Proverse Hong Kong publishes internationally from Hong Kong mainly high quality literary and general titles but also including some travel, sport, young author, educational and academic works. We accept submissions from non-native speakers of English as well as from native speakers.
In 2008, we established the annual international Proverse Prize for unpublished book-length non-fiction, fiction or poetry submitted in English. Semi-finalists have included writers born, resident or previously resident in the following: Andorra, Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, The Bahamas, The Netherlands, Peoples' Republic of China, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Opens for entries 7 May each year (closing date 30 June).
In 2016, we launched the annual international Proverse Poetry Prize for a single poem submitted in English. Placed winners have included writers born, resident or previously resident in the following: Australia, Bulgaria, Cuba, Estonia, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Macau, New Zealand, the Peoples' Republic of China, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA. Opens for entries no later than 7 May each year (closing date 30 June).
Entries to both prizes are invited from anywhere in the world and are open to all over eighteen years old, whatever their nationality, residence or citizenship.
The Proverse Prize for Unpublished Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Poetry
(Book-length work)
This annual international prize, established in 2008, is open to all who are at least eighteen years old, whatever their residence, nationality or citizenship, including new, emerging, experienced, and established writers.
Please find below an entry form, a facility for payment of the entry fee, and a means of submitting a soft copy of the work you wish to enter.
If you use these facilities, please also *mail a hard copy and soft file of your entered work, together with evidence of payment of your entry fee, as explained in the Entry Documents found at www.proversepublishing.com, as well as a hard copy of all pages of Sections D and E of the Entry Documents found at http://www.proversepublishing.com. These should be signed, and dated by you where required and every page initialled, and sent to the address given in those Entry Documents as found at www.proversepublishing.com.
*If you would like the prize administrators to print out a copy of your entered work for you, at a modest fee, please request them to do so by means of the entry form below.
The Entry Documents at www.proversepublishing.com provide comprehensive information, including the names of previous winners, the titles and genres of winning works. If there is any discrepancy, the Entry Documents at www.proversepublishing.com shall prevail.
It is regretted that no correspondence can be entered into in relation to individual entries.
We look forward to reading your work!
The Proverse Prize for Unpublished Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Poetry
(Book-length work)
This annual international prize, established in 2008, is open to all who are at least eighteen years old, whatever their residence, nationality or citizenship, including new, emerging, experienced, and established writers.
Please find below an entry form, a facility for payment of the entry fee, and a means of submitting a soft copy of the work you wish to enter.
If you use these facilities, please also *mail a hard copy and soft file of your entered work, together with evidence of payment of your entry fee, as explained in the Entry Documents found at www.proversepublishing.com, as well as a hard copy of all pages of Sections D and E of the Entry Documents found at http://www.proversepublishing.com. These should be signed, and dated by you where required and every page initialled, and sent to the address given in those Entry Documents as found at www.proversepublishing.com.
*If you would like the prize administrators to print out a copy of your entered work for you, at a modest fee, please request them to do so by means of the entry form below.
The Entry Documents at www.proversepublishing.com provide comprehensive information, including the names of previous winners, the titles and genres of winning works. If there is any discrepancy, the Entry Documents at www.proversepublishing.com shall prevail.
It is regretted that no correspondence can be entered into in relation to individual entries.
We look forward to reading your work!
International Proverse Poetry Prize (Single Poems) 2024 (Opens for entries: 7 May 2024. Closing date: 30 June 2024) Open to all who are aged 18 or above, whatever their residence, citizenship, nationality or place of birth. New, emerging, experienced and established writers are all welcome. You are invited to enter in English ONE OR MORE poems written by yourself, previously unpublished in English, in which you own the copyright.
