Short Story Award Springboards Writing Career

Click to enlarge
Novelist and Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award winner, Natasha Judd.

Media release – for immediate release

Date 8 June 2007

Short Story Award Springboards Writing Career

Winning the country’s most prestigious short story award opened publisher’s doors for Natasha Judd’s first novel.

Judd’s debut title, Lessons to Learn, that carries the same name as her award winning Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield story, will be launched next week by Dame Catherine Tizard.

Aspiring novelists now have an opportunity to launch their own writing careers; they have until June 30 to submit their stories to this year’s BNZ Katherine Mansfield Writers’ Awards.

Before entering the competition, Judd (26) thought she had no chance of winning. With just one small piece of fiction published previously for a 20 dollar payment, she competed against established authors to take the premier award in 2003.

‘Winning the Katherine Mansfield Award opened up my writing career. It gave me the confidence to write my novel. I encourage anyone who enjoys writing to enter their story because you just never know.’

The Awards have acted as career springboards for some of the nation’s most celebrated writers: C K Stead (1961), Frank Sargeson (1965), Keri Hulme (1975), Vincent O’Sullivan (1979) and Charlotte Grimshaw (2006).

Bank of New Zealand head of corporate relations, Fiona Cooper Clarke says Natasha’s win shows you don’t have to have an established writing career to win the Katherine Mansfield award.

‘New Zealand has a wealth of emerging writers and we are proud to support our future writing stars through this award.’

The BNZ Katherine Mansfield premier prize is worth $10,000. The novice award, open to writers who have not previously received payment for published fiction, is worth $1,500. The young writer’s category, open to secondary school students, has a prize of $1,500 for the student and the same amount for their school.

Those entering this year’s awards will have their stories read by some of the country’s top writers: Dame Fiona Kidman is the premier category judge; Jane Westaway is novice category judge and young writer’s stories will be judged by Margaret Mahy.

Bank of New Zealand has sponsored the awards - which aim to foster the country’s literature - for more than four decades. They are New Zealand’s longest-running short story awards, established in 1959.

Katherine Mansfield’s father, Sir Harold Beauchamp, was a director of Bank of New Zealand, a position he held of 38 years. He was also the chairman of the board for 17 years.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington on 4 October.

Entry forms to this year’s Katherine Mansfield Awards can be found at any Bank of New Zealand branch, at libraries nationwide or by going to www.bnz.co.nz/kmawards.

ENDS

© Scoop Media