• WRITERS ON MONDAYS 2026: IIML July 6-Sept 28

    WRITERS ON MONDAYS: save the date Writers on Mondays 2026 provides a season of acclaimed authors and bold new literary talent Winter is here, and so is Writers on Mondays! From 6 July to 28 September 2026, Writers on Mondays is celebrating Aotearoa’s literary culture with a series of free lunchtime events. This free event […]

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  • 2026 Verb Wellington Writer’s Residency to Una Cruickshank

    Verb is delighted to share that Una Cruickshank has been awarded the 2026 Verb Wellington Writer’s Residency at Katherine Mansfield House!Una Cruickshank is a creative nonfiction writer from Pōneke Wellington, who likes to write about intersections between luxury goods, capitalism and natural history. She is the author of The Chthonic Cycle, which won the E.H. […]

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  • EMERGING VOICES RECOGNISED ALONGSIDE ESTABLISHED WRITERS IN 2026 CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS SHORTLIST  

     6am, Wednesday 10 June   The shortlist for the 2026 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, announced today, recognises a generation of writers who are drawing confidently on culture, language and identity to tell stories and create books that feel unmistakably of current-day Aotearoa. That’s evident in distinct ways across the shortlist, […]

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  • The 2026 NFFD Long Lists – Adult and Youth Comps

    2026 NFFD Longlisted entries are posted  here. Watch for the short list coming soon! The 2026 Micro Madness Long List  Follow Micro Madness with a micro a day, beginning today, June 01, here. From June 01 to June 22 FFNZ will post a micro a day, leading up to the top stories and our celebration of National Flash […]

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  • A NEW CHAPTER: AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL WAITUHI O TĀMAKI IS A RECORD BREAKER

      Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki 2026 (AWF26) has broken all ticket records, making it the biggest event ever in the Festival’s 27 year history. Booklovers streamed through the Aotea Centre and surrounding venues between 12 – 17 May. Ticket sales were over 15% up on 2025 with two more events still to come […]

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  • ‘Outrageously good’ debut takes top fiction honours at 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

    Poet, memoirist and scholar Ingrid Horrocks has won the $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize at the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her fiction debut, All Her Lives, a story collection that follows nine different women across nine different life stages as they resist, nurture and transform. It is the first time in five […]

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  • Kāpiti Readers and Writers Autumn Series Starts in April

    This series is jointly organised by Kāpiti WEA and Bookmark Kāpiti celebrates the people, stories and places of the Kāpiti Coast through a series of engaging weekly conversations with writers, historians and creative thinkers connected to the region. Each session explores how storytelling – through books, film, history and research – helps us understand ourselves and […]

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  • THE BIGGEST NAMES IN BOOKS ARE COMING TO AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL WAITUHI O TĀMAKI IN MAY 2026

     A star-studded line-up bursting with well-known literary powerhouses, global thinkers and fresh new voices will take to the stage for the 27th Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki from 12 – 17 May. Announced today, the programme features more than 220 artists from across the country and the world in over 170 events, creating a […]

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  • Aotearoa NZ Children’s Book Week

    Read NZ Announces Dates! Saturday 15th August – Friday 21st August Children’s authors and illustrators: More info and please register your interest and regional availability to be involved in bookshops or libraries This year, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura are leading the first ever Aotearoa NZ Children’s Book Week Sat 15 of August – Friday the 21st of August […]

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  • Finalists – Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026

    WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2026   Jacinda Ardern’s memoir a finalist in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026 Oxford fellow and former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s first book, A Different Kind of Power, has made the shortlist of the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Ardern’s memoir is one of four finalists […]

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  • The 2026 NFFD competition is open!

    Send your best 300 words! Submissions open through 30 April  The 2026 judges for the national competition are the award-winning writers Ingrid Horrocks and Louise Wallace. The 2026 youth judge is Josiah Morgan.  How to enter can be found on the NFFD Competition page. MICRO MADNESS A free competition open to international writers. For stories up to 100 words. The 2026 […]

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  • LITERARY FESTIVAL AND NATIONAL AWARD ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION

    Te Pae Tawhiti Awards (Distant Horizons) and Hamilton Book Month are pleased to announce their 2026 collaboration, with New Zealand’s newest literary award for speculative fiction to hold its inaugural prize-giving event on 22 August as part of the vibrant month-long festival of literary events. Te Pae Tawhiti founding member, award-winning author Lee Murray, who […]

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