Rules, Terms & Conditions of Entry (with full details) By entering the competition, you certify you are at least 18 years old and accept the rules, terms and conditions in this document as a whole. You may enter a poem / poems you originally wrote in English and/or a poem/ poems you originally wrote in another language, which is/are previously unpublished in English and in which you own the copyright. You may enter a poem / poems written by you, which is/are previously published in a language other than English, and in which you retain the copyright. If another person has translated your poem(s) for you, you must acknowledge this and confirm that you own the copyright in the translation. If another person has edited your poem(s) for you, you must acknowledge this and confirm that you own the copyright in your poem(s). Proverse Hong Kong disclaims responsibility for any misrepresentation on the part of each and every entrant.
Poems may be (a) on ANY subject or theme CHOSEN BY YOURSELF, OR (b) on the subject or theme, "TOGETHER", interpreted in any way you choose. You may use any form, style or genre. Poems should be no more than 30 lines each, excluding the title and any blank lines. However, if the judges so decide, any submitted poem of more than 30 lines may be considered an eligible entry on the same footing as submitted poems of 30 lines or fewer. Please do not include photographs or illustrations. An ENTRY FEE needs to be paid for each poem. An entry fee once paid may not be reimbursed and you may not withdraw a poem from the competition once you have entered it. Entry fee per poem: US$14.00. Entries may be submitted through our online submissions manager, available from no later than 7 May: https://proversehongkong.submittable.com/submit OR, for Hong Kong entrants who wish to pay in HK$ (not available through the submissions manager) directly to Proverse Hong Kong. (Please see details on the website, proversepublishers.com.) THE AWARDS AND AWARD EVENTS Cash prizes are offered as follows: 1st prize; US$100.00; 2nd prize: US$45.00; 3rd prizes (up to four winners): US$20.00. If, in the sole judgement of the judges, there are no poems of a high enough quality for any or each of the prizes to be awarded, the prize or prizes will not be awarded. Entry fees will not be returned but put towards the continued running of the competition. You are advised to be careful when submitting your poem(s) as no editing is permitted prior to judging. If you really wish to edit your poem(s) which you have already submitted for this award, please enter the edited poem(s) as new entries, explaining at the bottom of each poem that you wish it/them to be considered a replacement for the poem(s) already submitted. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence can be entered into about the results. If in the sole judgement of the judges, sufficient high-quality poems are submitted, a PROVERSE POETRY PRIZE ANTHOLOGY will be published by Proverse Hong Kong in a paperback available for online purchase and/or as an E-book available for online purchase, no later than one year after the closing date for entries, and generally earlier. Your name will be published with your poem(s) unless you explicitly state at the time of entering your poem(s) that you do not wish your name to appear. Depending on the editorial policy from year to year, you may be asked to submit a brief biography and / or a headshot of yourself to be included in the anthology. You may be invited but not required to provide a back-story for your poem(s) and/or notes to explain certain references, vocabulary or (cultural) background if you judge it would be helpful for a broad and international readership. No poet may win more than one prize among the first-, second- or third-prizes in any year but it is permissible for more than one poem by a single poet to be awarded a place in the Proverse Poetry Prize anthology. If in the sole judgement of the judges, not enough high-quality poems are submitted to justify the publication of an anthology in any year, first-, second-, or third-prize winning poems (if any) will be published online (e.g. on the Proverse website, htttps://www.proversepublishers.com, and/or the Proverse facebook page (/ProversePress), and/or in the Proverse ENewsletter and/or similar) no later than one year after the closing date for entries. The 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prizes (if any) will be awarded at the same time as the winning poems are published online or soon afterwards, except, if an event is scheduled to take place at which the anthology, in which the prize-winning work appears, is to be launched (whether at a physical location or online), the awards will be presented at, or immediately after, that event. If such event is cancelled or postponed for any reason, then the awards will be given out after the date of the scheduled or postponed event or after the winning poems are published online, or soon afterwards, whichever is later, and no later than one year after the closing date for entries. 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prize-winners (if any) and those who win a place in the anthology (if any) will be informed individually about their result. All are requested to keep their result confidential until Proverse Hong Kong has announced the full results as explained elsewhere in these Rules, Terms and Conditions of Entry. Those whose work is not awarded a 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize or a place in the anthology will be informed individually as soon as the judges have made their decision and certainly before the public announcement of results. This will be done either as an attachment to an email message sent from proverse@netvigator.com and/or through the submission manager, submittable.com. Please ensure that you are alert to messages from each of these sources. First-, second- and third-prize winners (if any), as well as those who have won a place in the Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology (if any) may receive INVITATIONS TO ATTEND EVENTS IN HONG KONG at which a) the results will be announced; and/or b) when the anthology (if any) will be launched; and winners will themselves be responsible for all arrangements and costs of attendance, including but not limited to a modest event fee (about HK$250.00 = approx US$34.00), visas, international and / or local transport, health and travel insurance, accommodation and meals, etc. If 1st-, 2nd- or 3rd-prize winners are not able to attend, they may send or be invited to send a brief message which the organisers will consider for reading out or displaying at the event.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS scheduled for Thursday 21 November 2024. (1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prize winners (if any) and winners of a place in the anthology (if any) will be informed before this.) PUBLICATION OF THE PROVERSE POETRY PRIZE ANTHOLOGY 2024 (if any) scheduled for April/May 2025.
