Montana New Zealand Book Awards
The Montana New Zealand Book Awards, sponsored by Montana Wines and supported by Creative New Zealand, recognise excellence in New Zealand writing. Three awards are presented for new writing. The New Zealand Society of Authors Hurbert Church Best First Book of Fiction Award, The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie MacKay Best First Book of Poetry Award, and The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non-Fiction. The best book of fiction in any year is awarded the Deutz Medal for Fiction. Also awarded is the Reader’s Choice Award, being the shortlisted title selected through a nationwide voting process as the most popular with the reading public. Submissions for entries are called in late October of each year and cover the period April 1 of that year to March 31 of the year in which the awards are made. Further details are available from Booksellers New Zealand in Wellington. Phone (04) 478 5511 or email info@booksellers.co.nz visit their website also at www.booksellers.co.nz or you can visit www.montananzbookawards.co.nz or www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz
Creative New Zealand
Creative New Zealand is the main arts development organisation in New Zealand and the only national organisation able to allocate funding to projects that span all the art forms. Financial support for writers’ and publishers’ projects and for literary organisers is available. Applicants can choose which funding programme to apply under but they must meet specific eligibility conditons. All applicants for writing grants must be published writers, but need not have published a book. A reasonable track record with good access to marketing, promotion and distribution networks. Literary event organisers must be able to demonstrate their ability to promote New Zealand literature and to provide full financial details of the projects for which they seek support. Creative New Zealand supports specific items, e.g. speaking fees for writers at festivals or specific touring costs, rather than a predicted ‘shortfall’ in a overall budget.
John Harris Award
The John Harris Award is presented by the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) in recognition of notable published work, such as in the bibliographical, critical, historical or administrative fields, which represents a contribution to New Zealand librarianship. The award consists of a sum of money and an appropriate diploma and is only awarded when merited. Nominations should be submitted by July 1. Details may be obtained from LIANZA, P O Box 12-212, Wellington. Email admin@lianza.org.nz
Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement
Worth $60,000 each, the annual Prime Minister’s Awards for Literacy Achievement recognise writers who have made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature. Although literary organisations tend to make a collective nomination, Creative New Zealand is keen to encourage individual nominations. The nominated writers should have written a body of work that has recieved national acclaim and/or international recognition. They may also be working in other genres. The fiction category includes novels, short stories, plays, children’s fiction and scriptwriting. Nomination forms are available from any of Creative New Zealand’s offices – Auckland phone 09-373 3006, Christchurch phone 03-366 2072, Wellington phone 04-473 0880. You can also download the nomination forms from the Resources section of Creative New Zealand’s website, see our links page. You can also contact Danielle Tolson at Creative New Zealand – phone 04-473 0184 or email daniellet@creativenz.govt.nz.
The Friends of the Turnbull Library Research Grant
The Friends of the Turnbull Library offer an annual award of up to $10,000 to assist scholars in carrying out research based on the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Further information and application forms are available from the website www.turnbullfriends.org.nz or by writing to The Secretary, FoTL, P O Box 12 186, Wellington.
Landfall Essay Competition
The competition encourages writers to think aloud about New Zealand culture, and aims to sustain the tradition of vivid, contentious and creative essay writing that has appeared in Landfall’s pages. The prize is $2,500, a year’s subscription to Landfall and the winning essay will appear in Landfall. Email publicity@otago.ac.nz for more information or visit the link http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/essaycompetition.html for more details.
The Bruce Jesson Award
For critical, analytical informative journalism in New Zealand. This is a $3000 award. Get details about this award from Simon Collins simoncollins@clear.net.nz
Jack Lasenby Award
The Jack Lasenby Award, offered by the Wellington Children’s Book Association, is made to the winners of a biennial competition for writers for children and for children who write in the Wellington region.
About Jack Lasenby: Jack Lasenby’s first book was published in 1976 and now, with more than fifteen titles to his credit, he is amongst New Zealand’s most popular children’s writers and winner of multiple awards. He has captured the minds and imaginations of children with his rare honesty, vigorous language and soaring adventures. After a variety of jobs, including deer-culler and possum-trapper in the Ureweras, Jack became a school teacher, then editor of The School Journal and later a lecturer at Wellington College of Education. Jack lives in Wellington and is Patron of the Wellington Children’s Book Association.
There are two categories in the competition.
Category One is for students in Years 7 and 8 at primary and intermediate schools. Stories entered in this category should be for children aged from eight to twelve years, and should be no longer than 500 words. The winner of Category One will receive $200 plus a set of books published by Longacre Press. The school the winning writer attends will also receive a set of books from Longacre Press for its school library.
Category Two is for adult writers of children’s fiction. Stories entered in this category should also be for children aged from eight to twelve years, with a maximum length of 1,000 words. The winning writer will receive $500.
The theme of the stories is open but they must be set somewhere that is recognisably within the Wellington region.
The competition is open to people who live in Wellington’s geographical area, i.e. the area covered by the Wellington telephone book.
For further information about the award, contact the Wellington Children’s Book Association, PO Box 1242, Wellington.
The Joy Cowley Award
Inaugurated in 2002 and sponsored by Scholastic New Zealand, the Joy Cowley Award is given annually, when merited, for a 32-page picture book manuscript of not more than 1000 words for either very young or older children.
The Joy Cowley Award is open to all New Zealand residents, and offers a monetary award of $1500, along with an offer of publication of the edited manuscript by Scholastic NZ.
The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Background:
The Joy Cowley Award is in recognition of the outstanding contribution Joy Cowley has made to children’s literature, with the aim of fostering new and exciting picture books from New Zealand writers. Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s most prolific and successful writers for children’s books. She has written more than 600 titles for all ages and her books are available in most countries where English is a first or second language.
Copyright Licensing Award
Established in 2002, the annual CLL Writers’ Awards provide financial support for New Zealand writers of non-fiction books.
The awards are funded by a deduction of up to 2% of CLL’s annual domestic licensing income each year.
The first award in 2002 was of $30,000. In 2003 the award was $35,000.
Since then, two awards of $35,000 each have been made annually.
Two awards of $35,000 will again be made in 2008, allowing two writers to devote time to a specific non-fiction writing project.
Applications for the CLL Writers’ Awards close on the 15th July each year.
To find out more about the awards download the Guidelines. To apply download the Application form.
Prize in Modern Letters
The Prize in Modern Letters is valued at NZ$65,000, and is New Zealand’s richest single literary award. It was established by Glenn Schaeffer, founding patron of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. The prize is awarded biennially, and it is designed to acknowledge and advance the work of emerging writers from or based in New Zealand. More generally, it is a major vote of confidence in the work of New Zealand’s writers.
Further information about the nominating process for the Glenn Schaeffer Prize in Modern Letters is available from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.
