New Zealand's premier short story awards  | Features |
- The Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Awards is the Bank's oldest sponsorship, with involvement beginning in November 1958
- The short story awards commemorate Katherine Mansfield's contribution to New Zealand literature and assist New Zealand writers to achieve recognition in their own country
- The Awards are biennial
- All entries must be unpublished stories
- "Double blind judging" is a unique feature of the Awards - each section is judged individually, by respected writers and academics, who remain anonymous until judging is completed. All entries are anonymous, written under a pen-name, and there is no pre-selection of entries
- Notable past winners of the Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award include Maurice Shadbolt (1963, 1967 and 1995), Frank Sargeson (1965), Keri Hulme (1975), Vincent O'Sullivan (1979) and Daphne de Jong (1981)
 | Award Categories - Announcement of the 2001 Winners |
The winners of the 2001 Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Memorial Awards received their awards and prizes at a ceremony in Wellington on 11 October. Copies of the winning stories and judge's reports are available below (to view or print a copy of the judge's report or winning story you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded free of charge).
The winners are:
Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award
Judge's Report - Katherine Mansfield Award
Winner: "Mill" by Janis Freegard
Janis Freegard of Vogeltown has won this year's Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Award - the supreme award in New Zealand's premier short story competition. Her story "Mill" follows Taranaki girl Millicent, who moves to the capital and falls in love. Janis works with Skill New Zealand as a policy adviser, and says she "started writing when I learnt how to write."
"Mill" by Janis Freegard
Runner Up: "The Blind Astronomer" by Tracy Farr
Tracy Farr of Strathmore is runner up in this year's Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Memorial Awards. Tracy, who works in seaweed research at Te Papa, says the idea for the story was sparked off by the fact her mother was going through a similar experience. "I scribbled a story which was the basis of this story a few years ago, but it didn't work. It was too autobiographical. Then I hit on the idea of making the main character an astronomer and making her experience worse - so as to explore the idea of being connected and different ways of receiving information."
"The Blind Astronomer" by Tracy Farr
Bank of New Zealand Novice Writers Award
- Maximum length - 3,000 words
- First Prize - $1,500
- Judged by: Paula Boock
Judge's Report - Novice Writers Award
Winner: "Her First" by Tracey Slaughter
Tracey Slaughter of Thames has won the Bank of New Zealand Novice Writers Award. Tracey attended Auckland University as both a student and tutor and has just completed her PhD thesis on New Zealand women's autobiography. Poetry has been her main creative outlet to date, and she is a devotee of New Zealand writers - in particular Katherine Mansfield, Lauris Edmond, Janet Frame, Catherine Chidgey and Elizabeth Knox.
"Her First" by Tracey Slaughter
Bank of New Zealand Young Writers Award - Minimum length - 750 words; Maximum length - 2,000 words
- First Prize - $1,000
- Prize to school of winning student - $500
- Judged by: Jack Lasenby
Judge's Report - Young Writers Award
Winner: "True Colours" by Susan Johnston
Susan Johnston of Mt Eden, Auckland has won the Bank of New Zealand Young Writers Award. Her story, "True Colours" takes a keyhole look at a family going about its business, and she says it is "a work of fiction, and any likeness to persons living or dead is entirely circumstantial." Now 17, Susan was first inspired to write by the creative writing classes run by teacher Ros Ali, while in the fifth form at Epsom Girls Grammar. She says writers who have a strong influence on her thinking are poet e.e.cummings and novelists Janet Frame and William Faulkner.
Her story is one of around twenty of the best short stories entered into the Young Writers Awards to be anthologised in a collection to be published and marketed by New House Publishers Ltd of Auckland.
"True Colours" by Susan Johnston
Bank of New Zealand Essay Award - Maximum length - 2,500 words
- First prize - $1,000
- Judged by: Fergus Barrowman
Judge's Report - Essay Award
Winner: "Parochialism and Identity" by Karen Butterworth
Karen Butterworth of Otaki is the winner of this year's Bank of New Zealand Essay Award. Now retired, she is well known in the Otaki area for her regular column in a local newspaper, "Core Issues" which ran for around four years - the best being published in book form in 1999 by Pertinent Press. She lists the works of John Steinbeck, Bertrand Russell, J.K. Galbraith and Simone de Beauvoir, Dick Scott's Ask That Mountain and Mary Findlay's Tooth and Nail as being major, early influences on her thinking.
"Parochialism & Identity" by Karen Butterworth
* All 2001 winners received complimentary copies of the Katherine Mansfield Notebooks (Volumes I & II), edited by Margaret Scott and supplied by publisher, Daphne Brasell Associates Limited.
 | Further Enquiries |
Further enquiries should be directed to:
Lyndal McMeeking
Bank of New Zealand Sponsorship
P.O. Box 1461
Christchurch
E-mail: lyndal_mcmeeking@bnz.co.nz