NZ’s longest running short story competition gets social

NZ’s largest and longest running short story competition gets social

The BNZ Literary Awards launch today with the inclusion of a world-first Facebook short story category added to the competition.

In tandem with the Awards’ existing short story categories, the competition is expanding to include a new Short Short Story category that is based entirely within Facebook. Writers of all ages will submit their entry via a purpose-built Facebook app which can then be viewed and ‘liked’ by anyone who visits the BNZ Facebook page.

Andy Symons, Director BNZ Retail says, “With the Short Short Story competition, we wanted to combine the skill of writing a short story with the new and exciting ways people use social media — a medium which demands our messages are kept to a bare minimum.

“The BNZ Literary Awards have been running for 52 years now, and were founded to celebrate one of the most innovative New Zealand writers, Katherine Mansfield. With this spirit in mind, we believe it’s time to explore and expand the exciting creative writing possibilities of social media.”

BNZ Literary Awards Short Short Story Competition Judge Graham Beattie is excited about judging this category. He says, “By adding the Facebook Short Short Story category, the BNZ Literary Awards are leading the way into a new publishing age. This new category is accessible to a wide range of writers and recognises the burgeoning importance of social media in the literary world.”

To enter, go to facebook.com/bnzbank and submit a story between 100-150 words on the dedicated tab, which also includes a little inspiration to help get people started. The BNZ Short Short Story competition is open 25 April- 16 May, with winner announced 31 May. The prize is $500.

All other categories of the BNZ Literary Awards: Novice, Young Writer, Katherine Mansfield can be entered through BNZ’s website.

Entries for these categories open today, 1 April and close 31 May, with winners announced late August. The winner of the prestigious BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards takes away $10,000.

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