• Burning, bestselling and beautiful books nominated for 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

     THURSDAY 30 JANUARY 2025 Popular books that pack a punch and have hit the mark with readers across the motu in the past year have also found favour with the judges of the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, who reveal their longlists today. Unforgettable and amusing memoirs, novels that move and unnerve, illustrated books […]

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  • Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2025

    • The winning entry will receive a cash prize of $500. • A selection of the best entries will be published in the Forty South Short Story Anthology 2025. TERMS AND CONDITIONS • The prize is for short stories up to 3,000 words, having an island, or island-resonant, theme. • Writers will be citizens of […]

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  • Witi Ihimaera named Royal Society of Literature International Writer 2024

    Royal Society of Literature International Writers 2024 10 December 2024 ~ This Reading Life The RSL International Writers honour is a relatively new award ‘recognising the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders to bring people together.’ I confess that I had not heard of this before and would […]

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  • NZ Mountain Film & Book Competitions Open

    Adventure creatives, it’s your time to shine! The NZ Mountain Film & Book Festival is back for its 23rd edition, celebrating the best in adventure storytelling through film and literature. Mark your calendars: the festival will take place in Wānaka (20–24 June) and Queenstown (26–27 June), with the Online Film Festival running throughout July. Entries are […]

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  • Lee Murray made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

    Award-winning speculative fiction writer and poet Lee Murray has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2025’s New Year’s Honours List. Lee’s success as a writer of speculative fiction and literary mentor was recognised with the 2023 Prime Minster’s Award for Literary Achievement (Fiction). We’re excited to see her career, […]

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  • 2025 ABR Science Fellowship

    This Fellowship, worth $5,000, offers a unique opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the magazine in the area of science writing. Applications are now open and close on January 20. What is the ABR Science Fellowship? The ABR Science Fellowship is intended to advance the careers of science writers and to augment ABR’s coverage of […]

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  • Call for entries: Rod Oram Memorial Essay Prize

    Calling all young writers! To honour our great friend and esteemed colleague, Rod Oram, we are calling for essays from young people campaigning for a more equitable, sustainable and compassionate world. Rod Oram was a revered journalist and environmentalist, known for his rigorously researched and passionate commentaries on business, government and wider society – and […]

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  • Paula Green Honoured with 2025 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal

    The Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki is delighted to announce poet Paula Green as the 2025 recipient of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, New Zealand’s most prestigious honour for children’s and young adult authors, illustrators and publishers. Paula is a champion of children’s literature in Aotearoa New Zealand, giving outstanding service […]

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  • The Peter Wells Short Fiction Contest 2025

    The Peter Wells Short Fiction Contest is an opportunity for Aotearoa-based LGBTQIA+ authors. The contest runs near the end of each year, and the winners are announced during our festival in February. First prize is $1,000 for the winning story, $500 for the runner-up and $500 for the best writing by a promising young writer […]

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  • The 2024 Graeme Lay Short Story Competition winners

    NZSA PRESS RELEASE: 16 DEC 2024 The 2024 Graeme Lay Short Story Competition winners were announced by the NZSA Auckland Branch at their 7 December meeting. This annual competition has once again celebrated the vitality of short story writing in New Zealand. In his judge’s report, Graeme Lay writes: This is the thirteenth year of […]

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  • 2025 Sargeson Fellows Announced

    New Zealand writers Kate Duignan and Rachael King have been awarded the prestigious 2025 Sargeson Fellowship. The Fellowship is a national literary award which for the past 37 years has offered published New Zealand writers the opportunity to focus on their craft in a sustained way. Named in memory of New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson, […]

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  • The 2024 edition of Turbine | Kapohau available now

    This year’s issue of Turbine I Kapohau, the annual online literary journal of the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML)—Te Pūtahi Tuhi Auaha o te Ao, is now live.  The journal showcases new fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry from the 2024 Master of Arts (MA) in Creative Writing workshops at the IIML, as well as […]

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