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2023 Winners

& Highly Commended Writers

2023 Finalists

2023 Awards Photos

Meet The Judges

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Event Information

Submissions OPEN

16 January 2023

Final submissions due

30 April 2023

Finalists announced
July

Awards ceremony
Saturday, 28 Oct 2023

  • Short fiction in te reo Māori
  • Short fiction in English
  • Short non-fiction in te reo Māori
  • Short non-fiction in English
  • Poetry in te reo Māori
  • Poetry in English
  • Keri Hulme Award (Author nominations)

The winner of each writing category will receive a $2,000 cash prize.

Two highly commended finalists in each category will receive a cash prize of $500 each.

Selected entrants will also be published in Huia Short Stories 15 – the contemporary writing series published by Huia Publishers. By entering a work into the awards, the author makes the work available to Huia Publishers for publication.

The winner of the Keri Hulme Award will receive a $5,000 cash prize, thanks to the generosity of the Hulme whānau.

The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Finalists will be announced on 30 June 2023 on the Trust website and in a media release.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, 28 October 2023 at the awards ceremony in Wellington. Winners must be prepared to attend the awards ceremony and be involved in promotional activities as reasonably requested by the organisers. Entrants and nominators are responsible for arranging travel to the event.

  1. Entrants must be of New Zealand Māori descent.
  2. Each award category is open to people of all ages, including school students.
  3. Short fiction categories do not include novel extracts, film or play scripts or picture book manuscripts.
  4. Non-fiction categories accept creative non-fiction and essays. All works entered must be at a publishable standard, which means the work must include citations for any work that is not the authors.
  5. The poetry category accepts self-published works.
  1. The Keri Hulme Award is for published authors who have published a book in the past two years.
  2. The author’s book can be self-published; however, it must be a physical format and have an ISBN number.
  3. The books do not have to be commercially available i.e., educational resources.
  4. Co-authored books count, so long as the entrant has fifty percent authorship. The author must be alive at the time of entry.
  1. Entries must be original, your own work and not previously published or under contract. Self-published poetry is an exception.
  2. Entries may be written in te reo Māori or English.
  3. Entries in short fiction and short non-fiction categories must be no longer than 3000 words.
  4. Entries in the poetry category must be no longer than 42 lines.
  5. All entries must be submitted by individuals. There is no limit to the number of entries an individual may submit in the short fiction and short non-fiction categories. There is a limit of five entries in the poetry category. Each new submission must be uploaded separately with a new digital entry form submission.
  6. All entries MUST be submitted online at www.mlt.org.nz as follows:
    • Title of the work and category at the top of each page of the entry
    • Typed in point size 12 or more with double line spaces
    • Each page should be numbered
    • Saved as a .docx or .pdf file
    • Do not include your name on your work; all entries are judged anonymously. Your name should only be on the digital entry form.
  7. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, 30 April 2023. Entries received after this closing date will not be eligible.
  8. Entries will be acknowledged as received but not returned.
  9. Māori Literature Trusts’ board and staff, Huia Publishers’ staff, the sponsors (including their staff members), the judges, and their immediate families are not eligible to enter.
  10. Queries on eligibility or any other queries should be directed to the awards administrator email: pikihuia@huia.co.nz
  1. Authors can nominate themselves or be nominated by their publisher, so long as the author knows and agrees.
  2. The nominator must supply a complete list of published works by the author and any previous recognition, awards or residencies received by the author.
  3. The nominator must supply three copies of the author’s latest work before the closing date to:

    364 Apirana Rd
    Horohoro
    Rotorua 3077

  4. Nominators can choose to supply letters of recommendation with the nomination.