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Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award
Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award
Awarded for	Short stories
Sponsored by	Bank of New Zealand
Country	New Zealand
Reward(s)	$10,000 for premier award
First awarded	1959
Last awarded	2014
Website	www.bnzheritage.co.nz/archives/story/katherine-mansfield-awards

The Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award was a competition for short stories in New Zealand that ran every two years from 1959 to 2003, and every year from 2004 to 2014. The competition had multiple categories, including an essay section until 1963, a supreme award for short stories, and awards for novice and young writers. It was sponsored by the Bank of New Zealand and in 2010 was renamed the BNZ Literary Awards. Since the competition's disestablishment in 2015 the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society has presented the annual Mansfield Short Story Award to high-school students in Wellington.

History

The award was established by the New Zealand Women Writers' Society in 1959, with funding from the Bank of New Zealand.^[1]^[2]^[3] It was established in order to recognise the contributions of Katherine Mansfield to New Zealand literature.^[4] Mansfield's father Harold Beauchamp had been a member of the board of directors of the bank from 1898 to 1935.^[2]^[3] The prizes for the first award were 50 guineas for the best short story and 50 guineas for the best essay.^[5]

The first award, judged by Joan Stevens, was shared by Maurice Duggan (short story) and Elsie Locke (essay). Special awards of 15 guineas each were also presented to the runners-up, O. E. Middleton for a short story and Arapera Blank for an article respectively.^[6] In 1961, on the second occasion of the award, C.K. Stead won both the short story and essay categories.^[7]

In 1963, the essay section was removed and in 1967 a new category was added, of the Young Writers Award for writers under the age of 25. Changes were also made to provide that work would only be eligible for the award if it had not previously been published.^[8] At the awards ceremony in 1963, New Zealand's Governor-General Bernard Fergusson caused some controversy by commenting that it was "shocking" that "123 years after the Treaty of Waitangi there is not one Maori in the room". He called it a "sad comment" on the literary circles represented by the audience. His comments were sparked by an earlier speech by the competition's judge which had noted the number of stories concerning conflict between Māori and Pākehā (New Zealand Europeans).^[9]

In 1969, Alice Glenday was the first woman to win the short story award.^[8] In 1971 word count restrictions were introduced, and in 1981 a second-place award was introduced as well as an award for novice writers of any age (with the Young Writers Award now being for secondary school students).^[8] In 1993 a non-fiction essay award was introduced to mark the centenary of women's suffrage in New Zealand.^[8]

In 1999, a collection of all 20 stories that had received the main award over the previous 40 years was published, titled "Oh, to be a Writer, a Real Writer!": Winners of the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award, 1959–1999, and edited by Jane Tolerton and Joy Tonks.^[8] An introduction was written by Vincent O'Sullivan, himself a former recipient of the award.^[10]

In 2001, competition entrants were able to submit their entries online for the first time. At that time there were four categories: the Katherine Mansfield Award ($5,000), the Novice Writers Award ($1,500), the Young Writers Award ($1,000), and the Essay Award ($1,000).^[11] In 2004 the prize money for the top award was doubled to $10,000, and the Young Writers Award recipients received $1,500 as well as $1,500 for their school.^[12] From 2005 onwards the awards took place annually rather than once every two years.^[13]

In 2010, the competition was renamed the BNZ Literary Awards.^[4] In 2011, a new $500 award was introduced for a "Short Short Story", of no more than 150 words submitted via Facebook; and in 2014, a new $1,000 award was introduced for a short story submitted via Twitter in a single tweet.^[13] The awards were disestablished in 2015.^[3] Since 2016 the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society has presented the annual Mansfield Short Story Award for year 12 and 13 high school students in Wellington.^[14]

Notable winners

Notable winners include:

Maurice Duggan (1959, short story section)
Elsie Locke (1959, essay section)
C.K. Stead (1961, both sections)
Maurice Shadbolt (1963, 1967 and 1995)^[11]
Frank Sargeson (1965)^[11]
Alice Glenday (1969)
Rowan Metcalfe (young writers' award, 1974, and main award, 1997)^[15]
Keri Hulme (1975)^[11]
Vincent O'Sullivan (1979)^[11]^[16]
Daphne de Jong (1981)^[11]
Alistair Paterson (1993)^[17]
Kate de Goldi (1999)^[18]
Tracey Slaughter (novice section, 2001, and main award, 2004)^[19]
Charlotte Grimshaw (2006)^[13]
Carl Nixon (2007)^[20]
Craig Cliff (novice section, 2007)^[20]
Catherine Chidgey (2013)^[13]

References

^ Hamilton, Stephen (1997). "Recognition, and rewards of success". Book & Print in New Zealand : A Guide to Print Culture in Aotearoa. Wellington, NZ: Victoria University Press. ISBN 0-86473-331-3. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b Derby, Mark. "Page 2. Literary awards, 1950s onwards". Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Katherine Mansfield Awards". BNZ Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Katherine Mansfield Memorial Awards". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^ "New Award for Writers". The Press. 5 June 1959. p. 13. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^ "Katherine Mansfield Award is Shared by Two Writers". The Press. 16 October 1959. p. 14. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^ "Mansfield Award: Auckland Man Wins". The Press. 21 October 1961. p. 13. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Tolerton & Tonks 1999, pp. 6–8.
^ "Absence of Maoris: Disappointed Governor". The Press. 17 October 1963. p. 8. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
^ Tolerton & Tonks 1999, pp. 9–11.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Wells, Amanda (2 April 2001). "Short stories go online". Dominion. p. IT1.
^ "Prize money doubled for Katherine Mansfield short story awards". The New Zealand Herald. 3 May 2004. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "BNZ Literary Awards". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
^ "KM Short Story Competition". Katherine Mansfield House & Garden. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
^ Tolerton & Tonks 1999, p. 21.
^ Irving, Denise (16 October 2004). "Story 'just fell into place'". Waikato Times. p. D4.
^ Tolerton & Tonks 1999, p. 50.
^ Tolerton & Tonks 1999, p. 60.
^ Reed, Lucy (15 October 2004). "Thames writer wins award". Waikato Times. p. 3.
^ ^a ^b "Compelling writing rewards Nixon". The Press. 5 October 2007. p. A3.