Whitireia Student Wins Katherine Mansfield Award

Whitireia Student Wins Katherine Mansfield Award

Whitireia writing student Joseph Ryan has been awarded the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Novice Writer award, for his story, Stranger Than Beautiful. The awards were held 2 October at Te Papa Museum in Wellington and are one of New Zealand’s longest running creative writing awards. The Awards commemorate New Zealand’s best-known writers and help New Zealand writers achieve recognition within the country.

Ryan is currently in his second year of studying Screen Writing, Short Fiction and Poetry at Whitireia Polytechnic. This is the second time Ryan has ever submitted a story into a competition. “I wanted to write a fable that was about writing stories,” he said. “So, with that idea in mind, I brought together a bunch of classic archetypes of story, and went to work. It was a great joy to write, and I had lots of fun.”

The Awards are New Zealand’s most prestigious short story awards, and have been the foundation for a number of famous New Zealand author’s careers. Frank Sargeson, Keri Hulme, Maurice Shadbolt, Charlotte Grimshaw and C.K Stead have all been previous winners of Katherine Mansfield Awards.

“It is a real honour to have won a Katherine Mansfield Award of course,” says Ryan, who was also awarded $1,500 to help develop his writing career. “I feel very privileged to have my story chosen out of so many other stories, and it is very encouraging. Especially for such a new writer like myself.”

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