$9k boost to Sunday Star-Times short story competition

Entries are now open for New Zealand’s richest short story competition, the Sunday Star-Times short story awards.

Sunday Star-Times editor Tracy Watkins said the awards, now in their fourth decade, were poised to showcase some of New Zealand’s most exciting new writing talent, thanks to a $9000 prize pool, made possible with the support of new sponsor, the Milford Foundation.

‘‘The Milford Foundation coming on board, alongside our longstanding partner, Penguin Random House New Zealand, has helped reinvigorate the awards by broadening the categories to include the best emerging Ma¯ori and best emerging Pasifika writers,’’ Watkins said.

The winners of those categories, both sponsored by the Milford Foundation, will each win $1000, and they are also eligible to win the $6000 prize for best short story overall, sponsored by Penguin and the foundation.

The foundation is also sponsoring the $1000 prize for the best writer aged under 25.

Penguin Random House New Zealand fiction publisher Harriet Allan said the publisher had been involved with the competition since 2005.

‘‘We are proud to have published some of the country’s top writers of short stories, such as Owen Marshall, Fiona Kidman, Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace.

‘‘A number of new writers who have won

or been runners-up for the competition have gone on to become established writers, including Carl Nixon, Sarah Laing and Eileen Merriman.’’

A feature of the competition is that it has always been anonymous, so the judges do not know who has written the pieces.

Milford Foundation trustee Sarah Norrie said they were delighted to support the competition.

‘‘New Zealand’s essential workers are rightly in the spotlight right now for the vital work they do for all of us. We think our writers and storytellers are essential in their own way – imagine life without them! It’s a credit to the Sunday Star-Times that its competition has already helped to launch the career of many admired writers. The short story is a challenging form – but proves something profound and enduring can be said in relatively few words.’’

Norrie said the Milford Foundation had a clear purpose: To invest in the future of Aotearoa New Zealand and create opportunities for generations to follow.

‘‘We think that our purpose fits well with our support for the youth, Ma¯ori and Pasifika categories of the Sunday Star-Times short story competition.’’

Watkins said last year’s awards attracted almost 700 entries and she expected that to be surpassed this year, thanks to the new categories, which would encourage newer writers to have a go.

‘‘We’re also thrilled at the calibre of judges, and expect that to be another drawcard for aspiring writers.’’

Renowned author Patricia Grace will judge the emerging Ma¯ori category, and awardwinning author Amy McDaid will judge the emerging Pasifika category.

Rosetta Allan, most recently the first New Zealander to take up the St Petersburg Art Residency in Russia where she spent time researching her second novel, The Unreliable People, will judge the open category.

Tinderbox author Megan Dunn will judge the under-25 category.