Mansfield Short Story Award 2025
Each year Katherine Mansfield House & Garden invites entries for the Mansfield Short Story Award from 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.
Entries are now open for the Mansfield Short Story Award 2025. To enter:
- Write a short story of no more than 1500 words (Word or Google Doc preferred)
- Create a cover sheet with your name, your school, year level (12 or 13), an email address and home address
- Email your story and cover sheet to info@katherinemansfield.com
Stories must be original and not generated with the assistance of AI (for example ChatGPT). You can enter with a creative writing piece you have written for school, as long as it hasn’t already been published. Limit of three stories per student.
Entries close at midnight on Monday 11 August. All finalists will be invited to an awards event in September, generously supported by the Oroya & Melvin Day Trust.
Not sure what to write? You can write about a personal experience (perhaps changing names or other details) or invent something purely fictional. Search 'short story prompts' online to see if any ideas spark your imagination.
Download a copy of this year's poster to print and put up at your school.
Mansfield Short Story Award 2024
Judge Brannavan Gnanalingam with all ten finalists, photograph by Emily Brown
On Thursday 26 September, ten finalists and their guests, including teachers, attended an awards event at the National Library. This year's judge was award-winning writer Brannavan Gnanalingam. In his opening comments, Brannavan said he was honoured to be asked to judge but found awards difficult as ranking something creative like writing was so subjective. He was impressed by the talent displayed by the shortlisted stories, saying “Writing is something you get better at with more practice, so I’m actually quite jealous of the talent and skill these writers show at such a young age.” You can read the full media release for the awards here.
All the finalists stories can be found below, with the award given to Siobhán Costello for her story 'Us'. Runner-up and highly commended stories are noted below, other stories in alphabetical order by student's first name. Congratulations to all the finalists and thank you to all of this year's entrants. We were thrilled to have so many schools from throughout the region represented in the entries and the finalists. Huge thanks to Joan McCracken and the National Library for hosting the event, and to all those who attended to support the students.
Siobhán Costello, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School | Us (Winner)
Eden Ingerson, Upper Hutt College | Unuhunga Taniwha (Runner-Up)
Thomas Beaglehole-Smith, Wellington College | You Don't Know Your Own Name, But You Know Mine (Highly Commended)
Rosa Watt, Hutt Valley High School | The Fox (Highly Commended)
Abby Howat, Hutt Valley High School | A Girl's Tale
Mina Garay, Tawa College | A Minute and Seventeen Seconds
Olivia Stevenson, Wairarapa College | BANG!
Oscar Horne, Wellington College | Untitled
Riya Parashar, Paraparaumu College | Untitled
Sage Pettus, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School | English Is Chaos, Chaos Is Dead
Mansfield Short Story Award 2023
Judge Sue Orr with ten of the eleven finalists.
Amaya Colombick, Kāpiti College | Ouroboros (Winner)
Nadia Scott, Newlands College | Jacob (Runner-Up)
Sophie Leung-Wai, Hutt Valley High School | Fishing (Highly Commended)
Rebecca Connolly, St Mary's College | Patupaiarehe (Highly Commended)
Abby Sangwine, Newlands College | Great Guy's Decision
Carly Hyde, Newlands College | Hidden
Joshua Toumu'a, Wellington High School | Performance Artists in Another Life
Matilda Rumball-Smith, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School | The Last Five
Maxim Ericson, Wellington College | Sip. Burn. Sip. and Dandelions
Merekara Te Tau Rupapere, Mākoura College | That's What Made Her Feel Loved
Tamanna Amin, Sacred Heart College | So Faux Strong
Mansfield Short Story Award 2022
Judge Victor Rodger with all eleven finalists.
Hannah Wilson, Raphael House Rudolph Steiner School | Henry and Eliza (Winner)
Elise Jung-Leask, Wairarapa College | Borame (Highly Commended)
Carly Hyde, Newlands College | Leave Me Alone (Highly Commended)
Maxim Ericson, Wellington College | Full Grey Sky (Highly Commended)
Alysha Wilson, Wellington Girls' College | The Eyes
Campbell Anderson, Tawa College | Star-Crossed Muderers
Hilary Smith, Hutt Valley High School | The Ceramic Mask
Jade Stapleton, Samuel Marsden Collegiate | First Date
Jessie Davidson, Wellington High School | Pickled Onions
Meredith Butcher, Chilton St James School | Good Driver
Rebecca Connolly, St Mary's College | The Gravediggers Club
The finalists and their stories from 2016-2021 can be found below. Enjoy!
2021 KM Short Story Award
Guest judge Airini Beautrais (who beamed in via Zoom from Whanganui). Ten talented writers were shortlisted for the award, which was won by Cadence Chung from Wellington High School with 'Oxford'. Highly commended certificates were presented to Freya Turnbull from Onslow College and Ruby Barton from Samuel Marsden Collegiate School.
Cadence Chung | Oxford (Winner)
Freya Turnbull | Good For Her (Highly Commended)
Ruby Barton | [Untitled] (Highly Commended)
Eliza Cartmell | Birth/Life/Death
Emma Wilson | Anniversary Day
Hamish Baguley | Detention
Hannah Wilson | The Yellow House
Heather Darby | Jack.
Holly Inglis | Wings
Monty O'Rielly | Coping
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 Duignan. 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'.