The Walrus Foundation and the Hal Jackman Foundation are proud to announce the return of the Walrus Poetry Prize. The contest, open to all Canadian residents, will be judged by award-winning poets Ken Babstock and Katia Grubisic, and The Walrus magazine’s poetry editor, Michael Lista.
- The winner, to be selected blindly, will receive $2,500, and his or her poem will be published in the December 2013 issue of The Walrus.
- On September 1, the five finalists’ poems will be posted online at this address, where readers can vote for the $2,500 Readers’ Choice Award.
- Winners will be announced in October.
Submit your work to the Walrus Poetry Prize using the form on this webpage. For each poem entered, entrants must pay a $25 fee, and will receive a complimentary one-year, ten-issue subscription or renewal to The Walrus magazine, starting with the October 2013 issue.*
* Full contest rules and regulations below.
Entry form
Upon successfully submitting, you will be redirected to a PayPal page to process your entry fee. Only submissions with valid payments will be considered for judging. You may return to this website once the process is complete.
Rules and Regulations of the 2013 Walrus Poetry Contest
Eligibility
The Walrus Poetry Contest is open to all residents of Canada eighteen years of age or older as of May 1, 2013, except employees or retirees of the Walrus Foundation or the Hal Jackman Foundation.
Previously published and unpublished poets may submit their poems, providing that the entries are unpublished works and are not under consideration for any other contest or prize at the time of submission. Only one poet may be named for each entry.
All works that have appeared in print or on the Internet, including self-published works, as well as works that have been broadcast or delivered before a public audience, are considered previously published and are therefore not eligible for the competition. All works that have been submitted to any other contest or prize and are under consideration at the time of submission are not eligible for the competition.
Rights
Entrants warrant they wrote their poems and own the rights to their submissions. Entrants will hold the Walrus Foundation harmless from and against any and all losses, damages, costs, or other expenses arising from any claims, whatever their nature, resulting directly or indirectly from breach of this warranty. By submitting their poems, entrants grant the following licences to the Walrus Foundation:
- The right to first print publication of the winning poems, and the right to reproduce and publish the poems in the magazine, on its website, and on any and all prospective derivative products, including digital projects.
- Winners agree, free of charge, to have their names and/or pictures, their poems, and/or their voices used for advertising purposes related to this competition.
- All entries must be original, unpublished works and must not be longer than fifty (50) lines. Line count excludes titles. Entries that exceed the specified line count will be disqualified.
- Submissions should be one poem and not a series. Each poem in a series of poems will be treated as an individual entry and will be judged accordingly. Participants may submit as many entries as they wish. For each poem entered, entrants must pay a $25 fee, as outlined below, and will receive a complimentary one-year, ten-issue subscription or renewal to The Walrus magazine, starting with the October 2013 issue.
How to submit
- All submissions must be made via this web page’s entry form, including payment of the $25 fee as outlined below.
- All submissions will be judged anonymously. Entrants’ names must not appear anywhere in their documents or filenames.
Fees
A fee of $25 (tax included) is required for each entry. The competition is not-for-profit, with all fees going toward administrative costs. Entries will not be eligible until payment has been received. The entry fee will not be refunded if a submission is deemed ineligible. All submissions are final. Entry fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.
Deadline
All entries must be submitted and payments made before June 30, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). Winners will be announced in October 2013.
Judging
Works are judged anonymously, based on originality and verse style. Submissions are processed and judged using a two-tiered system, by Walrus poetry editor Michael Lista and poets Ken Babstock and Katia Grubisic. Five finalists will be selected, and the public will vote online the Readers’ Choice winner between September 1 and September 30, 2013. All judges’ decisions are final, with no exceptions.
Prizes
Walrus Poetry Prize winner receives: publication in The Walrus and at TheWalrus.ca, and $2,500.
Readers’ Choice winner receives: publication in The Walrus and at TheWalrus.ca, and $2,500.
Entrants retain copyright of their entries.
To be declared a winner, entrants must meet all of the conditions described in these regulations. The prizewinners shall sign a waiver attesting to their eligibility and that of their poems, as stipulated in these regulations, and releasing the Walrus Foundation from all liability for any damage or loss resulting from participation in this competition, or arising from the awarding, acceptance, or use of the prize.
Prizes shall be accepted as is and may not be exchanged or transferred. No substitutions will be allowed.
If prizes cannot be awarded as described in these rules, the Walrus Foundation reserves the right to substitute any prize or prize component with another of comparable value. If no suitable entries are received for publication in The Walrus, the magazine reserves the right to cancel the contest.
Refusal to accept the prizes releases the Walrus Foundation and its affiliates, as well as their respective directors, officers, and employees, from any obligation to the winners.
General
Should participants plagiarize or make any false statement, they shall be automatically disqualified from the competition. The Walrus Foundation shall assume no liability resulting from losses, delays, incorrect postal or email addresses, typographical errors, technical, computer, or telephone malfunctions, loss or theft of computer or telephone data, damage to software or computer equipment, fraudulent calls, or any other mistake.
The Walrus Foundation shall assume no liability whatsoever for any cases in which its inability to act results from an event or situation beyond its control, including but not limited to a strike, a lockout, or any other labour dispute at its place of business or the places of business of the organizations or companies whose services are used to hold this competition.
All personal information, such as entrants’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses, is collected solely for the purposes of administering this competition and shall not be used for any other purpose without entrants’ consent. By providing this information, entrants consent to its being used for the stated purposes.
By entering, participants agree to abide by the competition rules. This competition is subject to all applicable federal, provincial, and municipal legislation.