Competition Rules

 Norman MacCaig Centenary Poetry Competition

• Closing date and time for receipt of entries: 31 July 2010, midnight GMT.
• The entry fee is £5 per poem or £12 for three. Fees are payable in sterling by cheque or postal order or Paypal. Cheques must be from a UK bank and should be payable to Top Left Corner with the sender's name and address on the back. Paypal payments should be made from the poetry competition page on the Top Left Corner website, www.topleftcorner.org
• Postal entries should be sent to Poetry Competition, Top Left Corner, 95 Achmelvich, Lochinver, IV27 4JB, UK. Each poem must be on a separate piece of paper. Please ensure that you use the correct postage.
• Email entries should be sent to competition@topleftcorner.org as attachments. The filename of email entries must be the title of the entry and must be either a .doc, .docx, .rtf, .wps or .txt file. If multiple poems are entered they must be in separate files.
• • Entries must be anonymous with no identifying marks other than the title. Please include a completed competition entry form or a separate sheet or file stating your name, address, phone number, email address and poem title(s).
• • Entrants can submit up to 3 (three) poems, provided the appropriate entry fee is included or made by Paypal.
• • Maximum of 50 lines per poem (no minimum).
• • The competition is open to anyone, including non-UK applicants, over 16 years.
• • Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, accepted for publication, published on any website or broadcast.
• • Entries must be in English.
• • Email entries will receive an email acknowledgement of payment. To receive acknowledgement of postal entry, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard or envelope marked ‘ACKNOWLEDGEMENT’. To receive the judges' report and full results in November 2010 enclose an A5 stamped self-addressed envelope marked 'RESULTS'. If posting from outside the UK, please send a post office international reply coupon rather than stamps.
• The winner of the adult first prize will be able to attend a Glencanisp creative retreat week of their choice, free of charge. If the winner attends the MacCaig Centenary week, 6-13 November 2010, Top Left Corner will reimburse reasonable second class travel expenses within the UK, up to £100. For all other weeks, the winner will be required to make and pay for their own travel arrangements to Lochinver.
• The second prize winner will receive £200, third prize £100 and ten runners up will receive £10 book tokens.
• Prize winners will be notified in writing by 20 September 2010. The list of prize winners will be displayed on the Top Left Corner website after the prize-giving ceremony on 12 November 2010.
• The copyright of each poem remains with the author. The authors of the winning poems must grant Top Left Corner the right to use the poems for one year from date of award.
• The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into.
• Competition entries cannot be returned.
• Alterations cannot be made to poems once they have been submitted.
• Entries submitted posthumously will not be eligible.
• No employee, or partners or relatives of employees, of Top Left Corner CIC may enter the competition
• Entry implies acceptance of all the rules. Failure to comply with the entry requirements will result in disqualification.