Write Your Future Among The Stars

Entries are open for the 2022 Sunday Star-Times short story awards

Just days after launching, entries have already started rolling in for the Sunday Star-Times short story awards.

The awards have helped launch the careers of many well-known writers. Previous winners include novelists Kirsten McDougall, Eleanor Catton and Carl Nixon.

Now in the 39th year, the awards are among New Zealand’s most prestigious and established writing prizes. And thanks to two new categories for emerging Māori and Pasifika writers, the competition is attracting more interest than ever.

Sunday Star-Times editor Tracy Watkins said she expected the number of entries to surpass last year, which saw nearly 900 writers vying for the top prize. “Every year seems to raise the bar for both the standard and number of entries,” Watkins said.

Entries categories include:

Open award (up to 3000 words)

Emerging Māori writer (up to 3000 words)

Emerging Pasifika writer (up to 3000 words)

Milford Foundation Secondary School writer scholarship (up to 2000 words)

The winner of the open category will take home $7,000, generously sponsored by the Milford Foundation and Penguin Random House. The other three category winners will receive $1,500 each, all sponsored by the Milford Foundation.

The 2022 awards will be judged by renowned New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera, judging the emerging Māori category, and novelist Owen Marshall, who will choose the overall winner. Last year’s overall winner - author, artist and playwright Dominic Hoey - will judge the youth category while Pasifika artist, writer and publisher Faith Wilson will judge the emerging Pasifika category.

Entries are judged anonymously, so the judges do not know who has written the pieces. The winning story (open category) will be published in the Sunday Star-Times and on Stuff.

Watkins said she was thrilled to have judges of such a high calibre on board.

“The opportunity to have your writing reviewed by such influential and important figures in the writing community is a huge attraction,” said Watkins. “Imagine having your work critiqued by a literary giant like Witi Ihimaera, for instance, as a young or emerging Māori writer.”

Ihimaera (DCNZM QSM) is an influential figure in New Zealand literature and was the first Māori writer to publish both a book of short stories and a novel. His substantial work includes writing for screen and stage, his best-known novel Whale Rider was made into an internationally successful film in 2002. Ihimaera has received numerous awards for his contribution to literature. The 50th anniversary edition of his book Pounamu Pounamu was published earlier this month, with a te reo Māori version to follow next year.

Marshall (CNZM) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and anthologist and was a school teacher for 25 years before becoming a full-time author. He has written or edited more than 30 books, including the best-selling novel The Larnarchs, and has won numerous awards for his fiction. Marshall has recently published The Return to Harikoa Bay, his first collection of new stories in over 10 years.

Hoey - already an established artist before winning last year’s competition - is a fast rising star in the literary world. His winning story, 1986, was described by the judges as a sharply observant social commentary on Auckland’s Grey Lynn neighbourhood in the days before gentrification, told through the eyes of a boy who is the subject of the school bully’s attention.

Emerging Pasifika judge Wilson is the inaugural Penguin Random House NZ Pacific Arts Legacy Intern under a new PRH/CNZ initiative to increase representation in publishing and develop Pacific talent.

The Milford Foundation came on board in 2021, enabling the competition to expand into two new categories, which encouraged newer writers to have a go.

Entries are open until 11.59 pm on 31 October 2022. Award criteria and entry form can be found here.

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