• The 150th FlaxFlower book review has been posted on the flaxroots website.

    In it North Shore author Vicky Adin’s book The Girl From County Clare, is hailed by its reviewer as a delightful novel that was hard to put down, well-researched, and reflecting considerable understanding of the attitudes of the era — the late 1800s. Note: the review will be posted on Thursday Sept. 28th FlaxFlower is an […]

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  • Ben Schrader named recipient of $25,000 CLNZ Writers’ Award

    Ben Schrader, a freelance historian who specialises in urban history and the history of the built environment, was presented with the CLNZ Writers’ Award in Wellington on 21 September 2017. Ben receives $25,000, one of the highest non-fiction prizes in New Zealand literature, towards his project Won and Lost: Saving New Zealand’s Built Heritage 1885-2016. The book […]

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  • Ahead of Frankfurt: Michael Healy on World Copyright Issues Publishers Need to Watch

    ‘Copyright has come to be seen by many outside our industry as an inhibitor to creativity,’ writes Michael Healy ahead of a special session at the Frankfurt Book Fair on proliferating international challenges.   By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson With Michael Healy, Exec. Director, Intl. Affairs, Copyright Clearance Center | @MJHealy ‘Copyright Wars’ At the Frankfurt Book […]

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  • NZ poets shortlisted for $20,000 Montreal International Poetry Award 2017

    Eight Australian and two New Zealand poets have been shortlisted for the C$20,000 (A$20,440) Montreal International Poetry Award 2017. Australians shortlisted for the award are S K Kelen for ‘Soldiers’; Christopher Kelen for ‘An Attitude of Waiters’ and ‘The Thieves Have Gone’; Anthony Lawrence for ‘Blue Curtains’; Marjorie Main for ‘The Ways’; Felicity Plunkett for […]

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  • Man Booker prize 2017: shortlist makes room for debuts alongside big names

    George Saunders, Fiona Mozley and Emily Fridlund are nominated for their first novels, alongside new books from Ali Smith and Paul Auster  The 2017 shortlist (l-r): Fiona Mozley, Mohsin Hamid, Ali Smith, George Saunders, Emily Fridlund and Paul Auster. Composite: The Guardian Alison Flood – Writer for The Guardian American heavyweights Paul Auster and George Saunders […]

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  • Announcing the shortlist for the NZ Heritage Book Awards and Writing Competition – Canterbury Branch

    The New Zealand Society of Authors Canterbury Branch, announced today the shortlist for the annual  NZ Heritage Book Awards and Writing Competition.   The competition pulled in entries from all around the country. Dame Fiona Kidman judged the novels, Jim McAloon the nonfiction books. The poetry was judged by Gail Ingram and Sally Blundell, the […]

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  • Josephine Wilson’s Extinctions wins 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award

    Australia’s most prestigious literary award has been bestowed on Josephine Wilson for Extinctions, published by UWA Publishing. In a year when the Miles Franklin Literary Award celebrates its 60th anniversary, it is fitting the 2017 winning novel should address the themes of ageing and survival. Established through the will of My Brilliant Career author Miles […]

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  • 2017 Pikihuia Awards Winners announced

    The winners for the 2017 Pikihuia Awards for Maori Writers were announced last week at Te Wharewaka o Poneke in Wellington. The 2017 Pikihuia winners and authors whose stories are included in HUIA Short Stories 12.   This year the Pikihuia Awards received over 130 entries and judge Whiti Hereaka was appreciative of the large […]

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  • Jillian Sullivan wins NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship!

    Central Otago writer Jillian Sullivan is the recipient of the NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship 2017. Jillian will use the fellowship to work on a collection of creative non-fiction essays (including poetry) set in Central Otago and with a strong conservation base. The $7,000 fellowship is awarded each year to a mid-career or senior writer to […]

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  • NZ POLITICAL PARTIES – ELECTION 2017

    WHAT WILL THE POLITICAL PARTIES DO FOR NEW ZEALAND’S LITERARY SECTOR? In June our National President, Siobhan Harvey, penned a letter to the leaders of all major and minor political parties, copied also to ministers with responsibility for both Business and Culture portfolios. We sought detail on their policies on issues pertinent to writers, authors […]

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  • Congratulations Rhian Gallagher

    Robert Burns Fellow 2018 Rhian Gallagher’s work is a moving blend of unique perspectives and poetic craft that creates subtly haunting effects. Her first book of poems Salt Water Creek, published in London, was shortlisted for the 2003 Forward Prize for First Collection.  In New Zealand, she won a Canterbury History Foundation Award in 2007, […]

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  • Randell Cottage Writer’s Residency – Applications open

    Applications are now open for the 2018 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writers Fellowship. The fellowship comprises a stipend of $22,000 and six months’ rent free accommodation in one of Wellington’s oldest colonial buildings. Built in Thorndon in 1867, the Cottage has been painstakingly restored and is close to the National Library, the Turnbull Library […]

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