• Announcing the winner of the Central Districts Short Story competition

    Announcing the winner of the Central Districts Short Story competition Central Districts Branch are happy to announce the winner of our branch’s winter short story competition. Rangi Hapi is a Tararua writer and his story, ‘The Promise’, skilfully spans a relationship over several years, including into a frightening near-future.  It fits well into the theme […]

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  • Meet Your 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates

    Te Tumu Toi LaureatesLast night, Aotearoa New Zealand’s creative community came together in full force to celebrate the arts, and the artists shaping our nation’s future. This year, we are delighted to honour eight Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureates – artists that have been outstanding in their field, and are having a significant impact.They […]

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  • Sargeson Prize for short stories won by writer of topical, political tale 

    The writer of a political, quintessentially New Zealand story has taken the top spot in one of New Zealand’s richest short story competitions, securing a $10,000 prize.   Benn Jeffries of Wellington was named winner of the 2024 Sargeson Prize with his short story ‘Greywacke’ on Saturday evening at the 21st annual Frank Sargeson Memorial […]

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  • The Nine Dots prize opens

    The Nine Dots Prize is an international writing prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary societal issues. The aim of the prize is to promote, encourage and engage innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. It is judged anonymously and seeks submissions from both established writers and emerging talent. This year’s question is: […]

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  • Vale Fleur Adcock (1934-2024)

    News And Publicity Bloodaxe October 11 Fleur Adcock leaves two sons in New Zealand: Gregory Campbell and her grandchildren Oliver, Lily and Julia, and Andrew Campbell and her grandchildren Ella, Cait and Rosa, along with seven great-grandchildren; and her sister Marilyn Duckworth and Fleur’s nieces Helen, Sarah, Anna and Mia. Her funeral is on Thursday […]

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  • Robust and Resilient Indies Celebrate their role as Community Hubs on Aotearoa New Zealand Bookshop Day

    Independent bookshops across the motu will celebrate their pivotal roles as community hubs with fanfare events on Aotearoa New Zealand Bookshop Day Saturday 12 October as they continue to trade strongly in a tough retail environment. Bookstore sales volumes increased by three percent in August on the month prior according to Nielsen BookData. This compares […]

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  • LitPLUS AUT info site on literacy education launches

    LitPlus is a research and professional learning community focused on literacy education for children and young people and is based at AUT. LitPlus supports literacy education that puts the pleasures of reading together and equalising differences in children’s literacy at its centre.   This will be useful to access research about literacy in Aotearoa.

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  • Joy Sellen is the recipient of the Storylines Betty Gilderdale Award

    Joy has always been an avid reader. She graduated from the University of Otago with degrees in microbiology and Russian, after which she worked in translation, research, market analysis, writing and editing in New Zealand and the UK. Later, with young children, she became involved in playgroups, toy library and kindergarten committees, where she took […]

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  • Otago College of Ed CNZ Children’s WIR 2025 is Samantha Montgomerie

    Samantha Montgomerie lives on the Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti Dunedin. Her proposed project during this Fellowship is a middle-grade (ages 8 to 12 years) fiction novel – Sea and Sky Collide. Set in the Marlborough Sounds, this action-packed story is based around two young people fighting to take a stand to protect our natural taonga, with a focus on […]

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  • The Robert Burns Fellow 2025 is Dr Octavia Cade

    Dr Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer based in Kerikeri. Her creative work is increasingly climate-influenced, realistic science fiction that takes place in contemporary or near-future settings. Octavia’s background includes a Master’s in Biology, during which she studied seagrass reproduction, a Bachelor of Science in Botany and a PhD in Science Communication from Otago, […]

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  • Head shot of Mark Derby

    Announcing the 2024 CLNZ | NZSA Writers’ Award

    Media Release October 8, 2024 $25,000 CLNZ | NZSA Writers’ Award has been awarded to writer Mark Derby Mark Derby has been awarded the 2024 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and The New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ) Inc, CLNZ | NZSA $25,000 Writers’ Award for his project, […]

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  • Call for judges of the 2025 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults

    2 OCTOBER 2024 The organisers of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are inviting expressions of interest from members and followers of the children’s literature community who would like to be considered as judges of the 2025 awards. Applications to judge are now open to all those with suitable qualifications and […]

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