New Children's Book Award Announced for New Zealand Writers, Northern Advocate excerpt

$10,000 on offer to authors

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Northland writers who have explored themes involving the mind, body or spirit genre are encouraged to enter their work in the 2012 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Literature Awards.

The awards recognise budding and published writers by offering three of the largest prizes awarded for literature in New Zealand, including a new category for 2012: the Children's Book Award.

The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust, in association with the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) will present three prizes of $10,000 each to the winning unpublished manuscript author, published book author and children's book author.


To be eligible for the awards, writers must be New Zealand citizens residing in the country.

Unpublished manuscripts must be submitted by March 31, and be between 20,000 and 100,000 words in length.

Published books must be submitted by May 31, should be 48 pages or longer and have been published between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012.

Children's books must also be submitted by May 31 and should be 48 pages or longer with a word count between 8000 to 20,000 words. The children's book must have been published between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2012.

Submission forms and entry details are available from the New Zealand Society of Authors national office, by phoning: 09 379 4801, or email: office@nzauthors.org.nz or post: PO Box 7701, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141.