Christchurch and Tauranga writers win Wylie awards

Christchurch and Tauranga writers have won this year's Ashton Wylie Unpublished Manuscript and Book Awards.

Christchurch author Robyn Speed received $10,000 in the Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Unpublished Manuscript Award category, while Tauranga's Megan Don won the $10,000 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Book Award.

The awards were presented in Auckland tonight.

The awards, run in association with the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA), recognise excellence in writing in the mind, body, spirit genre.

New Zealand Society of Authors Programme Manager Tina Shaw said they received many high quality entries for both the unpublished manuscript and book categories of the Awards.

"Each year there is increasing interest in the Awards, which formally recognise New Zealand authors in this genre, and provide them with the much-needed support and encouragement they require to further their writing careers.

Ms Speed's work, The Key, was described by judges as an entertaining and well written manuscript which explores the quest to find a key to unite all people.

Judges described Ms Don's book Falling into the Arms of God: Meditations with Teresa of Avila as a beautifully put together book which invited readers to explore the depths of their inner being by following the pathway of Teresa of Avila.

The Trust was established in 2001 with the main intention of promoting more loving relationships.

The Trust's Unpublished Manuscript and Book Awards were established in 2004, in association with the New Zealand Society of Authors, to encourage the expansion of the mind, body, spirit literature genre in New Zealand.

- NZPA