Submissions can now be made for the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards. The theme for this year's Awards is 'conquering the blank page is the first step to success'.

Students entering stories for this year's BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards will be judged by Bernard Beckett, whose young adult novel, Genesis has just been sold to a UK publisher for £100,000 ($250,000). He is joined by Peter Wells judging the premier category and Elspeth Sandys as judge for the 2008 novice awards. Submissions can now be made for the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards. The theme for this year's Awards is 'conquering the blank page is the first step to success'.

Students entering stories for this year's BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards will be judged by Bernard Beckett, whose young adult novel, Genesis has just been sold to a UK publisher for £100,000 ($250,000). He is joined by Peter Wells judging the premier category and Elspeth Sandys as judge for the 2008 novice awards.The opening date for submissions is 1 May and entry forms are available on-line at www.bnz.co.nz/kmawards or from any Bank of New Zealand branch.

Bank of New Zealand head of Corporate Relations, Fiona Cooper Clarke says this year's stellar judging panel reflects the level of success to which winning entrants can aspire.

We could not ask for better role models than our judges this year; each of them award-winning writers.'

The awards comprise three categories: premier with a prize value of $10,000, novice worth $1,500 and the young writer category which is open to secondary school students and carries a prize of $1,500 and the same amount for the winner's school.

In addition to the cash prize, the premier winner joins a veritable who's who of the New Zealand writing community. Former winners of this prize include CK Stead, Vincent O' Sullivan, Maurice Shadbolt, Frank Sargeson and Keri Hulme.

Entries close on 30 June 2008.

The Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Awards are New Zealand's longest running creative writing awards. The Awards commemorate New Zealand's best known writer, and help New Zealand writers achieve recognition in their own country.

The Bank has sponsored the awards since their inception in 1959; Sir Harold Beauchamp, Katherine Mansfield's father was the first Bank of New Zealand Chairman of Directors, a position he held for seventeen years.

The award winners' will be announced at a ceremony in October.

Peter Wells

Peter Wells won the New Zealand and Reed awards for fiction with his first short story collection, Dangerous Desires (1991). He is equally known as a film and television director and scriptwriter, most notably for A Death in the Family (1986) and for the feature film Desperate Remedies (co-written and directed with Stewart Main), selected to screen at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

He is a co-director (with Stephanie Johnson) of the Auckland Readers' and Writers' Festival.

Wells was joint winner (with C.K. Stead) of the 1999 Landfall essay competition. His memoir, Long Loop Home (2001) won the Biography Award in the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

In 2006 Peter Wells was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature and film.

Bernard Beckett

Bernard Beckett is a children's writer and secondary school teacher whose knowledge of teen culture is reflected in his award-winning and authentic works.

His most recent novel, Genesis won the young adult category of the 2007 New Zealand Post Book Awards and has just been sold to a UK publisher for £100,000 (250,000); almost certainly the highest sum ever paid for a NZ young adult title.

Among his many other novels, Malcolm and Juliet won the Young adult category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2005. It also won The Esther Glen Award at the LANZA Children's Book Awards the same year. Beckett's chilling psychological thriller, Jolt was a finalist in the senior fiction category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2002.

Bernard Beckett co-wrote Deep Fried with Clare Knighton, one of his former students. Tackling controversial themes, it was nominated in the Young Adult category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2006.

Elspeth Sandys

Elspeth Sandys has published eight novels and two collections of short stories. She has also written extensively for the BBC, both original plays and adaptations. Her stage play, Century's Turn was chosen for the London International Playwriting Festival in 2005. Her short story collection, Standing in Line won the Elena Garro PEN International prize in 2006 and her novel, River Lines was a finalist in the Orange Prize in 1996.

Elspeth divides her time between New Zealand and the UK. She is currently based in Wellington. She is a regular Listener reviewer. In 2006 Elspeth was awarded the ONZM for services to literature.

Image: BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards judge Bernard Beckett.

02/05/08