WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN ANNUAL LITERATURE AWARDS-

Auckland and Christchurch writers have won this year’s Ashton Wylie Unpublished Manuscript and Book Awards-

National Party Member for Parliament and Spokesman for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Christopher Finlayson, presented Auckland writer, Keith Hill with the $10,000 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Unpublished Manuscript Award at a ceremony at Auckland’s historic Hopetoun Alpha building this evening.

Brian Broom from Christchurch received the $10,000 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Book Award.

The awards, run in association with the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA), recognise excellence in writing in the mind, body, spirit genre.

New Zealand Society of Authors Programme Manager, Tina Shaw, says they received a high number of quality entries for both the unpublished manuscript and book categories of the Awards.

“The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Unpublished Manuscript and Book Awards have become a key event on the New Zealand literary calendar. This year we received a total of 58 manuscripts and 35 books which emphasises how awareness of the mind, body and spirit literature genre is growing, and how many talented authors we have here in New Zealand,” says Ms Shaw.

The judges for the awards were Jennifer Eddington, owner of Pathfinder Bookshop, New Zealand’s pre-eminent specialist retailer of books for the mind, body and spirit; Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust trustee Adonia Wylie; author and editor Stephen Stratford; and convenor of judges, Auckland author Richard Webster.

Keith Hill’s work, “Striving to be human: How can We Act Morally in Today’s Complex World?” was described by judges as a fascinating discussion of morality in today’s world.

The judges described Dr Broom’s winning book, “MEANING-full DISEASE. How personal experience and meanings cause and maintain physical illness”, as “a timely and professional treatise on holistic healing, which will greatly assist the conventional biomedical model and the way people diagnose and attempt to heal the human body.”

“The Trust would like to congratulate Keith and Brian on winning the 2007 awards. The calibre of entries in both the Unpublished Manuscript and Book categories was very high, so being named a winner is a fantastic achievement,” says Judge and Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust trustee Adonia Wylie.

Brian Broom’s book can be ordered through any bookshop, at $NZ88 RRP and for $US26 at www.amazon.com

The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust is the owner of Auckland’s Hopetoun Alpha venue and the legacy of the late Ashton Wylie. The Trust was established in 2001 with the main intent of promoting more loving relationships. The Trust’s Unpublished Manuscript and Book Awards were established in 2004, in association with the New Zealand Society of Authors, to encourage the expansion of the mind, body, spirit literature genre in New Zealand.