Storylines Award Winners Announced

Storylines annual celebration of New Zealand’s writers

of children’s literature, their books and achievements

Three new children’s book writers from Wellington, Havelock North and Auckland are the winners of prestigious awards and offers of publishing contracts at this year’s annual Storylines literary awards.

The awards were presented at the annual Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal Presentation and National Awards Day held in Auckland on Sunday 3 April.

                                                                                                             

A former Royal Marine commando, now Havelock North bookseller and part-time magician, Gareth Ward won the Storylines Tessa Duder Award for a young adult manuscript, sponsored by Walker Books Australia and open to published and unpublished writers.

“The judges were delighted to find that the author of The Sin Chronicles: New Blood was a new writer of great talent,” said Tessa Duder.  “His steampunk novel set in Victorian England is great fun, with a series very likely.”  

The award was presented by Walker Books senior editor Mary Verney, from Sydney.

Wellington newcomer Sarah Grundy took the Storylines Joy Cowley Award, sponsored by Scholastic New Zealand for her original picture book text, The Wondrous Archew, while Aucklander Anne Kayes won the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award, also sponsored by Scholastic New Zealand, for her junior novel Tui Street Tales.

“We are delighted to be able to recognise, celebrate and reward these new authors,” says Gillian Wess, Storylines Executive Officer. ‘These Storylines Awards bear the names of New Zealand’s most highly regarded writers of children’s literature and we are delighted to see such a wealth of new talent emerging to carry on their legacy.

Popular school visitor and prolific Coromandel novelist Des Hunt won the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book for his 2009 novel Cry of the Taniwha. Commemorating children’s writer Gaelyn Gordon, the award goes to a book five or more years in print and a proven favourite with young readers.

The awards presentation included the Margaret Mahy Lecture given by the winner of the 2016 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, announced in early March, Barbara Else.  Wellington-based, she is currently the children’s writer in residence at the University of Otago.  Also an accomplished adult novelist, her work for children includes several novels and nine anthologies of short stories and poetry, and she is widely known as a literary assessor and agent.  

Certificates were also presented to the authors, illustrators and publishers of Storylines Notable Books 2016 (for books published in 2015).

Summary of Storylines Awards 2016

Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award

Barbara Else, Wellington (currently in Dunedin as Writer in Residence, University of Otago)

Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book

Des Hunt for Cry of the Taniwha, Coromandel.

Storylines Tessa Duder Award for a young adult manuscript, in association with Walker Books, Australia

The Sin Chronicles: New Blood, Gareth Ward, Havelock North.

Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award for a junior fiction manuscript, in association with Scholastic NZ

Tui Street Tales, Anne Kayes, Mt Albert, Auckland.

Storylines Joy Cowley Award for a picture book text, in association with Scholastic NZ

The Wondrous Archew , Sarah Grundy, Ngaio, Wellington.