YOU WILL RETAIN COPYRIGHT in your poem(s). By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize, you unconditionally grant to Proverse Hong Kong a royalty-free fee-free irrevocable perpetual non-exclusive worldwide and sub-licensable licence excercisable at any time by Proverse Hong Kong in its sole and entire discretion, to publish your poem(s) including but not limited to (A) online including but not limited to the website proversepublishers.com and/or on the Proverse Facebook page (presently www.facebook.com/ProversePress) and/or in the Proverse Hong Kong ENewsletter and/or (B) in a Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology as described above. Proverse Hong Kong will own the copyright in any such Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology and its reproduction and licensing rights. By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize, you agree not to publish or permit to be published your entered poem(s) in any way until, either, Proverse Hong Kong has published your poem(s) online and/or in a Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology as described above, or until you receive a communication from Proverse Hong Kong sent either as an attachment from the email address, proverse@netvigator.com, or by means of the submission manager, submittable.com, that your entered poem(s) is not a winner of the first-, second- or a third-prize and /or will not be awarded a place in the Anthology. If your poem(s) is/are included in the Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology, you agree to credit Proverse Hong Kong if the work is subsequently reproduced online or in print.
EDITING AND PUBLICATION: If the Proverse Hong Kong editors have any query about the text and/or layout of any poem to be published, Proverse Hong Kong will contact the author, most probably as an email attachment from the Email account, proverse@netvigator.com, and the author will respond to the best of his or her ability within ten days. If no response is received, the Proverse Hong Kong editors may use their best judgement to make any amendment to the text and/or layout that they deem necessary.
If you wish to use a “PEN-NAME” (which shall be a specific formulation of your legal name -- for example, if your name is Jane Mary Brown, your pen-name could be JM Brown, Jane M Brown or J Mary Brown), you are expected to advise Proverse Hong Kong about this as soon as you are advised that your poem is a cash-prize winner or the winner of a place in the Anthology. Proverse Hong Kong will be responsible for and have the final decision in relation to all aspects of preparation of print-ready and/or publication-ready files and their delivery for printing and/or publication to include but not being limited to publishing project management and scheduling, copy-editing, layout design and the setting, cover design, proof-reading and delivery of files in appropriate format for printing and/or publication.
PRIZE MONEY a) will be sent by PayPal OR by US$ cheque as Proverse Hong Kong will decide and Proverse Hong Kong disclaims responsibility for any PayPal or bank charges or fees or if applicable for the rate and cost of currency conversion. b) The following exceptions apply. In the case of entries from Hong Kong, a HK$ cheque will be sent. (For Hong Kong entrants, the cash prizes are: 1st prize; HK$750.00; 2nd prize: HK$330.00; 3rd prizes (up to four winners): HK$150.00.) For those who wish to enter from the United Kingdom and pay their fee(s) in GBP pounds sterling, there is a separate parallel listing of this competition and please see the details there.
c) If the prize-money is sent by cheque, this will be by registered mail. Proverse Hong Kong expressly disclaims responsibility for the non-receipt of any such cheque and will not replace any cheque that is reported not to have been received. If a cheque cannot be paid because the winner has provided incorrect details, a new cheque cannot be issued.
d) If any winner of a cash prize does not reply within 30 days to any request from Proverse Hong Kong about the address to which a cash prize is to be sent and/or details about how a cheque is to be made out (e. g. the payee), then the prize will be regarded as undeliverable and will not be awarded. The sum not paid out will be put towards the continued administration of the Proverse Poetry Prize.
