 Premier
Judge - Fiona Kidman
Fiona Kidman is
a novelist, short story writer and poet. She has published over 20 books,
including the novels A Breed of Women, The Book of Secrets (winner of
the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction) and more recently The Captive
Wife, which was Readers' Choice in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
Her memoir At the end of Darwin Road was published in 2008 and a second
volume of memoir will be published this year.
She initiated and edited the first three volumes of The
Best New Zealand Fiction (Vintage). In 2006, she was the Meridian Energy
Katherine Mansfield Writers Fellow for 2006, and visited France later
that year with 11 New Zealand writers, as part of Les Belles Etrangeres
tour. Currently, she is the Creative New Zealand Michael King Fellow.
She is a Dame Commander of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) and has
an OBE.
 Novice
Judge - Carl Nixon
Carl Nixon is a professional full-time writer of plays, short
stories and novels. He won the premier category of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield
Awards in 2007 and was runner up for the same award in 1999. He has also
twice won the Sunday Star Times Short Story Contest (1997, 1999).
His collection of short stories, Fish 'n' Chip Shop Song
went to number one on the NZ best selling fiction list and was short listed
for the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best first book Southeast Asia
and South Pacific Region. His stories have appeared in numerous anthologies,
and over a dozen have been broadcast by Radio New Zealand.
Carl was the 2007 Ursula Bethell / Creative New Zealand
Writer-in-Residence at Canterbury University, where he completed a novel,
Rocking Horse Road.
His recent theatrical scripts include: an adaptation of
Lloyd Jones novel The Book of Fame, and an adaptation of Nobel Prize winner
J M Coetzee’s novel Disgrace for Auckland Theatre Company.
Carl Nixon lives in Christchurch with his wife and two
small children.
 Young
Writers Judge - Kate De Goldi
Kate De Goldi is the author of three novels
for young adults, a collection of short fiction for adults and three picture
books for children. She reviews children's books regularly on Radio New
Zealand National's Saturday programme with broadcaster, Kim Hill. She
also reviews books on TVNZ's Good Morning show.
Kate tours schools nationwide, running creative writing
workshops for students and teachers. She is a regular speaker on children's
and young adult literature at conferences and seminars. In 2001 Kate was
made a NZ Arts Foundation Arts Laureate.
In 2005, Kate's picture book Clubs: A Lolly Leopold Story
won the Picture Book category and was the 2005 Book of the Year in the
New Zealand Post Book Awards. Her latest book, The 10pm Question is a
finalist in the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards and was one of the most
critically acclaimed best selling novels of 2008. Kate de Goldi lives
in Wellington.
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