Founding Anthology Competition Rules

1. Sponsor

The sponsor and publisher is Red Place Acres LLC (“Red Place Acres,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), operating through redplaceacres.com.

2. Entry Period

The founding anthology call opens September 12, 2026. The initial closing date is March 31, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time. Red Place Acres may extend the deadline before it expires when reasonably necessary for editorial, production, or participation needs; any extension will be posted on this page. Entries received after the applicable deadline may still be considered for ordinary Red Threads editorial publication but not necessarily for the founding anthology selection.

3. Eligibility

Direct entrants must be at least 18 years old at the time of entry. Employees, contractors, judges, and immediate household members of Red Place Acres personnel materially involved in judging are ineligible for judged winner status. Youth Rising and Hope in Action nominations may concern a minor, but the form must be submitted by an adult parent/legal guardian or an authorized adult representative with permission to provide the information. Additional releases may be required before an identifiable minor is published. We do not publish minors' social-media handles.

4. Accepted Categories and Length

We accept: Letters to the Future; The Moment I Had Evidence; Future Built Here; Poetry; and Hope in Action / Youth Rising nominations.

Prose intended for anthology publication should normally be 200–650 words. Poetry may be up to 60 lines or two printed 6×9 pages. Exceptional shorter work may be selected. Hope in Action and Youth Rising nominations may be shorter when they function primarily as editorial leads rather than finished anthology manuscripts.

5. Originality, Rights, and Human Authorship

Creative entries must be substantially human-authored and must be the entrant's original work or submitted with all permissions necessary. Generative AI may not compose or substantively rewrite poems, letters, essays, personal narratives, or other creative entries. Ordinary spelling/grammar correction, transcription, translation assistance, and accessibility tools that do not replace human creative authorship are permitted.

Do not paste full third-party articles, photographs, poems, private correspondence, or other copyrighted material that you do not have permission to submit. For news, inventions, research, or public projects, provide source links and your own explanation.

6. Judging

Entries will be evaluated by Red Place Acres and/or invited judges using editorial judgment. Criteria may include: fit with the Hope or Mope? mission; originality and specificity; emotional or intellectual impact; craft and clarity; credibility/verifiability where factual claims are central; usefulness or future relevance for idea/invention entries; and the work's contribution to the balance of the anthology as a whole.

The principal judged selections are not determined by follower count, likes, shares, purchases, or public voting. If a separate Readers' Choice feature is later offered, it will not determine the Grand Prize Winner.

7. Planned Selection Structure

Red Place Acres presently intends to select one Grand Prize Winner, ten Featured Winners, and additional Selected Contributors. The working editorial target is approximately 65–85 total selected works and editorial features in a 6×9 anthology of approximately 220–240 pages. These production targets may change based on editorial quality, layout, printing requirements, permissions, or production constraints.

8. Grand Prize Winner

The Grand Prize Winner is intended to receive: prominent publication treatment in the founding anthology under the Contributor Agreement accepted with entry; a contributor portrait/photo if the contributor chooses and has the necessary rights; approved website and selected social-media handles; a Red Place Acres “Why We Chose It” editorial note; promotional consideration through Red Place Acres channels; and one complimentary physical copy of the anthology after publication.

9. Ten Featured Winners

Each Featured Winner is intended to receive: Featured Winner designation; publication under the Contributor Agreement accepted with entry; a public byline and short contributor identification; approved website and selected social-media handles; promotional consideration through Red Place Acres channels; and one complimentary physical copy after publication.

10. Selected Contributors

Additional selected contributors may be offered anthology publication, byline, contributor-index listing, and digital contributor recognition. The final number of selections is at Red Place Acres' editorial discretion.

11. Copyright and Contributor License

Entering does not transfer your copyright. By accepting the Contributor Agreement in the submission form, you authorize Red Place Acres to administer and evaluate the entry and, if the work is selected, to publish and promote that selected work under the nonexclusive license described in the Submission Terms. The license is limited to the Hope or Mope? anthology, Red Threads editorial publication, substantially equivalent anthology editions, and reasonable related promotion; unrelated commercial uses require additional permission.

12. Compensation and Royalties

There is no entry fee and no cash prize is currently promised. Entry alone does not promise compensation, royalties, publication, or future sales proceeds. Unless Red Place Acres later agrees otherwise in a separate written instrument, the Contributor Agreement is royalty-free. The Grand Prize Winner and ten Featured Winners are intended to receive one complimentary physical copy after publication as described in these Rules.

13. Winner/Selection Verification

Potential winners and selected contributors may be required to verify identity and eligibility, respond within the timeframe stated in the selection notice, confirm authorship and rights, provide source/permission documentation when relevant, and execute or confirm any additional release or publicity document reasonably required for a specific photo, identifiable minor, third-party material, or use outside the Contributor Agreement. Failure to complete required verification may result in disqualification or replacement.

14. Privacy and Public Profiles

Legal names and contact information are collected privately for administration. Entrants may request a pen name for public display. Adult Grand Prize and Featured Winners may choose whether to provide a website and social handles for publication. Red Place Acres may refuse, omit, or remove links for safety, legal, spam, adult-content, deceptive, or editorial reasons.

15. Editorial and Safety Rights

Red Place Acres may reject or remove material that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, threatening, hateful, deceptive, plagiarized, exploitative, unsafe, materially unverifiable, or inconsistent with the project's editorial standards. We may request factual corrections, permissions, releases, source documentation, or edits as a condition of publication.

16. Changes, Cancellation, and Production

Red Place Acres may modify, suspend, extend, or cancel the program when reasonably necessary because of legal requirements, fraud, technical failure, insufficient qualifying submissions, production constraints, force majeure, or circumstances that materially compromise fair administration. Material changes will be posted on this page. No entrant is guaranteed publication merely because the program opens or because a target number of contributors has been described.

17. Governing Documents

These Competition Rules, the Hope or Mope? Submission Terms, Privacy Policy, Editorial Standards, and general Terms of Use apply. The Contributor Agreement accepted at submission, identified by its recorded version, controls the anthology publication license for the selected work. Any later separately signed release controls only the additional rights or materials expressly described in that later release.