• Diana Noonan wins Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal 2022

    Writer and NZSA member Diana Noonan, author of more than 100 titles for children and young adults, is the 2022 winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for lifetime achievement and outstanding contribution to New Zealand’s literature for young people. The premier award is made annually by Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand […]

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  • University of Waikato announces Diana Clarke as 2022 Writer in Residence

    A novel exploring the cult-like logic of internet communities alongside organised religious groups such as Gloriavale and Scientology will be the focus of University of Waikato’s new Writer In Residence, Diana Clarke. Clarke, who has been completing her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Utah, has returned home to New Zealand […]

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  • Longlists for New Zealand’s premier literary awards revealed

    Books exploring politics, fashion, social change, war, contested histories and family relationships sit alongside works celebrating our natural world and the enduring legacies of our activists and artists in the longlists for the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Forty poetry, prose and non-fiction titles make up the longlists announced today. Selected from an impressive […]

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  • Call for Entries! $10,000 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing

    The Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing is an annual $10,000 prize awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript. Since its inception in 2008, the Text Prize has become one of the most renowned prizes for young adult and children’s writing in Australia and New Zealand. Eligible writers can also enter the Steph Bowe […]

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  • Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition opens

    In 2017 Landfall celebrated its 70th birthday. To mark the occasion, University of Otago launched the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition, an annual award open to writers aged 16 to 21. Essays should not exceed 1500 words. The competition is judged by the editor of Landfall. The winner will be announced and published in each […]

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  • Mountain Book Competition 2022

    We love sharing tales of epic, and often hair-raising adventures set in some of the world’s most remote, often beautiful, sometimes hostile, environments. Celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, the NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival is scheduled to run in Wānaka from 24 to 29 June, in Queenstown June 30 to July 2, and […]

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  • First Pages Prize 2022

    The 2022 First Pages Prize support the emerging writers with cash awards, a tailored edit and an agent consultation. Open to un-agented writers worldwide, the First Pages Prize invites you to enter your first five pages (1250 words) of longer work of fiction or creative nonfiction. Enter MARCH 1 – APRIL 10, 2022 Extended deadline […]

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  • Aotearoa New Zealand New Year’s Honours lists 2021-2022

    NZ Aotearoa New Years Honours full list HERE   Slim pickings for the literary sector in the honours list this year, but we note three peripheral sector awards, honoured today: Congratulations to Journalist Rosemary McLeod, who received an Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to journalism and television. Congratulations too to […]

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  • Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Longlists

    PEN America has announced their Longlists for the 2022 Literary Awards! The Awards are juried by panels of esteemed, award-winning authors, editors, translators, and critics. These authors are committed to recognising their contemporaries, from promising debut writers to those who have had a continuous, lasting impact on the literary landscape. You can learn more about […]

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  • Introducing the Aotearoa Photobook Awards 2022

    The new Aotearoa Photobook Awards are designed to reward outstanding photobooks produced between 21 January 2020 and 17 January 2022 by New Zealand photographers. Finalists will be announced after 29 January 2022 and the Awards presented at the opening of the Photobook/NZ Festival at Te Papa on Friday 4 March. The Awards are run by […]

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  • Vivid, absorbing story cycle wins 2021 Adam Foundation Prize

    A novel-in-stories set in contemporary rural Northland, which examiners describe as “shades of Elizabeth Strout in the effortless interplay of stories” has been awarded the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) 2021 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing. Sharron Came works as a regulatory strategist for renewable energy company, Mercury. She wrote the winning manuscript, Peninsula, as […]

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  • Tragicomedy wins top scriptwriting prize at Te Herenga Waka

    A feature film script about three young women thrown together by a pop song has been awarded the 2021 David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize in Scriptwriting at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Written by Georgie Wright as part of her 2021 Master of Arts folio at the University’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), the […]

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