Taranaki's premiere literary competition, the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Awards, celebrated its 30th anniversary this year as it opened for entries earlier this month.
South Taranaki District Council (STDC) Libraries and Cultural Services Manager, Cath Sheard said over the last three decades the Awards have gone from strength to strength.
"When
the awards first started, only secondary school students in South Taranaki could enter, whereas today the competition is open to anyone throughout Taranaki," Cath said.
"Last year we also offered a new section for secondary school students to cover non-fiction writing. This section is a research article piece and is kindly sponsored by the Normanby Lions Club and the Taranaki Daily News," she said.
The Awards, sponsored by the Lysaght Watt Trust, honour the work of one of New Zealand's most preeminent authors, Ronald Hugh Morrieson (1922 - 1972). Morrieson wrote four novels: a coming of age tale The Scarecrow (1963), Came a Hot Friday (1964), Predicament (published in 1975) and his only contemporary novel Pallet on the Floor (1976). All have been adapted for the cinema, the only New Zealand writer to have acquired this achievement. Two short stories were published posthumously, in 1974; Cross My Heart and Cut My Throat and The Chimney.
