Short story competition open for old and young alike

Words and their power were central to a short story competition being sponsored by a Central Otago law firm.

Checketts McKay Law director Gillian Clarke said the company on the look out for something that really aligned with the firm and what we did.

"Words are really part of that and we wanted to do something that supported the arts. A short story competition seemed doable and resonated with us."

The competition would have two parts. One for Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes primary and secondary school children would be run through the schools as part of the curriculum, she said.

The schools’ category opened at the start of term 2 and would close at the end of the term for prizegiving in term 3).

Within the schools section there were categories for years five to six, seven to eight and nine to 13.

There would also be an open section was for anyone over 18 in New Zealand but their work had to have link to Central Otago in some way.

The open category will begin tomorrow and close on July 31. Winners will be announced in September. The maximum word count for the Open category is 2500 and the first prize is $2500.

The aim was to run the competition annually.

All the entries would be judged "blind" with no names attached to them, Ms Clarke said.

Judging the work would be Rosemary Riddell, Bridget Auchmuty and Annie Villers.

julie.asher@alliedmedia.co.nz