SPECIAL CASE (TWO AUTHORS):If you wish to enter a poem which you wrote with another person, each of you should enter the poem, noting your joint authorship and the name of both authors, complete the entry form and send in the entry fee. If the poem is awarded a prize, the prize will be shared equally between the two of you. If the poem is chosen to appear in the anthology, both names will appear as authors. It is regretted that no correspondence can be entered into in relation to individual entries. By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize YOU AGREE TO AND ARE BOUND BY the Rules, Terms and Conditions of Entry (with full details) set out above and below. If there is any discrepancy between the information on the proversepublishing.com website and that available here, the former shall prevail.
JUDGING will take place during the period, mid-July to end August 2024. To preserve the integrity of the judging process and to keep the focus on entrants and their entered poems, the judges’ names are not announced.
PRESENTATION: Please put the title of your poem(s) at the head of your poem(s) and please do not include your name as entries are considered anonymously. Please ensure the title at the head of your poem(s) is the same as the title you give elsewhere in the entry process.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING YOUR WORK!
International Proverse Poetry Prize (Single Poems) 2024 (payment in pounds sterling). (Opens for entries: 7 May 2024. Closing date: 30 June 2024) Open to all who are aged 18 or above, whatever their residence, citizenship, nationality or place of birth. New, emerging, experienced and established writers are all welcome. You are invited to enter in English ONE OR MORE poems written by yourself, previously unpublished in English, in which you own the copyright.
Rules, Terms & Conditions of Entry (with full details) By entering the competition, you certify you are at least 18 years old and accept and will abide by the rules, terms and conditions in this document as a whole. You may enter a poem / poems you originally wrote in English and/or a poem/ poems you originally wrote in another language, which is/are previously unpublished in English and in which you own the copyright. You may enter a poem / poems written by you, which is/are previously published in a language other than English, and in which you retain the copyright. If another person has translated your poem(s) for you, you must acknowledge this and confirm that you own the copyright in the translation. If another person has edited your poem(s) for you, you must acknowledge this and confirm that you own the copyright in your poem(s). Proverse Hong Kong disclaims responsibility for any misrepresentation on the part of each and every entrant.
Poems may be (a) on ANY subject or theme CHOSEN BY YOURSELF, OR (b) on the subject or theme, "TOGETHER", interpreted in any way you choose. You may use any form, style or genre. Poems should be no more than 30 lines each, excluding the title and any blank lines. However, if the judges so decide, any submitted poem of more than 30 lines may be considered an eligible entry on the same footing as submitted poems of 30 lines or fewer. Please do not include photographs or illustrations. An ENTRY FEE needs to be paid for each poem. An entry fee once paid may not be reimbursed and you may not withdraw a poem from the competition once you have entered it. Entry fee per poem: £12.00. If you wish to pay the entry fee in US$, please see the parallel listing which provides for this. Entries may be submitted through our online submissions manager, available from no later than 7 May: https://proversehongkong.submittable.com/submit OR, for Hong Kong entrants who wish to pay in HK$ (not available through the submissions manager) directly to Proverse Hong Kong. (Please see details on the website, https://www.proversepublishers.com.)
