Key dates
- Submissions 21 July – Sept 01, 2023
- Shortlist announced September 20
- Winners announced 14 October at the 2023 Katherine Mansfield Birthday Bash
- All short-listed works published in October
Prizes
- First: $500
- Second: book bundle worth $150
- Third: book bundle worth $100
2023 Judges
Catherine Chidgey and Emma Neale
See the website for more info about our judges
HOW TO SUBMIT: See below for details.
The brief
See the ATB | ITK website for details on how to enter.
1) Take one of the following phrases and write a story with it as starting point. You may employ it as the title, or as a central theme, or as a phrase that is directly stated in the story. Your work might explore any topic, any sense of space and time, any set of people. Be inspired by Katherine Mansfield’s words and take them in what might be surprising directions.
These 10 lines are excerpted from Mansfield’s stories ‘The Garden Party’, ‘Prelude’, ‘Je ne parle pas français’ and ‘At the Bay’:
All her feelings…, sharp and defined, one as true as the other
I’m always acting a part. I’m never my real self for a moment.
I do not know why I have such a fancy for this little café. It’s dirty and sad, sad.
funny, little, ugly baby
If only one had time to look at these flowers long enough, time to get over the sense of novelty and strangeness, time to know them!
I’ve only one night or one day, and there’s this vast dangerous garden, waiting out there, undiscovered, unexplored.
[T]hey were eager, serious travellers, absorbed in understanding what was to be seen and discovering what was hidden
How beautiful she looked, but there was nobody to see, nobody.
That marvellous transparent blue, flecked with silver
Lucky little creature
2) Write a story – flash fiction, hybrid or short story – that draws on the phrase but adapts it to your own purposes: think twist, salt or savour, or a push in an unexpected direction. See Small Craft Notes for further ideas around the forms.
AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU encourages imaginative writing that breaks down barriers. Writers are invited to be inventive – this is an open competition for works of prose and poetry combined. We encourage both research and fresh explorations, heart and mind and whimsy.
The only limitation is word count:
- Hybrid: up to 1000 words
- Flash fiction: up to 500 words for a single piece, or 1000 words for a connected set of flash/ micros
- Short story: up to 2000 words
About the judges
Catherine Chidgey’s award-winning novels have achieved international acclaim. Her accolades include the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award and the inaugural Prize in Modern Letters. She has held the Sargeson Fellowship, the Todd New Writers’ Bursary, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Rathcoola Residency, the NZSA Beatson Fellowship and the University of Otago Wallace Residency, and she has been Writer in Residence at the universities of Canterbury, Otago and Waikato. She holds degrees in German literature, psychology and creative writing, and her short fiction is widely published in anthologies and journals. Her sixth novel, Remote Sympathy, was shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award. Her seventh novel, The Axeman’s Carnival, won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction at the 2023 Ockham Book Awards. Her new novel is Pet, released in June 2023. Catherine has taught creative writing at the University of Waikato since 2012.
Emma Neale is the author of six novels and six collections of poetry. Her most recent novel, Billy Bird (2016), was short-listed for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham NZ Book Awards and long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award. Emma has received a number of literary fellowships, residencies and awards, including the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a Distinguished Contribution to New Zealand Poetry 2020. The Pink Jumpsuit, her collection of short stories, was long-listed for the Acorn Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her novel Fosterling is in script development with Sandy Lane Productions, under the title Skin. Emma lives and works in Ōtepoti Dunedin, where she works as a freelance editor.
HOW TO ENTER
- Make your online payment:
ANZ / ATB KM Competition/ Acct No. 06-0350-0849733-00
include ‘Surname, First initial’ as a reference. - Once you’ve transferred your entry fee, send proof of payment (a phone capture or screen shot will do) along with your story/ stories to info@atthebay.org.
- You will receive confirmation of your entry within 72 hours. If you do not hear from ATB | ITK, please email again.
- All entries must be received electronically.
2023 fees: $6.50 per entry. One entry per person.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
(SEE GENERAL RULES FOR FURTHER DETAILS)
- Submissions open through 01 September 2023
- Competition open to all NZ citizens and residents
- Open competition – all ages
- Only previously unpublished work will be considered (see General Rules)
- Deadline for submissions: 01 September 2023 (midnight)
- Word limit for submissions:
- Hybrid: up to 1000 words
- Flash fiction: up to 500 words for a single piece, or 1000 words for a connected set of flash/ micros
- Short story: up to 2000 words
- 1.5 or double spaced, please
- No font requirements, but make it clean. 12pt Times New Roman is acceptable, for example. Or a San Serif such as Calibri.
- Maximum 1 story per entrant
- Electronic submissions only, emailed to info@atthebay.org.
- Submissions must be sent as attachments (not in the body of the email)
- Send one of the following formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf; please, no pdfs
- No pdfs!
- Submissions must be received no later than midnight, 01 September 2023
- Your name may be in the email and any enquiries made to AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU in the email account, but do not include your name or contact info on the attachments. Any submissions with author name on the attachment with the story text will be disqualified.
- Judges’ decisions are final. No feedback will be offered on an individual basis.
- The short list will be announced at the end of September.
- Winners will be announced at the Katherine Mansfield Birthday Bash, Dunedin Readers & Writers Festival, 14 October 2023.
- Winners and short-listed work will be published in AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU.
GENERAL RULES
- AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU reserves the right at its total discretion to reject any entry in the Competition and to verify the validity of any entry or vote. All decisions of the AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU judges shall be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Entries must be original, previously unpublished pieces of work written by the person who submits the piece of work. Published means anything that has already appeared anywhere in print or online, including personal websites or blogs.
- Entries cannot be altered or changed after they have been submitted.
- AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected entries.
- AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU is unable to return submitted entries. Entrants are advised to keep a copy of their entry for their records.
- The judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The judges reserve the right to not award prizes, based on their judgment of the quality of submissions.
- Partners, parents and children of the AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU committee and editors and current judges are not eligible to enter the competition.
- Winners will be announced October 14 Katherine Mansfield Birthday Party.
- A selection of entries will be published in a special edition of AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU. Writers retain the copyright to their submitted short story regardless of whether or not it is chosen for publication. AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU retains unlimited use of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place Short Story (all categories) for an unlimited period of time for any promotion or publication.
- The winners’ names, entry details, biographical information and photographs may be required by AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU and will be used for publicity/promotional purposes without compensation. Entrants consent to this use of their details by entering the competition.
- The AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU association, its committee members and its related agencies shall not be liable for any loss, damage or injury suffered or sustained (including but not limited to direct or consequential loss or loss arising from negligence) arising directly out of or in connection with the competition or any prize.
- Entry constitutes acceptance of all AT THE BAY | I TE KOKORU Competition Rules and Guidelines.
