Landfall Essay Competition

In 1997, Landfall celebrated its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, then editor Chris Price launched the Landfall essay competition, sponsored by Otago University Press. In 2008 the prize has been awarded for the sixth time, with Martin Edmond as judge.

Winning and short-listed essays from past competitions can be read in Landfall 194, 198, 203, 212 and 216.

From 2009, the competition will be an annual award, with the winner/s announced in the November issue each year.

About the Competition

The purpose of the competition remains as it was at the outset: to encourage New Zealand writers to think aloud about New Zealand culture, and to revive and sustain the tradition of vivid, contentious and creative essay writing in this country - as embodied in the non-fiction of early Landfall contributors such as Bill Pearson, in the essays of past winners of this competition, and in the essays the journal continues to publish.

Entries for the seventh Landfall Essay Competition will be accepted from 1 May 2009. The closing date for receipt of entries is 5 pm, Friday 31 July 2009. The winning entry/ies will be published in the November 2009 issue.

The winner will receive $3000 and a year’s subscription to Landfall.

Landfall Essay Competition Winners

2008

Alice Miller, Kirsten Warner

2006

Anna Sanderson (published in Landfall 212)

2004

Martin Edmond and Tze Ming Mok (published in Landfall 208)

2002

Patrick Evans and Kapka Kassabova (published in Landfall 203)

1999

C.K. Stead and Peter Wells (published in Landfall 198)

1997

Gregory O'Brien (published in Landfall 194)

Entry

1. Essays will be fully developed, independent works and will be no more than 6000 words long.

2. Essays will be on a topic of the author's choosing.

3. Essays will not have been published elsewhere.

4. Writers will be New Zealand citizens or permanent New Zealand residents.

5. One entry per person will be accepted. Entrants should include a stamped, addressed envelope for return of their contributions.

6. The judge will assess the merits of the essays and reserve the right not to award a prize. No correspondence with the judge will be entered into.

7. Landfall reserves the right to publish the winning entry, and other shortlisted entries, at the editor's discretion.

8. It is a condition of the competition that the winning writer's name and photograph may be used by Landfall for publicity purposes.

How to Enter

1. Manuscripts should be supplied in hard and soft copies, with text saved as RTF, MS Word or text-only files on a CD. Email entries will not be accepted/

2. Two hard copies of manuscripts are required. These should be typed with double-line spacing and a wide left-hand margin.

3. The name, address and telephone number of the author should appear on a separate sheet of the manuscript.

4. Entries should be addressed to: Landfall Essay Competition, Otago University Press, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.