Terms & Conditions

Submission of entry is taken to be an unqualified acceptance of these rules:

  1. The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
  2. Stories entered must be in English and within the word count specified for the category being entered into.
  3. Stories entered must be the Author’s own original work, written independently.
  4. On the date of submission, stories entered must not have won another competition or have been published outside of your academic institution. You must notify us if your story is published outside of your academic institution, or you are shortlisted or win another competition with it, prior to the date that the shortlist is announced. If we believe there is a conflict of interest, we reserve the right to withdraw your entry from consideration.
  5. You may submit multiple entries. Each entry must be submitted separately and will be considered a separate entry.
  6. Entries must be submitted digitally, as a word .doc or .docx. Please contact charlotte@wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org if you have any questions about file type.
  7. There must be no reference to the author's name or personal details in the manuscript. This is to ensure that our judges do not know the names of the authors of the entries they are reading.
  8. If your entry is shortlisted it will be published on Worldreader’s BookSmart app. By entering the competition, you agree to your story being published by Worldreader in this way. The story will be online and available free of charge for readers anywhere in the world there is internet. The author still owns the story.
  9. We may also publish extracts of shortlisted and prizewinning entries on our website and in other publicity for the awards and the Foundation. Authors names and ages will be published if they are a winner, shortlisted or commended.
  10. If your entry is shortlisted, we require an image of the Author to use for promotional purposes, including for example, website and social media content. If the Author is under the age of 18, we require permission from the Author's parent or legal guardian.
  11. We cannot accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant entering the competition. 
  12. These Terms & Conditions are governed by the exclusive laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. 


We reserve the right:

  • to not award some or all of the prizes, where circumstances are beyond our control, or if the judges' overall verdict is that the level of entries is not up to the required standard. 
  • to extend the judging process should the number of entries exceed expectations. 
  • to disqualify any entry if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the entry does not comply with these Terms & Conditions. 
  • to amend these Terms & Conditions where it is deemed necessary to do.

We will act in accordance with current UK data protection legislation in relation to your personal data.