A story about the harm patriarchal communities can do is the overall winner of this year’s Sargeson Prize.

The University of Waikato sponsors the short story competition and announced the winners at the annual Frank Sargeson Memorial Lecture, which was streamed online on Wednesday night due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Lara Markstein’s story ‘Good Men’ was the Open Division winner selected from 847 entries, and Shima Jack won the Secondary Schools Division with ‘Muscle Memory’, selected from 139 entries.

Markstein’s story is about the harshness of growing up in conservative, patriarchal communities.

Chief judge Patricia Grace says this story opens out, stage by stage, to form a picture of the main protagonist as part of an extended family, embracing three generations, in a particular time and place.

“Not an easy task within the confines of a short piece of writing,” says Grace, who is regarded as one of New Zealand’s best fiction writers.

This year’s winning stories will be published on ReadingRoom, Steve Braunias’ literary section of Newsroom. 

The livestream of the event can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7AevD6kPzU

More about the prize here