• Kiwi kids seek out books with positive messages – Whitcoulls Kids Top 50 – 2020

    September 28, 2020, 5:00am Local book Aroha’s Way by Craig Phillips is a huge hit with Kiwi kids, storming onto the Whitcoulls Kids’ Top 50 Books List at number three. Announced today, Phillips is a newcomer to the List with his timely and comforting book, which helps children cope with anxiety. Whitcoulls Book Manager Joan […]

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  • 2020 Michael Gifkins Prize for an Unpublished Novel awarded to Gigi Fenster for ‘A Good Winter’

    Gigi Fenster has received the 2020 Michael Gifkins Prize for her novel, A Good Winter. Fenster receives a publishing contract with Text and a NZ$10,000 advance against royalties. The award was accepted during an online event hosted by Text Publishing and the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc). […]

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  • Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence, University of Canterbury – open for application for 2021

    Creative New Zealand Residency in Creative Writing 2021 College of Arts Full-time at 37.5 hours per week (1.0 FTE) 6 or 12-month fixed-term opportunity Salary of $60,000 (for 12 months, pro-rated for 6 months) What You Will Do This fixed-term Residency has been created to foster New Zealand writing by providing a full time opportunity […]

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  • WebWorkshops: A NZSA Professional Development Initiative

    Originally published in NZ Author – Spring 2020 In many professions continuous development is a requirement: if you want to call yourself an ‘architect’ or a ‘doctor’ you need to keep training regularly throughout your career. We don’t have this kind of mandated requirement as writers, but it is risky to think that attending one […]

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  • Verb Wellington announce November 2020 programme

    Welcome to a special Festival edition of the Verb newsletter! We are hugely excited to be presenting a live lit fest this 2020. Celebrate Aotearoa writers, stories and voices with us between 5 – 8 November. We look forward to sharing the magic of live gatherings with you as we come together for interesting ideas, […]

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  • CLNZ Contestable Fund Grant funding – open for applications

    September 2020 $75,000 is available to support strategic projects that demonstrate New Zealand publishing sector growth, which is made possible through the Copyright Licensing Trust’s Cultural Fund. Applications are now open and must be received before 4pm Wednesday 7 October 2020. Successful recipients will be announced in November. Find out more here >> Applications are invited […]

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  • 2020 American Book Award Winners announced

    Three cheers for more exciting book news! Today, the Before Columbus Foundation announced the winners of the 41st-annual American Book Awards. The award, which has no categories or nominees, was created to recognize extraordinary literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The 2020 American Book Award winners will be formally recognized on Sunday, […]

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  • 2020 Booker Prize shortlist announced

    Booker Prize 2020: Four debuts make shortlist as Hilary Mantel misses out   Mantel had been tipped for a record third win for The Mirror and the Light. Both previous titles in her trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, had won. This year’s nominees are Diane Cook, […]

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  • Winners of New Zealand’s architecture writing competition announced

    Delnaz Patrawala, a post-graduate architecture student at the University of Auckland, has won the Open category of the sixth annual Warren Trust Awards for Architectural Writing, New Zealand’s leading essay competition for design writing. Ms Patrawala’s winning essay drew upon her family’s Iranian heritage in discussing the role of architecture in forming cultural identity. The […]

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  • Calling all writers – applications are now open for the 2021 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.

    The Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship is back looking for writers ready for their 2021 placements. The Fellowship, now in its 34th year, is a national literary award offering published New Zealand writers the chance to focus on their craft full-time, a historic environment to write in, along with financial support and networking opportunities.   Applicants must […]

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  • THE FUTURE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Artificial Intelligence (AI) has always had fantastical appeal. Imaginative ideas of futuristic superhuman technology provide endless material for storytelling, inspiring humans to create worlds where the impossible is performed with ease. These ideas, however, once at home in seemingly distant dreams, are moving from fiction into reality as AI continues to take root […]

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  • Aotearoa’s poets of the future feature in National Schools Poetry Awards

    E Wen Wong, a Year 13 student from Burnside High School in Christchurch, has won the 2020 International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) National Schools Poetry Award.   Her poem titled ‘The house that Saturn built,’ was described by judge Airini Beautrais, as “powerful and beautiful”, “full of surprising language and with a strong sense […]

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