Posthumous literary prize for Rotorua author

Rotorua's Kingi McKinnon is to receive a posthumous literary award for a short story selected for a New Zealand anthology.
Mr McKinnon, an acclaimed writer of children's novels, died last week in Rotorua.
His story Maiki was one of six selected from 170 stories entered in a competition as part of the inaugural New Zealand Book Month, which starts today.
The six stories have been published in a New Zealand anthology, The Six Pack.
As well as having his story published Mr McKinnon won $5000, which will be presented to members of his family this week.
Maiki tells the story of a young Maori boy who contracts the deadly disease hydatids and how it affects his life.
New Zealand Book Month project director Phil Twyford said the award would recognise his contribution to writing.
Mr McKinnon, of Tainui and Ngati Pikiao descent, was born in Auckland in 1943.
He was educated at Auckland's Napier Street Primary School (now known as the Freeman's Bay School) and later at a native school at Parawera, near Te Awamutu.
He attended secondary school at Te Awamutu College leaving at 15 to take up a job on the family farm. This was followed by a succession of jobs, including as a freezing worker, construction worker and truck driver, and a stint in the army.
After marrying and having two children, he turned his talents to the glass industry, where he worked as a glazier for more than 20 years.
However, an ankle injury forced him to consider a career change.
Mr McKinnon, who once said he wrote with the intention of giving non-Maori an insight into his culture, returned to school in 1986. He completed a certificate in English, and gained a diploma in freelance journalism in 1996.
His first published story was Mud, Slush and Tuna in 1986.
He went on to receive many awards, including being shortlisted in the Junior Fiction Category at the Aim Children's Book Awards in 1995 for Whitebait Fritters and for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards in 2003 for When the Kehua Calls.
The 63-year-old was also a foundation tutor of the creative writing programme delivered online at Rotorua's Waiariki Institute of Technology. His creative writing programme leader, Annabel Schuler, said Mr McKinnon had embraced the programme and would be sadly missed, not only for his obvious writing talents but also for his unassuming demeanour.
"He had an amazing ability to understate his own talent," she said.
At the time of his death Mr McKinnon was working on a collection of short stories entitled Tales from the Swamp, which is due to be released in November. Scholastic New Zealand, which published several of Mr McKinnon's books, said he will be sadly missed in the world of New Zealand children's literature.