NZ's Biggest Short Story Competition Back For 40th Year

Aotearoa’s leading short story competition has launched, with its largest total prize pool ever.

The Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards is celebrating its 40th year of offering budding and established authors the opportunity to share their stories with the country. The generous sponsorship of the Milford Foundation and Penguin Random House makes this year’s awards the richest in its history with a total prize pool of $20,000.

Sunday Star-Times Editor Tracy Watkins says the competition has a storied history: “The awards give short stories a platform to stand tall. Past winners include some of New Zealand’s most loved authors, including Carl Nixon, Eleanor Catton, Kirsten McDougall and Dominic Hoey.

“Each year I am amazed at the calibre of writing the awards attract, and I’m sure the bar will be raised even further this year. With some of the most respected figures in the literary community as our judges, this is a competition no writer will want to miss.”

Awards are up for grabs in three categories this year:

Open award (up to 3000 words) - $15,000 prize thanks to the Milford Foundation and Penguin.

Emerging Māori or Pasifika writer award (up to 3000 words) - $2500 prize sponsored by Milford.

Milford Foundation secondary school writer award (up to 2000 words) - $2500 prize.

Milford Foundation Chief Executive Bryce Marsden says they’re proud to be the major sponsor of the awards.

“We are passionate about making New Zealand an incredible place to live for future generations. As this competition celebrates 40 years, we are proud to have been a part of the journey to create some of this country’s leading writers and history makers – people who have helped shape Aotearoa and have become part of its fabric. Through the words, thoughts and ideas crafted by these writers, we are seeing the future of our country take shape.

“Secondary school writers this year are asked to think about the competition’s 40th anniversary as their theme, using ‘40 years’ as their starting point. Some ideas might be: a 40-year promise; who will I be in 40 years?; 40 years of birthday letters; where will Aotearoa New Zealand be in 40 years?; or the story it took my grandmother 40 years to write,” says Marsden.

The 2024 competition will be judged by: novelist and previous Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award finalist Eileen Merriman in the open category; The Space Between author Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) in the emerging Māori and Pasifika category; and poet, educator and children’s author Jane Arthur in the secondary school category.

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

The awards are also supported by Heft Communications and the Wellington Writers Studio.

Entries are open until 11.45pm on October 7. The award criteria and entry form can be found at thepost.co.nz/storyawards.

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