Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition
Each year Katherine Mansfield House & Garden runs the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition for Year 12 and 13 students in the Wellington Region. The award is a $500 cash prize made possible by a generous bequest from Gay Saker, a long-time Wellington English teacher. The competition is promoted directly to secondary schools and through our social media. If you or a student you know would like more information, please get in touch.
The awards ceremony is held at the National Library of New Zealand, who bring out special objects related to Katherine Mansfield from the Alexander Turnbull Library collection. We are very grateful to the Library for their support of the ceremony.
Check back in June 2021 for details of the 2021 competition.
The finalists and their stories from 2016-2020 can be found below. Enjoy!
2020 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Tina Makereti. Eleven talented writers were shortlisted for the award, which was won by Nadezhda Macey from Wellington High School with 'Matahiwi'. Highly commended certificates were presented to Avni Labhsetwar from Newlands College and Cadence Chung from Wellington High School. Images from left: The finalists; winner Nadezhda Macey with judge Tina Makereti; guests view items from the Alexander Turnbull Library's Katherine Mansfield collection.
Nadezhda Macey | Matahiwi (Winner)
Avni Labhsetwar | Hidden Sacrifices (Highly Commended)
Cadence Chung | The End of the World (Highly Commended)
Leila Barber | Memory
Gemma Bennion | Only July
Holly Inglis | The Matchmaker
Geneva King | The Red Trees
Valerie Villanueva | You Reap What You Sow
Georgia Wearing | Sumatra's a Type of Tiger
Maria Williams | Dear Amelia
Oliver Errington | Untitled
2019 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Kate Duigan. Ten talented writers were shortlisted for the award, which was won by Asylvia Redgrave from Onslow College with 'The Log-Woman'. Highly commended certificates were presented to Jemima Dowle from Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, and Julia Lockerd and Kate Twomey from Wellington Girls' College.
Asylvia Redgrave | The Log-Woman (Winner)
Jemima Dowle | Perfect Peter (Highly Commended)
Julia Lockerd | Katherine's Ghost (Highly Commended)
Kate Twomey | So Eden Sank to Grief (Highly Commended)
Tegan Martin | Crashing Down
Zoe Peet | Keys between my Fingers
Elizabeth Hogan | Of Dinosaurs and Love
Maggie Tu | Untitled
Alex Donovan | Sanctitude
Ella Tait | Untitled
2018 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Pip Adam. Ten talented writers were shortlisted for the award, won by Elsie Christoffel of Wellington East Girls' College. Runners up were Olivia Sinclair from Onslow College, and Ella Strachan and Kate Twomey from Wellington Girls' College.
Elsie Christoffel | Letter to Love (Winner)
Olivia Sinclair | Gone To Sea (Runner up)
Ella Strachan | Untitled (Runner up)
Kate Twomey | Alice (Runner up)
Madeleine Somerville | I Am
Elizabeth Schumaker | Me and Her
Emma Brown | I've Been Absent From My Skin
Ella Speden | Wasteland
Anneke Hutt | Hide
Elsie Christoffel | Good art
2017 KM Short Story Competition
Guest judge Mandy Hager. From ten shortlisted stories, the winner was Sarah May of Samuel Marsden Collegiate School. Runners up were Emin Kaya of St Patrick's College, Renee Hanrahan of St Mary's College, and Katie Fenton of Wellington Girls' College.
Sarah May | Morning Coffee (Winner)
Emin Kaya | Kaş (Runner up)
Renee Hanrahan | The Elephant in the Room (Runner up)
Katie Fenton | Concerto in B Major (Runner up)
Judah Dabora | One Thousand Cranes
Matthew Canlas | Winter's End
Barnard Patel | Flotsam
Zalan Orban | Night Riders
Lauren Phang | Beaming lights
Tom Hughes | A Date at the Lights
2016 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Mandy Hager. Out of ten finalists, the winner was Katie Reed from Samuel Marsden Collegiate School.
Katie Reed | Imperfection (Winner)
Varvara Sidorenko | Letters From My Grandmother
Maya Duckworth | Night Prayer
Isla Hutching-Bryant | Fooled
Sarah May | Language
Alexander Sharples | Clerical Error
Caroline Kay | All of these Lights
Tom Hughes | The Boom, the Bar and the Bathroom
Isabella Chayter-Waddy | Flotsam
Summer O'Dwyer | The Difference of a Bullet
2015 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Kate De Goldi (not pictured). The award ceremony was held at Old St Paul's and the winner was Augusta Collett from Wellington East Girls' College with 'The Autologist'.