be judged.

5. Double-check your document before uploading. Alterations after submission will not be possible.

6. For the Hastings Book Festival and Sussex prize you may submit as many stories and poems as you like. You can upload up to three at a time (and see Entry Fees below).

7. If uploading multiple entries, put them all into a single .docx file. Each entry starts on a new page with it’s own title (and see below on Entry Fees).

8. If you live in East or West Sussex, simply indicate this on the form and your entry (or entries) will be considered for the Sussex prize.

9. If you live in Hastings or St Leonards on Sea and you have never won a writing competition before and you wish to enter the Founder's prize, simply indicate this on the form.

10. For the Founders Prize there is maximum one entry per person and the competition closes when we receive 50 submissions. This will be updated on the website.

 

Rights

1. Submitted work must be wholly & entirely the work of the entrant, and the entrant must own the full publication rights to the entry.

2. We aim to celebrate the creativity and talent of human writers and stories written with the support of generative AI will be disqualified.

3. We are interested in discovering & amplifying new work, therefore stories/poems which have previously been published, or been awarded a prize, are ineligible for this contest.

4. Simultaneous submissions are welcomed. If a piece you have submitted gets published or wins an award elsewhere, please email comps@hastingsbookfest.org to let us know. Include “Withdrawal” in the subject line.

5. Only entries submitted through the Hastings Book Festival website will be eligible. 

6. Winning entrants agree to have their story published by Hastings Book Festival in electronic format. Hastings Book Festival holds publishing rights for six months, after which these rights revert to the author.

 

Entry Fees 

1. We offer a small number of free or reduced entry fee places (one submission per person) for UK-based writers who are struggling financially and would benefit from support to enable entry. If this applies to you, email info@hastingsbookfest.org with 'Competition' in the subject line and let us know your circumstances.

2. Every entry must be accompanied by an entry fee.

3. Single entry fee is £8.25. Two entries: £15. Three entries £21.

4. The maximum number of entries you can make in a single transaction is three, however you are welcome to submit more than this by filling in another entry form and going through the process again.

5. To qualify for the multi-entry discount you must make all submissions within the same genre (ie 2-3 entries for Fiction or 2-3 entries for Poetry). These must be uploaded together in one .docx document, each entry beginning on a new page, formatted as outlined above.

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