Winners of the inaugural Chris Cole Catley Writing Awards

Winners of the inaugural Chris Cole Catley Writing Awards announced

The winners of the inaugural Chris Cole Catley Writing Awards were announced this morning.

The awards were set up as part of the Michael King Writers’ Centre Young Writers Programme. They were open to Year 11 to 13 students from schools throughout the Auckland region.

The awards attracted about 70 submissions from 52 students. They were judged by Anna Hodge of Auckland University Press.

Sophie van Waardenberg, a Year 12 student from St Cuthbert’s College, won first prize in both the poetry and prose sections. Her winning poem is called “my best friends eyebrows”.

The runners up in the prose section were Erin Ramsay from Westlake Girls’ College and Amelia Kendall from St Cuthbert’s College. Rachel Meadows from Kaipara College and Courtney Bassett (Rangitoto College) were highly commended.

In the poetry section, Erin Ramsay and Vivian Qiu (St Cuthbert’s College) were runners up. Jamie Penno and Anuja Mitra, both from Rangitoto College, were highly commended.

The winners of the competition were announced at the launch of Signals, the literary journal for young writers, in Auckland today. The winning work has been published in the journal, which features the work of writers who took part in this year’s Young Writers Programme. This year the publication has increased to 90 pages and includes about 50 works of poetry or prose from 24 writers. It has a print-run of 700 and is available from the Michael King Writers’ Centre at $10 per copy.

The Chris Cole Catley Writing Awards are named in honour of Dame Christine Cole Catley, a writer and publisher, who established the Young Writers Programme. She loved young people and was a mentor of many writers throughout her life.

ENDS

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