This is an award to recognise the oeuvre of published work by a mid-career writer. The purpose of the award is to offer recognition to an author who may not necessarily have previously achieved a high level of publicity for their work.

The award will be open to writers of fiction, poetry, short fiction collections, drama, and literary non-fiction, and is worth $3,500.

A mid-career writer is defined as being one who has published a minimum of three books and a maximum of six. According to the 2007 survey commissioned by the Society of Authors, it was found that mid-career writers earned low amounts from their writing, and often had to struggle to find writing time. Writers who were identified as being mid-career earned an average income of around $10,000 directly from their writing. A large number of these writers received less than $1,000 per year.

Anecdotally, the mid-career of a writer can be slow as new writers often garner more media interest for their publications, and unless a writer is shortlisted for an award, their work can quickly fall into a black hole. The NZSA hopes, by offering this award, to go some way to redressing such issues, at least for one writer, by offering both some monetary assistance and recognition of their work.

The next closing date for nominations is 6 November 2010. A nomination form is available from programmes@nzauthors.net.nz - or can be printed from the file below:

Nomination form

David Howard is the recipient of the 2009 NZSA Mid-Career Writers Award.

Based at Port Chalmers, David is the author of five collections of poetry: In the First Place (Hazard Press, 1991), Holding Company (Nag’s Head Press, 1995), Shebang (Steele Roberts, 2000), How To Occupy Our Selves [with Fiona Pardington] (HeadworX, 2003), and The Word Went Round (Otago University Press, 2006). More information about his publications is available at http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/howard/index.asp