THE AWARDS AND AWARD EVENTS Cash prizes are offered as follows: 1st prize; £80.00; 2nd prize: £35.00; 3rd prizes (up to four winners): £15.00. If, in the sole judgement of the judges, there are no poems of a high enough quality for any or each of the prizes to be awarded, the prize or prizes will not be awarded. Entry fees will not be returned but put towards the continued running of the competition. You are advised to be careful when submitting your poem(s) as no editing is permitted prior to judging. If you really wish to edit your poem(s) which you have already submitted for this award, please enter the edited poem(s) as new entries, explaining at the bottom of each poem that you wish it/them to be considered a replacement for the poem(s) already submitted. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence can be entered into about the results. If in the sole judgement of the judges, sufficient high-quality poems are submitted, a PROVERSE POETRY PRIZE ANTHOLOGY will be published by Proverse Hong Kong in a paperback available for online purchase and/or as an E-book available for online purchase, no later than one year after the closing date for entries, and generally earlier. Your name will be published with your poem(s) unless you explicitly state at the time of entering your poem(s) that you do not wish your name to appear. Depending on the editorial policy from year to year, you may be asked to submit a brief biography and / or a headshot of yourself to be included in the anthology. You may be invited but not required to provide a back-story for your poem(s) and/or notes to explain certain references, vocabulary or (cultural) background if you judge it would be helpful for a broad and international readership. No poet may win more than one prize among the first-, second- or third-prizes in any year but it is permissible for more than one poem by a single poet to be awarded a place in the Proverse Poetry Prize anthology. If in the sole judgement of the judges, not enough high-quality poems are submitted to justify the publication of an anthology in any year, first-, second-, or third-prize winning poems (if any) will be published online (e.g. on the Proverse website, proversepublishers.com, and/or the Proverse facebook page (/ProversePress), and/or in the Proverse ENewsletter and/or similar) no later than one year after the closing date for entries. The 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prizes (if any) will be awarded at the same time as the winning poems are published online or soon afterwards, except, if an event is scheduled to take place at which the anthology, in which the prize-winning work appears, is to be launched (whether at a physical location or online), the awards will be presented at, or immediately after, that event. If such event is cancelled or postponed for any reason, then the awards will be given out after the date of the scheduled or postponed event or after the winning poems are published online, or soon afterwards, whichever is later, and no later than one year after the closing date for entries. 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prize-winners (if any) and those who win a place in the anthology (if any) will be informed individually about their result. All are requested to keep their result confidential until Proverse Hong Kong has announced the full results as explained elsewhere in these Rules, Terms and Conditions of Entry. Those whose work is not awarded a 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize or a place in the anthology will be informed individually as soon as the judges have made their decision and certainly before the public announcement of results. This will be done either as an attachment to an email message sent from proverse@netvigator.com and/or through the submission manager, submittable.com. Please ensure that you are alert to messages from each of these sources.
First-, second- and third-prize winners (if any), as well as those who have won a place in the Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology (if any) may receive INVITATIONS TO ATTEND EVENTS IN HONG KONG at which a) the results will be announced; and/or b) when the anthology (if any) will be launched; and winners will themselves be responsible for all arrangements and costs of attendance, including but not limited to a modest event fee (presently about £25.00 (pounds sterling twenty-five), visas, international and / or local transport, health and travel insurance, accommodation and meals, etc. If 1st-, 2nd- or 3rd-prize winners are not able to attend, they may send or be invited to send a brief message which the organisers will consider for reading out or displaying at the event.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS scheduled for Thursday 21 November 2024. (1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-prize winners (if any) and winners of a place in the anthology (if any) will be informed before this.) PUBLICATION OF THE PROVERSE POETRY PRIZE ANTHOLOGY 2024 (if any) scheduled for April/May 2025.
