Past Competition Results

Matariki Short Short Story Celebration 2024

Read the nine selected stories in takahē 111.

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2023

  • First place: Austin Haynes—Kawekawe kōrero
  • Runner up: Tracey Sullivan—bovenwoning
  • Highly commended: Jackie Davis—The two o’clock session

Shortlist (in alphabetical order)

  • Cadence Chung—Hector
  • Jackie Davis—The two o’clock session
  • Siobhan Harvey—Broom
  • Austin Haynes—Kawekawe kōrero
  • Carolyn McCurdie—Returning
  • Rebecca Palmer—Lizzie Borden
  • Sara Qasem—I am a Muslim
  • Sara Qasem—Immigrant
  • Tracey Sullivan—bovenwoning
  • Susan Wardell—Someone designs a deathbed spoon

Matariki Short Short Story Celebration 2022

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2022

  • First place: Laura Amsel—Father
  • Second place: Nicola Andrews—Haere Atu, Paua Rangers
  • Runner up: Wes Lee—To those remembered long gone teachers
  • Runner up: Kirsten Warner—Descent

Shortlist (in alphabetical order)

  • Laura Amsel—Father
  • Nicola Andrews—Haere Atu, Paua Rangers
  • Lewis Broadbent—That Day that I was Dead
  • Danny Bultitude—Smoke Rises Over Battle Hill, Pāuatahanui
  • Wes Lee—To those remembered long gone teachers
  • Kim Slemint—Kawiti
  • Kirsten Warner—Descent
  • Karen Zelas—Acuity

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2021

  • First place: Claire Beynon—Today’s Sky

Shortlist (in alphabetical order):

  • Sean Beckett—December Still Life With Paring Knife
  • Claire Beynon—Today’s sky
  • Claire Beynon—Pas de deux
  • Rebecca Hawkes—After the blizzard I followed my mother
  • Wes Lee—Women’s Studies circa 1986
  • Amy Menard—A Variety Shop in Winter
  • Tom Weston—Intricacy

takahē Short Story Competition 2021

  • First place: Nat Baker—Last Bird Island

Shortlist (in alphabetical order):

  • Nat Baker—Last Bird Island
  • Tina Cartwright—Octopus
  • Isabel Haarhaus—Late Night
  • Paula Moros—Big Yellow Awa
  • Christine Parker—The view from my window
  • Richard Simpson—The House Eater
  • Grace Tong—Deam Time, Isobel
  • Grace Tong—The girl who was followed everywhere
  • Jane Warren—Fur

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2020

  • First place: Cindy Botha—From the Settlers’ Cemetery, Akaroa
  • Second place: Frankie McMillan—Jenny Worgan, the Midge’s Housewife
  • Highly Commended: Art Nahill—Cleave
  • Highly Commended: Art Nahill—My Circus Life
  • Highly Commended: Jenny Dobson—Zephyr

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2019

  • First place: Jasmine O M Taylor—Ninox
  • Second place: Jilly O’Brien—Laying drainage ditches for the new football pitches at Logan Park
  • Highly commended: Melissa Browne—Now it is winter
  • Highly commended: Wes Lee—Awe

Hunt Ducker Competition 2019

Thanks to Forest & Bird and National Poetry Day for sponsoring prizes.

  • First place: Hebe—suburban pukeko
  • Runner up: Jan Fitzgerald—Albatross return
  • Runner up: Joan Norlev Taylor—Birds, Sanctuary: Rarangi 3

Shortlist (in alphabetical order):

  • Cindy Botha—flight of the pīwa-ka-wa-ka
  • Maggie Buxton—Ngā Tūī o Tangihua 
  • Rosie Copeland—Kererū Outside my Window
  • Jared Doe—Kāhu
  • Melanie Harding-Shaw—A Problem Solved
  • Jenna Heller—kererū
  • Courtney Hilden—7 Ways of Looking at New Zealand Birds
  • Amanda Hunt—Rangitata River
  • Glenda Lassen—Ma te Kanohi Miromiro
  • Lissa Moore—Kererū
  • Anna Woods—thirteen ways of looking at a tūī

takahē Short Story Competition 2019

  • First place: Kath Beattie—When Rachmaninov Held My Hand
  • Second place: Andrea Ewing—A Birthday
  • Highly commended: Bernard Steeds—The last moment
  • Highly commended: Melanie Dixon—Peach Crumble

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2018

  • First Place: Robyn Maree Pickens—This house
  • Second Place: Nicola Easthope—Tree of souls
  • Runner up: Anita Arlov—In the Anteroom
  • Runner up: Lynley Edmeades—In Other Words

takahē Short Story Competition 2017

  • First place: Diane Duckworth—Romilly and Flawdinall
  • Second place: Becky Woodall—Vinegar
  • Third place: Rose Cook—The Principal

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2017

  • First place: Ruth Hanover—The Tent
  • Second place: Wes Lee—One Summer: Orcas in the Bay
  • Runner up: Joanna Fahey—The Junction Hotel
  • Runner up: Martin Harvey—The Fan

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2016

  • First place: Jillian Sullivan—My mother at the edge of town
  • Second place: James Ackhurst—Spirited Away
  • Runner up: Riemke Ensing—Caves
  • Runner up: Janet Newman—The Huntaway
  • Commended: Kerry Craig—Grandfather
  • Commended: Mary Cresswell—Aide Mémoire

takahē Short Story Competition 2016

  • First place: Heather Bauchop—Helicopter
  • Second place: Leeanne O’Brien—Family Likeness
  • Highly commended: Emer Lyons—The Girl with the Spoon in her eye
  • Highly commended: Leanne Radojkovich—Happiness

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2015

  • First place: Sue Wootton—Calling
  • Second place: Jillian Sullivan—Summer with a ladder
  • Runner up: Gail Ingram—by now the graffiti artist
  • Runner up: Jackie Newell—The One Eyed Monster

Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2014

  • First place: Paula King—the sound of floating vessels
  • Second place: Michael Harlow—The Book of Evidence
  • Runner up: Terry Locke—Intercession: A villanelle
  • Runner up: Elizabeth Morton—tomatoes

takahē Short Story Competition 2014

  • First place: Anahera Gildea—Thief
  • Second place: Kate Mahoney—Freedom
  • Runner up: Patricia Bell—The Girl Behind the Bar
  • Runner up: Eileen Merriman—Step on a Crack

takahē Cultural Studies Competition 2014

  • First place: John Ewen—When Coal Was King
  • Second place: Jane McNoughton—A Foreign Country for Old Men and Women
  • Third place: Diane Andrews—The Prehistory of Tauranga Writers