22 August 2026
The Te Pae Tawhiti Award winners were announced tonight at an Awards Gala as part of Hamilton Book Month.
Held at Te Whare Taapere Iti, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, the evening featured a keynote by Pip Adam and a panel discussion moderated by Lee Murray, with Pip Adam, David Hair, Jade Kake and Gareth Ward.
“The inaugural Te Pae Tawhiti awards have been a great success,” says convenor A.J. Ponder. “The committee was thrilled with the quality of writing and were impressed with the creative approach across all the entries. It was such a high calibre of entries, and we were absolutely thrilled to present the winners.”
The Outstanding Achievement for Adult Novel went to The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, with judges praising the tight point of view, great dialogue and fantastic plotting and pacing.
Awarded for its effective build-up of tension, a chilling plot twist, and a satisfying ending.
The entries for the Short Story Award were praised for the strength of their prose, characterisation, and passion across all finalists. But the award went to The Cold Burns by Anne Wilkins whose emotional weight and groundwork done in foreshadowing its twists made it stand out from the rest.
It was the strong New Zealand content and original themes that led to Blood Protectors by Sue Carpenter taking the award for the Outstanding Achievement for a Collection or Anthology. And the Outstanding Achievement for a Novella was awarded to Marie Cardno for Dear Diary due to the inventive approach and high-quality storytelling, with judges saying it was a pleasure to read.
Winning the Middle Grade Fiction Award, Draconic Search and Rescue by Robinne L Weiss impressed the judges with its meticulous research and the strong emotional impact it left with readers. And Truth Needs No Colour by Heather McQuillan took away the award for Young Adult Fiction due to the exceptional narrative voice and emotionally grounded storytelling.
The award for Outstanding Service to Speculative Fiction was presented to Dr. Kirsten McGavin, (anthropologist, writer, and editor) in recognition of her championing of speculative fiction. In her work Kirsten promotes using the speculative fiction as a tool to explore important — and sometimes traumatic — topics in Pacific history and identity.
A special award for Outstanding Service to Speculative Fiction was presented to Lee Murray for her decades of advocating for Aotearoa NZ speculative writing and specifically her expertise and commitment guiding the Te Pae Tawhiti committee.
There were 17 judges and 6 coordinators across the 6 categories. “A special thanks to our judge coordinators: Tracie McBride, Julia Keogh-Cope, Grace Bridges, Dany Miller, Helen Vivienne Fletcher. And to our judges: Mary Jone, Celine Murray, Tim Jones, Sharon Manssen, Sharron McKenzie, Renee van de Weert, Darian Smith, Sonny Whitelaw, AJ Woolf, Kim Jackways, Deryn Pittar, Caye Marsh, Zoë Meager, Julie Folkers, Cassie Hart, Judy L Mohr, Denika Mead, Melissa Gunn and Kirsten McKenzie. They have done a tremendous job,” said Sharon Manssen, President of SpecFicNZ. “The quality and depth of the entries was impressive, and the judges have done a phenomenal job choosing the winners.”
Te Pae Tawhiti Distant Horizon Awards are supported by Creative New Zealand and Copyright Licensing New Zealand.
Outstanding Achievement for Adult Novel
The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
Published by Te Herenga Waka University Press in NZ and Penguin Random House internationally, May 2025
Judges’ notes: The Book of Guilt has a tight point of view, great dialogue and fantastic plotting and pacing, with an effective build-up of tension, a chilling plot twist, and a satisfying ending. The author applies her innate understanding of storytelling and worldbuilding to familiar SF tropes to create a story that lingers long after you’ve finished reading.
Outstanding Achievement for a Short Story
The Cold Burns by Anne Wilkins
Published by Clarkesworld Magazine, December 2025
Judges’ notes: We were impressed with the strength of prose, characterisation and passion in all of our finalists, but it was the emotional weight and the groundwork done in foreshadowing its twist that ultimately put The Cold Burns at the top of our list.
Outstanding Achievement for a Collection or Anthology (fiction, poetry, or essay)
Blood Protectors by Sue Carpenter
Published by Sue Carpenter, January 2025
Judges’ notes: After combining our scores, the clear winner is Blood Protectors with its strong New Zealand content and original themes.
Outstanding Achievement for a Novella
Dear Diary by Marie Cardno
Published by Marie Cardno, February 2025 (first published in Strange Love, a charity anthology to benefit Trinity Haven, an organization that helps to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ youth at risk for homelessness.)
Judges’ notes: The judges chose this novella due to its inventive approach and the high quality of the story-telling. The pacing kept us engaged right to the end, which although open to interpretation, left us satisfied. Dear Diary was charming and gruesome, and a pleasure to read.
Outstanding Achievement for Middle Grade Fiction
Draconic Search and Rescue by Robinne L Weiss
Published by Sandfly Books, November 2025
Judges’ notes: This story is realistic in all the right ways. It’s clear the author has meticulously researched disaster response and created a strong emotional impact and journey because of this. The modern-day Aotearoa setting is blended beautifully with the magical elements, creating native species of dragons and well thought out world building around these. Timely complex themes of parliamentary processes, natural disasters and climate change are explored in a meaningful age-appropriate way. This is a tense, easy to read, and fast paced book, exploring important ideas in an impactful way.
