Frequently Asked Questions
How do I enter the competition?
There are two ways of entering our competition:
1. You can submit your entry using our online form, which you can access by clicking here.
2. You can send your entry by post. You will need to fill out a postal entry form and include it in the envelope with your entry. You can find the entry form by clicking here. If you can’t print out the form, you are welcome to write out the key information that we ask for on a piece of paper and include this with your entry.
Do you accept cheques for postal entries?
As a last resort, we will accept cheques as payment for your entry however we ask that participants send cash if at all possible please.
We appreciate that many people feel uncomfortable sending cash by post. For this reason, we commit that the King Lear Prizes will protect you from any risk if the cash goes missing. If we were to receive your entry with no cash inside, you would be entered into our competition as usual.
What is the Chairman’s Prize?
The Chairman’s Prize is the prize that we run for all of the excellent entries that don’t quite fit the criteria of our three categories: Art; Short Story; and Poetry. We accept music and drama for the Chairman’s Prize. We also accept art, poetry and short stories from entrants who don’t fit the eligibility criteria of our main competition as part of the Chairman’s Prize.
The process for entering is the same as the main competition, as are the deadline and the prizes on offer.
You can enter using our online form here. Select “Other” (for Chairman’s Prize) when you reach the relevant question.
Can I enter music or drama to your competition?
We accept music and drama for the Chairman’s Prize. The Chairman’s Prize is the prize that we run for all of the excellent entries that don’t quite fit the criteria of our three categories: Art; Short Story; and Poetry.
The process for entering is the same as the main competition, as are the deadline and the prizes on offer.
You can enter using our online form here. Select “Other” (for Chairman’s Prize) when you reach the relevant question.
Why do you charge an entry fee?
We made the difficult decision to begin charging an entry fee for the competition in 2021. This has enabled us to make the competition self-sustaining. The entry fee goes towards paying for a project manager, prizes (£200 for the winner of each category, £50 for the shortlisted entrants), the website, judges etc. The money raised goes back into running the competition.
We don’t make any profit from this competition. The competition is run with the purpose of increasing participation in the arts amongst older people.
We are a registered charity and you can see our income and expenditure here.
If anyone is struggling to pay the entry fee for whatever reason, they can contact us and we will waive the fee. We don’t want anyone to miss out.
Do I have to enter a new work?
At least one of your entries must have been created since Monday 17 April. The concept behind the work and even the initial attempt could have begun before this date but it must have only been finished after 17 April.
The aim of the King Lear Prizes is to encourage active participation in the arts because we believe that it is beneficial to health and wellbeing. This rule is designed to support that ambition by encouraging our participants to either create something new or to approach their existing material with a new perspective.
I thought I submitted my work but I haven’t received a confirmation email. Please can you check?
If you contact us explaining the issue, we can check whether your entry has been submitted. There may be a delay before we get back to you.
If, after you submitted your work, you arrived at a screen containing a green tick, we have received your work.
Why can’t I upload my document to your online form?
When you are entering your work, click on the box in our online form which says “Browse Files”. This should give you the option to search for your document.
Please check that your document is a file type that our online form accepts. We suggest uploading either a Word Document or a PDF, however our system accepts all of the below file types:
zip, mp3, mp4, mpg, mpeg-4, mpeg, mp2, mpv, m4p, m4v, qt, mov, wmv, wma, flv, swf, avi, avchd, webm, mkv, ogg, pdf, doc, docx, ods, txt, rtf, zip, mp3, wma, mpg, flv, avi, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, tiff, eps, ai, tiff, indd, raw
If you are still having trouble, we have heard from many of our participants that it is useful to switch browsers i.e. try using Google Chrome rather than Safari or vice versa.
If the above doesn’t work, please let a member of our team know and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Why won’t the online form accept my credit card details?
We are aware of an issue with Stripe, our payment provider, whereby some participants’ credit card details haven’t been accepted because it wrongly states that their credit card has expired.
If you encounter this issue, we have heard from many of our participants that it is useful to switch browsers i.e. try using Google Chrome rather than Safari or vice versa.
If the above doesn’t work, please let a member of our team know and we will get back to you as soon as we can.