Entries open for 2019 Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition

WelCom February 2019: Entries are open for the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition. The annual award, launched by Otago University Press, is open to New Zealand writers aged 16 to…

WelCom February 2019:

Entries are open for the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition. The annual award, launched by Otago University Press, is open to New Zealand writers aged 16 to 21.

The competition was founded in 2017, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Landfall, New Zealand’s longest-running arts and literary journal; and is named in honour of Landfall’s founding editor, the Dunedin writer, editor and benefactor Charles Brasch.

The 2019 Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition will be judged by Landfall editor Emma Neale, and the winner receives $500 and a year’s subscription to Landfall. The winning entry will be announced and published in Landfall 237 (May 2019).

The closing date for receipt of entries is 31 March 2019.

Essays will be fully developed, independent works no more than 1500 words long, will be on a topic of the author’s choosing and will not have been published elsewhere. One entry per person will be accepted. Writers will be New Zealand citizens or New Zealand permanent residents aged between 16 and 21 years old (as of 1 December 2018).

The winner of the inaugural 2017 competition was Andy Xie, for his essay ‘The Great New Zealand Myth’. The 2018 winner was Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor, whose essay was titled ‘Disappearing Disease’. Landfall editor and competition judge Emma Neale said this essay ‘combines the concrete, grounding specifics of time, place and context with a broader recognition of pressing global concern’.

See: otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/awards/otago625789.html for entry details.