The 2025 Katherine Mansfield Sparkling Prose Competition
SHORT LIST
An adaptable man by Hayden Pyke
A Cigarette at Taurua Stream by Anna Scaife
Double Helix by Elizabeth Kelsey
Father figures by Jemma Richardson
Inside by Tim Saunders
Janus-faced Survival Mode by Sharni Wilson
Meatless by Shelley Burne-Field
Minotaur by Lee Hana
One Week to Live by Michael Botur
On the Couch by Cristín Leach
Subterranean by Renee Liang
The Drowning by Jessica Le Bas
The Nawken by Lorraine Carmody
The Whale by Kirstie McKinnon
Untethered by Tania Norfolk
Waiting for a Real Da by Emily Macdonald
LONG LIST
36 Questions by Julie Orr-Wilson
A Cigarette at Taurua Stream by Anna Scaife
Adrift by Heather McQuillan
All this happened, more or less …long after Vonnegut by Jessica Le Bas
An adaptable man by Hayden Pyke
Derrida Ain’t Answering by Tytti Heikkinen
Dipsy Doodle by Sharon Stratford
Doppelgänger by Valerie Meyer
Double Helix by Elizabeth Kelsey
Doubled up living is an adventure by Balbindar Dhaliwal
Falling thru the family tree breaking branches by Keith Nunes
Father figures by Jemma Richardson
Ferry Life by Annie McGuigan
Hope floats by Elizabeth Kelsey
Hanging Around by Jessica Thornley
Hyacinths by Lena Fransham
Inside by Tim Saunders
It takes 7hrs 41min for the Three Single People at an Event to be Standing together, Knowingly by Anny Trolove
Janus-faced Survival Mode by Sharni Wilson
Meatless by Shelley Burne-Field
Minotaur by Lee Hana
Mr Cole Goes To Mars by Eloise Pengelly
Old Man Moore by Kate Twomey
On the Couch by Cristín Leach
One Week to Live by Michael Botur
Oskar and the Whale by Alex Reece Abbott
Seawilding by Caroline Masters
Somewhere out there, a god by Rebecca Ball
Subterranean by Renee Liang
The Drowning by Jessica Le Bas
The Nawken by Lorraine Carmody
The Song of the Kokako Richard Dingwall
The Story House by Sara Crane
The Whale by Kirstie McKinnon
The Performance by Dell McKinley
The gathering by Anna Granger
Travelling Man by Mary Francis
Untethered by Tania Norfolk
Waiting for a Real Da by Emily Macdonald
When I Knew Everything by Raewyn Alexander
Winners announced mid-October – watch this space for updates.
Prizes
$500 for first prize, proudly sponsored by Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature
Book bundles in the value of $150 and $100 for the second and third prizes, respectively.
All shortlisted stories will be published online. Winners will be invited to read at the celebration taking place mid-October – details tba.
Timetable for the 2025 competition
- June 10: submissions open
- July 31: submissions close
- Early September: shortlist announced
- Mid-October 13: prize-giving, details tba
Judges
The 2025 judges are Gina Cole and Lynn Jenner.
Gina Cole is a Fijian/Pākehā writer living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her short story collection Black Ice Matter won Best First Book Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her science fiction fantasy novel Na Viro is a work of Pasifikafuturism. Her fiction, poetry and essays have been widely anthologized. She holds an LLB(Hons), an MJur and a Masters of Creative Writing from University of Auckland, and a PhD in creative writing from Massey University. In 2023 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to literature.
Lynn Jenner is a writer and teacher from Northland. Lynn’s first book Dear Sweet Harry (AUP) won the Adam Prize for Creative Writing and the NZSA Jessie McKay Best First Book of Poetry Prize. She has since published Lost and Gone Away (AUP) and Peat (OUP). Lynn also publishes essays and poems. She is especially interested in genre fluid writing.