Steve Braunias to judge 48 hour Q'town Writers Festival competition

Award winning writer Steve Braunias is to judge a new 48 hour local writers competition.

Writers based in Otago and Southland are eligible to enter the competition as part of this year’s Queenstown Writers Festival. 

The open section winner will get $500 cash and be published in the summer issue of 1964 magazine. Writers will have 48 hours to compose up to 800 words over the festival weekend of 11 – 12 November, based on prompts released at 5pm on Friday, November 10. 

Cash prizes and book vouchers will be awarded to winning entries in the Rangatahi section (open to young people in years 9-13) and Tamariki (years 1-8) sections. Tamariki will have a longer period to prepare their work. 

The competition is sponsored by Anna-Marie Chin Architects.  

Anna-Marie Chin wants to see more cross-pollination between creative disciplines, and believes imagination is the key to growing our minds. 

“I see this as a platform for people of all ages to challenge themselves.” 

Having grown up in a world of Sunday morning radio stories such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Bad Jelly the Witch, she wants to encourage young people to use their imaginations to create images and words the way her generation did. 

“Writing is like a hand sketch. It creates a feeling, and everyone will interpret it differently,” she said. 

Three prompts will be released on the Queenstown Writers Festival website and via social media at 5pm on Friday, November 10.  

Entrants will choose one of the prompts and respond in either fiction or non-fiction form. 

Festival trustee Jen Smart said that often the most interesting ideas were formed under pressure. 

“We’ve all seen the impressive work produced in the 48-Hour Film Festival – the spirit of this competition is the same.  

“We’re inviting writers to put aside all those things that get in the way of starting, and just begin writing.” 

“The aim is to encourage southern writers to produce a piece they might not have otherwise written.” 

Unlike the 48 Hour Film Festival, though, entrants will have a choice in the stimulus they respond to, and the form in which they do so. 

Open category judge Steve Braunias said he would be looking for characters that say and do things like real people. 

“I want stories where things actually happen, and one or two beautiful sentences.” 

The Rangatahi section will be judged by award winning screenwriter and author Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue), with the winner being given $250 in cash and a book voucher. 

A special Tamariki category will be judged by Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield. Unlike the older sections, Tamariki writers can begin work immediately as the three prompts are now available on the festival website. 

Entries must also be submitted by 5pm on Sunday, November 13.  

More information and conditions of entry are available on the Queenstown Writers Festival website: qtwritersfestival.nz.