End of an era for Hawke's Bay writing competition

Hawke's Bay Shorts facilitator Deborah Burnside and editor Val Thompson go through a collection of stories from 20 years of creative writing and poetry competitions. Photo / Supplied

After 20 years of creative writing competitions in Hawke's Bay, a unique collection of story and poetry has been carefully selected from previous winners for a book which will be launched at a special event this week.

Hawke's Bay Shorts started after facilitator and writer, Deborah Burnside realised there were no creative writing clubs in the region, so she started one up.

To spice things up, the organisation provided an opportunity for local writers and artists to explore their creativity and so began the writing and poetry competitions which continued throughout the years.

Now a unique collection of the short stories and poetry has been selected for a book and will be launched at a special event at The CAN in Napier as a special way of wrapping up two decades of creativity among local writers and artists.

"When we began the writing competition in the early 2000s to give credibility to the content, we had no idea the road to publication would be such a winding journey," Burnside said.

Competitions for local authors and poets were held regularly and judged by some of New Zealand's top authors and poets such as Charity Norman and Elizabeth Smither.

"This has been a true community effort as workshops by the judges were run alongside the competition announcements until the funds were raised to create the book.

"These competitions have been a real boost for writers and poets throughout the years as it gives them that extra boost that they need and a lot of them have gone on to become very successful writers."

Some of the copies will be available free to local schools thanks to a generous donation from the Penzance Trust.

Editor, Val Thompson she has loved working on the book, "with the original purpose of the competition being to support local authors, it's wonderful to see so many that have gone on to be published by all the major publishing houses."

For some years a teen writing section was included in the competition and the organisers were trying to locate Liam Collins and, Rachel Bowley, who both have stories in the book.

"Where possible the editing has been collaborative with the authors, but we couldn't track these two down and hope, with the paper's help, to find them," said Thompson.

"Even the cover concept was from a competition, won by a local Napier Girl's High student."

The launch is being held on Friday May, 3 and tickets can be purchased on EventFinda.