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2025 Pikihuia Awards

Category Announcement

This year the Pikihuia Awards will celebrate 30 years of supporting and nurturing kaituhi Māori! Held biennially, the Pikihuia Awards have welcomed short story submissions in both te reo Māori and English. Following the exciting new categories introduced in 2023, The Māori Literature Trust is proud to announce that we are again adjusting the genre categories in response to feedback from the writing community and industry experts.

The 2025 Pikihuia Awards will accept entries in the following categories:

Keri Hulme Award
Poetry
te reo Māori
Poetry
English
Short Story
te reo Māori
Fiction and/or Non-Fiction
Short Story
English
Fiction and/or Non-Fiction
Tauira (Y7-13) Short Story
te reo Māori
Fiction and/or Non-Fiction
Tauira (Y7-13) Short Story
English
Fiction and/or Non-Fiction

Category Information

Thanks to the support of Keri Hulme’s whānau we will be accepting entries for this award in Keri’s honour, for experienced Māori writers that embody the values of perseverance and experimentation through their body of work. Kaituhi Māori who have a minimum of two published works with the most recently published within the last two years, are invited to submit.

We are excited to once again open submissions to Poets writing in both English and te reo Māori. Kaituhi Māori submitting poetry in the English category will be limited to 2 entries per writer in 2025. Kaituhi submitting poetry in the reo Māori category may include traditional forms of song poetry. Finalists for this category will be published in the Huia Short Stories 16 anthology. There will be six finalists in both the reo Māori and English Poetry categories.

Stories may be Fiction or Non-fiction, written in either English or te reo Māori. Entries must be single stories of up to 3,000 words. Finalists for this category will be published in the Huia Short Stories 16 anthology. There will be six finalists in both the reo Māori and English Short Stories categories. Please note that there will be no separation of Fiction and Non-Fiction in 2025.

In 2025 we welcome back the Tauira category for students in Years 7 through to Year 13. We are accepting submissions from tauira in this category for Short Fiction and/or non-fiction. Entries must be single stories of up to 2,000 words. There will be six finalists in both the reo Māori and English Short Stories categories. Tauira who wish to submit Poetry are welcome to enter into the general Poetry category.

Terms & Conditions

Submissions open: 31 January 2025

Final submissions due: 30 April 2025

Finalists announced: July 2025

Awards ceremony: October 2025

  1. Poetry in te reo Māori

  2. Poetry in English

  3. Short Story (Fiction/Non-Fiction) in te reo Māori

  4. Short Story (Fiction/Non-Fiction) in English

  5. Tauira (Y7-13) Short Story (Fiction/Non-Fiction) in te reo Māori

  6. Tauira (Y7-13) Short Story (Fiction/Non-Fiction) in English

Keri Hulme Award in English

  1. The winner of each writing category will receive a $2,000 cash prize. The winner of the Keri Hulme Award will receive a $5000 cash prize thanks to the generosity of the Hulme whānau.

  2. One Runner Up finalist in each category will receive a cash prize of $500 each.

  3. Finalists in the Poetry and Short Stories categories will also be published in Huia Short Stories 16 – the contemporary writing series published by Huia Publishers. By entering a work into the Poetry and Short Stories categories, the author makes the work available to Huia Publishers for publication.

The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Finalists will be announced in July 2025 on the Māori Literature Trust website and social media networks.

Winners will be announced in October 2025 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 and covering their own travel and accommodation costs.

  1. Entrants must be of New Zealand Māori descent.

  2. Each award category is open to people of all ages, including school students.

  3. The Short Story categories do not include novel extracts, film or play scripts or picture book manuscripts.

  4. The Short Story categories accept creative fiction, 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 author’s.

  5. The poetry category accepts work that have been self-published.

  6. Submissions for the Tauira Short Story categories should have the support of the students’ whānau. We ask that teachers encouraging students to enter please have these kōrero with whānau before helping tauira to submit.

Kaituhi Māori who have a minimum of two published works with the most recently published within the last two years, are invited to submit. 

  1. The Keri Hulme Award is for experienced authors who have released a minimum of two published works, with the most recently published within the last two years (April 2023 – April 2025).

  2. The author’s books can be self-published; however, they must be in 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.

  5. The author must be alive at the time of entry.

  6. The winners of this award will exemplify the spirit of perseverance and experimentation through their body of work.

  7. Each entry must include a letter of support that recommends why the author should be considered for the award.

Submission Guidelines

  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 the Short Story categories must be no longer than 3000 words.

  4. Entries in the Tauira Short Story categories must be no longer than 2000 words.

  5. Entries in the Poetry categories must be no longer than 42 lines.

  6. All entries must be submitted by individuals. There is no limit to the number of entries an individual may submit in the Short Stories categories. There is a limit of 2 entries in the Poetry written in English category. Each new submission must be uploaded separately with a new digital entry form submission.

  7. 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, in the title or headers/footers; all entries are judged anonymously. Your name should only be on the digital entry form.

  8. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, 30 April 2025. Entries received after this closing date will not be eligible.

  9. Entries will be acknowledged as received but not returned.

  10. 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.

  11. 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, a peer or tuakana, 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:

    • 39 Pipitea Street
      Thorndon
      Wellington 6011

  4. Nominators MUST supply a letter of recommendation with the nomination.

Submit for Pikihuia
Submit for the Keri Hulme Award