Outstanding Achievement for Young Adult Fiction
Truth Needs No Colour by Heather McQuillan
Published by Cloud Ink Press, April 2025
Judges’ notes: The judges unanimously selected Truth Needs No Colour as the winner for its exceptional narrative voice and emotionally grounded storytelling. The painfully possible near-future is brought into sharp relief through thoughtful and compelling world-building. Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, the novel presents relatable characters who face real challenges and undergo meaningful growth throughout the story. The judges were particularly impressed by the taut narrative and claustrophobic atmosphere, which kept the tension and stakes sky-high. With its authenticity and relevance, supported by excellent technical execution, Truth Needs No Colour stood out as a powerful and memorable work.
Outstanding Service to Speculative Fiction
Kirsten McGavin
Judges’ notes: Dr Kirsten McGavin PhD is of Aotearoa New Zealand Pākehā and Indigenous Papua New Guinean (PNG) descent. She is an anthropologist and creative writer and, in both fields, focuses on identity, place, sense of belonging, and representation.
In 2022, Kirsten’s first anthology, ‘World Beyond: An Anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction’ was published by independent publishing house, Hibiscus Three. This was the first book of its kind from PNG — a science fiction and fantasy collection written, collated, edited and published entirely by Indigenous Papua New Guineans —and, as such, marked an important step in the evolution of the country’s written literature. Kirsten’s latest book, ‘Untethered: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Papua New Guinea’, continues the work of 1) decolonising these genres, and 2) promoting the writing of Indigenous Papua New Guineans.
Launched at the Queensland State Library to coincide with the 50th anniversary of PNG Independence, ‘Untethered’ is a multifaceted spec-fic anthology written entirely by Indigenous Papua New Guinean women. Inspired by their cultural connections to the land and its people, these authors explore a kaleidoscope of ideas, from identity and free-will to colonial legacies and technological evolution. Whether it is a story of an alien invasion, ghostly revenge or transdimensional fae, each tale serves as a portal to a distinct universe, where readers are invited to rethink what power, agency and survival really mean. More than just an escape into the fantastic, ‘Untethered’ is a journey to the heart of what it means to be Papua New Guinean.
In 2025, Kirsten founded Kokomo Ink, a boutique publishing house which focuses on speculative fiction written by Indigenous Pasifika authors. ‘Untethered’ is its first release (and a new anthology is underway). To date, Kirsten has worked with multiple Indigenous Pacific authors, mentoring and guiding them through the editing and publishing process:
• ‘World Beyond’ (9 authors; 10 stories)
• ‘Untethered’ (9 authors; 12 stories)
• Untitled anthology, in progress (15 authors; 15 stories)
Some of these authors had never been published before, while others felt, without these anthologies, there would be no home for their unique blend of Pacific flavoured speculative fiction. These volumes have not only created a place to publish their work, but also established a type of community and, knowing there are others with the same interests has built further confidence in these early career writers. Of course, there are also more experienced writers whose work appears in these anthologies, and this has further reinforced a sense of pride and community.
In the last year alone, Kirsten has promoted the use of speculative fiction as a tool with which to analyse important —and sometimes traumatic — topics in Pacific history and identity. Using examples drawn from ‘World Beyond’ and ‘Untethered’, Kirsten has presented seminars to this effect at Flinders University (Adelaide), University of Queensland (Brisbane), Australian National University (Canberra), and the National University of Samoa (Apia), where teachers from the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) expressed interest in applying Kirsten’s teachings to motivate and energise their students.
Special Award for Services to Speculative Fiction
Lee Murray
Judges’ notes: Having to list Lee Murray’s achievements in less than a minute is impossible: this woman has achieved so much — not only with her own writing, having won numerous awards and prestigious accolades, many of which were a NZ-first — but also with her service. And this award is for service, so I’ll focus on that: Lee gives and gives and gives to the speculative writing community in NZ, and beyond NZ she is a huge advocate for Aotearoa NZ speculative writing. She is known for more than two decades of service (hundreds of hours annually) as a mentor and teacher, generously sharing her skills and insights with emerging writers and youth. She’s been on writing group committees, she established Young NZ Writers which ran for 10 years. She’s judged writing competitions, organised writing conferences, presented workshops, and so much more.
For the past 10 years, she has been advocating for NZ writers of speculative fiction to have access to judged awards. And here we are: Te Pae Tawhiti. Whilst there has been a group working on bringing these awards into being, the SpecFicNZ committee recognised that we wouldn’t have pulled this off if it weren’t for Lee: She had the experience of writing funding applications. She had the critical contacts to obtain the letters of support. She had the knowledge of how to run the competition. With her expertise and commitment, she has guided the Te Pae Tawhiti committee every step of the way.
About Te Pae Tawhiti Awards:
The Te Pae Tawhiti Awards, a SpecFicNZ initiative, celebrate and inspire speculative fiction writers from Aotearoa and the Pacific Islands. The awards aim to enrich the local and international literary landscape, elevate authors’ careers, and foster a vibrant, inclusive community.
