The country’s
longest running literary awards set a new record this year with the number of
scripts offered across the four categories reaching 2700 in total. Now in their
54th year the BNZ Literary Awards play an influential role in
encouraging and recognising New Zealand writers and celebrates their
achievements.
Internationally
acclaimed writer Catherine Chidgey has taken out New Zealand’s top short
fiction prize for her work ‘Reverse
Living’ at the BNZ Literary Awards in Wellington last night. The winning
story was selected from 750 entries, up from 550 the previous year.
A teacher of
creative writing at the University of Waikato, Catherine is not new to the
world of fiction writing having already published three novels. She has held
the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship to Menton, France and won numerous
other prestigious awards.
A
writer better known for her factual work as a journalist, Deborah Hill Cone won
the Novice category beating more than 600 other entries with her creative story
‘Utterly depressing but Incredibly
Beautiful’.
Christchurch
teenage writer Elizabeth Ray’s ‘Don’t
Look Away’ won the Young Writers Award.
The 15 year old St Andrews College student impressed judges with a story
that “challenged, delighted and mystified” them.
Hastings
writer Debra Youthed took out the Short Short Story with her story ‘The Morning Rush’. Now in its third year, the popularity of the
category in which writers use a maximum of 150 words to tell a story has grown
from 23 entries in the first year to over 900 in 2013.
Andy Symons BNZ
Director Retail says, “The awards are the premier opportunity to nurture and showcase New
Zealand writers where ever they may be in their careers and it’s heartening to
see the sheer volume of entries we received this year. It really does
demonstrate the wealth of talent the country has and the number of people who
are actively writing continuing to grow.”
Established
in 1959, the BNZ Literary Awards, formerly the Katherine Mansfield Awards, aim
to foster and grow literature in New Zealand and are the country’s
longest-running short story awards.
BNZ
has been part of the New Zealand landscape for 150 years and holds close ties
to Katherine Mansfield. Her father, Sir Harold Beauchamp, was a director of
BNZ, a position he held for 38 years. He was also the chairman of the BNZ board
for 17 years.
The
BNZ Literary Awards offer four levels of entry:
- BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award, for
published writers - $10,000 prize money
- BNZ Novice Writer, for unpublished
writers - $1500 prize money
- BNZ Young Writer, for writers who are
at secondary school - $1500 for the student and $2000 for the winner’s
school.
- BNZ Short Story Writer, for a short story of a maximum of 150 words submitted via Facebook - $500
prize money
Winners - left to right - Elizabeth Ray, Debra Youthed, Deborah Hill Cone, Catherine Chidgey
1 comment:
Hi Graeme, I am sorry I didn't meet you on the awards night, I was really looking forward to talking with you. I hope you are feeling better. Thank you very much for choosing The Morning Rush as the winning short short story this year, the result has really given me the confidence and encouragement to continue entering competitions and submit some work for publishing. Kind regards, Debra Youthed.
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