YOU WILL RETAIN COPYRIGHT in your poem(s). By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize, you unconditionally grant to Proverse Hong Kong a royalty-free fee-free irrevocable perpetual non-exclusive worldwide and sub-licensable licence excercisable at any time by Proverse Hong Kong in its sole and entire discretion, to publish your poem(s) including but not limited to (A) online including but not limited to the website proversepublishers.com and/or on the Proverse Facebook page (presently www.facebook.com/ProversePress) and/or in the Proverse Hong Kong ENewsletter and/or (B) in a Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology as described above. Proverse Hong Kong will own the copyright in any such Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology and its reproduction and licensing rights. By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize, you agree not to publish or permit to be published your entered poem(s) in any way until, either, Proverse Hong Kong has published your poem(s) online and/or in a Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology as described above, or until you receive a communication from Proverse Hong Kong sent either as an attachment from the email address, proverse@netvigator.com, or by means of the submission manager, submittable.com, that your entered poem(s) is not a winner of the first-, second- or a third-prize and /or will not be awarded a place in the Anthology. If your poem(s) is/are included in the Proverse Poetry Prize Anthology, you agree to credit Proverse Hong Kong if the work is subsequently reproduced online or in print.
EDITING AND PUBLICATION: If the Proverse Hong Kong editors have any query about the text and/or layout of any poem to be published, Proverse Hong Kong will contact the author, most probably as an email attachment from the Email account, proverse@netvigator.com, and the author will respond to the best of his or her ability within ten days. If no response is received, the Proverse Hong Kong editors may use their best judgement to make any amendment to the text and/or layout that they deem necessary.
If you wish to use a “PEN-NAME” (which shall be a specific formulation of your legal name -- for example, if your name is Jane Mary Brown, your pen-name could be JM Brown, Jane M Brown or J Mary Brown), you are expected to advise Proverse Hong Kong about this as soon as you are advised that your poem is a cash-prize winner or the winner of a place in the Anthology. Proverse Hong Kong will be responsible for and have the final decision in relation to all aspects of preparation of print-ready and/or publication-ready files and their delivery for printing and/or publication to include but not being limited to publishing project management and scheduling, copy-editing, layout design and the setting, cover design, proof-reading and delivery of files in appropriate format for printing and/or publication.
PRIZE MONEY a) In the case of entries where the entry fee has been paid in £ (pounds sterling) from the United Kingdom, the prize money may be sent by £ (pounds sterling) cheque or by bank internet transfer, as Proverse Hong Kong may decide. Proverse Hong Kong disclaims responsibility for any and all bank charges or fees and the recipient will be responsible for any and all bank charges or fees. If the prize-money is sent by cheque, this will be by registered mail. Proverse Hong Kong expressly disclaims responsibility for the non-receipt of any such cheque and will not replace any cheque that is reported not to have been received. If a cheque cannot be paid because the winner has provided incorrect details, a new cheque cannot be issued. b) If any winner of a cash prize does not reply within 30 days to any request from Proverse Hong Kong about the address to which a cheque is to be sent with details about how the cheque is to be made out (e. g. the payee) and/or accurate details for a bank internet transfer to be made (i.e. the bank name and address, the account name and account number as well as any other details required by the banking system), then the prize will be regarded as undeliverable and will not be awarded. The sum not paid out will be put towards the continued administration of the Proverse Poetry Prize. Proverse Hong Kong reserves the right to make different arrangements for the award of cash prizes as may be appropriate at the time.
SPECIAL CASE (TWO AUTHORS): If you wish to enter a poem which you wrote with another person, each of you should enter the poem, noting your joint authorship and the name of both authors, complete the entry form and send in the entry fee. If the poem is awarded a prize, the prize will be shared equally between the two of you. If the poem is chosen to appear in the anthology, both names will appear as authors.
It is regretted that no correspondence can be entered into in relation to individual entries.
By entering for The Proverse Poetry Prize YOU AGREE TO AND ARE BOUND BY the Rules, Terms and Conditions of Entry (with full details) set out above and below. If there is any discrepancy between the information on the proversepublishing.com website and that available here, the former shall prevail.
JUDGING will take place during the period, mid-July to end August 2024. To preserve the integrity of the judging process and to keep the focus on entrants and their entered poems, the judges’ names are not announced.
PRESENTATION: Please put the title of your poem(s) at the head of your poem(s) and please do not include your name as entries are considered anonymously. Please ensure the title at the head of your poem(s) is the same as the title you give elsewhere in the entry process.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING YOUR WORK!