NIFCA 2025 LITERARY ARTS – JUNIORS ENTRY FORM

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE FESTIVAL OF CREATIVE ARTS (NIFCA) 2025

LITERARY ARTS 

RULES AND REGULATIONS 

 

Junior Prose and Poetry Competition

1.  NAME OF THE COMPETITION

 

1.      The name of the competition shall be the NIFCA Junior Prose and Poetry Competition and is organized and administered by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF).

 

2. ELIGIBILITY

 

1.      Persons wishing to enter the Competition must be:

 

• A citizen of Barbados or
• Legally resident in Barbados
• Pursuing legal residence (evidence must be provided)

 

2.      Entrants in the competition must be at least 12 years old by September 1^st 2025. No participant should be older than 17 years old by November 30^th 2025 
3.       The NCF reserves the right to satisfy itself that the conditions relating to age are met.

 

4.      Participants must have their registration forms signed by their teacher, parent or guardian.

 

 

3.   ENTRY TO THE COMPETITION

 

1.      Participants must enter directly with the NCF by properly completing the NCF approved Entry Form online at NCF.BB and submitting the literary work in PDF format via the same form.

 

2.       Online entry forms should be submitted on or before Friday, September 12th 2025, no later than 11:59 p.m.

 

3.       Entrants who fail to register by the deadline indicated at 3.2 above shall not be eligible for participation in the Competition.

 

4.       Submissions may include poetry and/or short stories.

 

5.        Each participant may submit no more than 5 poems and/or 2 short stories.

 

6.      All entries to the competition should be original work. Where there is a complaint that an entry does not conform to this requirement, the complainant should produce evidence to support the complaint. The competitor should also be prepared to present evidence of originality, where necessary.

 

7.       The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is strictly prohibited.

 

8.         The NCF reserves the right to use any means deemed necessary and suitable to determine that the work submitted is one hundred percent (100%) human written.

 

9.         The penalty for submitting unoriginal work shall be disqualification of the work from the Competition. Participants found to have entered plagiarised work will be disqualified in full from the Competition. In addition, the participant may be barred from entering the NIFCA Literary Arts Competition for the next two (2) consecutive years.

 

10.        In the event that work has been rewarded and is subsequently found to have been plagiarised and/or AI generated, the reward will be rescinded and any monetary awards must be refunded by the participant. Additionally, the participant may be barred from entering the NIFCA Literary Arts Competition for the next two (2) consecutive years.

 

11.      The NCF reserves the right to use any means deemed necessary and suitable to determine that the work submitted is in fact the work of the entrant, without significant help/instruction from a parent/guardian/teacher/other. This includes but is not limited to requesting samples of other works by the entrants, interviews with the entrant, etc.

 

12.      The National Cultural Foundation retains the first local publication rights to publish and edit recommended entries. Any person who makes a submission or participates in this competition thereby agrees to grant The National Cultural Foundation first local publication rights to publish and edit recommended entries.

 

4. ARBITRATION

 

1.      Prior to the deadline for submission of Entry Forms, the NCF shall appoint an Arbiter to decide and adjudicate on any appeals, complaints and matters in dispute or requiring clarification arising from these Rules.

 

2.      All complaints related to the Competition should be submitted, in writing, to the Arbiter, in a sealed envelope addressed as follows:

 

The Arbiter

National Cultural Foundation

West Terrace

St. James

 

3.       All decisions made by the Arbiter shall be final and binding on the competitors and the NCF.

 

5.  ADJUDICATION

 

1.     A panel of Judges shall be selected for the adjudication of the Competition.

 

2.    The NCF shall determine the composition of the panel of judges and shall appoint a member of the panel to be Chief Judge.

 

3.    The names of the judges shall be publicly announced before the commencement of the Competition.

 

4.   All queries regarding the Competition’s adjudication process and/or outcome should be directed to the Arbiter as outlined in 4 a) above.

 

 

 

 6.  SUBMISSIONS

 

1.      Each entry must be original and unpublished

 

2.       There should be only one entry form per person.

 

3.        The entrant’s name should appear only on the entry form. It shall NOT appear on the work itself. Work with the author’s name printed on it will be disqualified.

 

4.      Each piece of prose must be no more than 2000 words in length. (The word length must be clearly stated at the end of entry e.g. Word Count 1500)

 

5.       Pages for prose entries should be numbered with a word from the title and the page number. For example, page 7 of a work entitled Leaving Bridgetown might be marked “Bridgetown – 7”.

 

6.        The first page should not be numbered.

 

7.      Poetry entries should be single spaced.

 

8.      All entries should be neatly presented and clearly typed with a black font of 12 in Times New Roman.

 

9.      Each contributing author should be clearly indicated on the registration form submitted.

 

10.        No computer graphics or any designs are to appear on the entered pieces.

 

11.      Judges will read all qualifying entries.

 

12.        The National Cultural Foundation reserves the right not to award any prize. 

 

7. PROMOTION

 

The participant agrees that the NCF shall be entitled to use his/her entry in whole or in part, and/or his/her image or likeness in the promotion of the competition and other related NIFCA events.

 

8. JUDGING CRITERIA

 

 

Entries in the 12 -17 Junior competition shall be judged in the following areas: 

 

I. POETRY: – Originality, interpretation of subject, rendering of ideas creative use of language, Use of poetic devices, attention to form (100%)

 

a) Entrants submitting limericks and Haiga/Haikus must submit a collection of 2 poems which will constitute being one poem.

 

II. PROSE FICTION: – Plot -sequential development of storyline, setting, mood; Command of Language- spelling and punctuation, use of figurative language, etc.; Characterisation- use of dialogue, character development, defined characters etc.; Impact- originality, overall textual structure, theme etc. (100 %)

 

 

9. PRIZES 

 

 Prose

1.     The winning short story will be awarded a cash prize of BBD$2,500.00.

 

 Poetry

2.     The winning poem will be awarded BBD$2,500.00.

3.     Certificates will be awarded as follows

 

 Gold        91-100  points

 Silver       81-90  points

 Bronze     70-80  points

 

 

 JUNIOR INTEREST AWARDS

 

1.    Literary Arts Teacher’s Prize – This prize will be presented to the teacher through whom the most successful number of pieces are entered. This will take the form of a  cash award of BBD$500.00 and plaque.

 

2.    Most Outstanding Junior Entrant – will be awarded to a junior who has earned a medal in all of their submissions. This will take the form of a monetary award of BBD$400.

 

3.    Most Original Entry by a Junior Entrant – this award will be given to a junior entrant whose work is deemed original in outlook and composition by anyone in this category. This will take the form of a monetary award of BBD$400.

 

4.    Most Promising Junior Entrant – Award will be given to reward and encourage a promising junior writer.

 

5.    Most Promising Prose: ages 7-11, 12-17

 

6.    Most Promising Poetry: ages 7-11, 12-17

 

7.    Honourable Mentions are given to encourage junior writers who show literary potential. These take the form of a letter acknowledging such for non medal winning entries that the judges consider are worthy of such.

 

 

General queries should be directed to CO- Literary Arts at the National Cultural Foundation at telephone number 417-6625, or email karra-price@ncfbarbados.org