Prize money doubled for Katherine Mansfield short story awards

1.00pm

If the sheer joy of creating a short story masterpiece just isn't going to cut it, then perhaps some money will -- the prize money for this year's Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Awards has doubled.

The annual awards were first held in 1959 and previous winners include Frank Sargeson, Keri Hulme and CK Stead.

BNZ spokesman Andrew Whitechurch said the prize money for the premier Katherine Mansfield Award had doubled to $10,000.

"The BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards are New Zealand's most established writing competition and we've doubled the prize money to reflect this. We also want to see more entries this year, and hopefully the increased prize money will attract some fierce competition," said Mr Whitechurch.

The three categories are the Katherine Mansfield Award (prize $10,000), Novice Writers Award (prize $1,500) and the Young Writers Award (prize $1,500 and $1,500 given to the winning school).

Entries can be submitted online or with an entry form available from BNZ branches.

Entries close 30 June 2004 and winners will be announced on 14 October 2004.

- NZPA