Pikihuia Māori Writer Awards now in 20th Year!

6 March 2015

Embargoed to Monday 9 March 2015

Pikihuia Māori Writer Awards now in 20th Year!

Two years have flown by and it is time again for the Pikihuia Awards for Māori Writers competition which opens today.

The Māori Literature Trust and HUIA Publishers have been organising this unique, and increasingly popular, biennial contest since 1995 producing award-winning Māori writers in all genres.

The Māori Literature Trust now invites Māori writers of novels, short stories and film scripts to send your work in for the 2015 competition! Whether it’s something new you’ve been itching to show someone or something old that needs a bit of a polish, we’d love to see it.

‘Our aim is to develop and promote Māori authors and continually encourage diversity in writing. We want to take our stories, experiences and views to the world,’ Robyn Bargh, chairperson of The Māori Literature Trust, says.

In the following categories, the winner will receive a cash prize of $2000 and two highly commended finalists in each category will receive a cash prize of $500 each:

• Best Short Story written in Māori

• Best Short Story written in English

• Best Novel Extract written in English

• Best Short Film Script written in English

In addition, selected winners and finalists will also be published in Huia Short Stories 11 – the collection of contemporary fiction series published by HUIA Publishers.

Tihema Baker, author of new sci-fi novel Watched, knows the benefit of the Pikihuia Awards. ‘The opportunity to enter my first short story in te reo Māori in a contest that celebrates Māori literature was something that I really appreciated,’ says Tihema Baker, winner of the 2013 Best Short Story written in Māori. ‘Getting the story published was also a great reward and encouraged me to continue working on getting my novel Watched published.’

In an effort to foster a growing number of young Māori writers, the Pikihuia Awards also has a secondary schools category that allows students to enter a short story written in English or Māori. It is important that young Māori are given the opportunities to develop their writing and creativity and all students are encouraged to enter.

The winner will receive a cash prize of $500, and their school will receive $250 worth of HUIA books. Two highly commended finalists will receive a cash prize of $250 each, and their school will receive $100 worth of HUIA books.

Together with the Māori Literature Trust, the sponsors of this year’s awards are Creative New Zealand, Te Puni Kokiri, the NZ Film Commission and HUIA Publishers.

The competition closes at 5.00pm, 31 May 2015.

Details of the awards are available at www.huia.co.nz/pikihuia2015 and they will be updated on HUIA Publishers’ Facebook page and at www.mlt.org.nz.

ENDS

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