Money for writers #4

First up, four grants of $5000 from Copyright Licensing NZ’s cultural fund. These are for writers wanting to undertake research for writing project, whether fiction or non-fiction.

One of the four is called the Stout Research Centre Grant and, in addition to the money, offers a six-week residential fellowship at the Stout Research Centre at Victoria University, from 1 October to 30 November. Recipients of the other three grants are free to research anywhere in New Zealand.

Applicants must be New Zealand citizens or have permanent residence, and must be writers of proven merit. To qualify, a project “must be of national or significant local interest or add significantly to the field or genre on the subject”.

The application form and guidelines are at the CLNZ website here. Deadline for applications is 31 July.

Second up, the Sunday Star-Times has announced the return of its excellent Short Story Awards. No details of the prize money yet, or who the judges will be, but there are three categories:

Open: 3000 words max.
Secondary school: 3000 words max.
Non-fiction essay: 1200 words max.

Entries open soon, on 4 August.

In 1997 an unknown writer called Eleanor Catton won the Open division with the brilliant story “Necropolis”, which you can read here. I wonder what became of her.