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Writers need to hurry to get their entries judged by some of New Zealand’s leaders in language, literature and film as the competition closes next month.

Booker winner Keri Hulme will be judging the best novel extract, and actor and director Katie Wolfe will judge this year’s short film script. Leaders in language Erima Henare, Chair of the Board of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, and Reina Whaitiri, an English literature lecturer at Auckland University, will be judging the best short story in Māori and English respectively.

On the Huia Publishers website (www.huia.co.nz) the judges have suggested the kind of stories they are looking for in this unique New Zealand competition. As the Pikihuia Awards encourage Māori to try their hand at writing, especially in te reo Māori, many of the judges will be looking for the ways the authors understand their world from an indigenous perspective.

‘I would expect stories in this section to have been crafted from and therefore also convey a Māori world view, no matter the genre, indeed it will be the author’s ability to successfully and appropriately impart this sensibility that’ll win me over’, says Henare.

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Entrants will be in with a chance to win $2000 in each category except the Best Short Story Written in Māori or English by a Secondary School Student. Secondary school students are eligible to win a cash prize of $500 and $250 worth of Huia Publishers books for their school.

Finalists will have the opportunity of having their work published in a collection to be launched at the Pikihuia Awards night in August 2011. Following this, the books will be available in bookstores throughout the country.

The competition closes at 5pm on 15 April 2011, and entry criteria and forms are available online at the Huia Publishers website www.huia.co.nz.

ENDS

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