The Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards has opened for 2024 with its largest total prize pool ever. This is the 40th year for the Awards and sponsorship from the Milford Foundation and Penguin Random House has made this year the richest in the awards' history with a total prize pool of $20,000.

Sunday Star-Times Editor Tracy Watkins says: “The awards give short stories a platform to stand tall. Past winners include some of New Zealand’s most loved authors, including Carl Nixon, Eleanor Catton, Kirsten McDougall and Dominic Hoey. Each year I am amazed at the calibre of writing the awards attract, and I’m sure the bar will be raised even further this year. With some of the most respected figures in the literary community as our judges, this is a competition no writer will want to miss.”

Awards are in three categories for 2024:

• Open award (up to 3000 words) - $15,000 prize thanks to the Milford Foundation and Penguin.

• Emerging Māori or Pasifika writer award (up to 3000 words) - $2500 prize sponsored by Milford.

• Milford Foundation secondary school writer award (up to 2000 words) - $2500 prize. Milford Foundation Chief Executive Bryce Marsden says they’re proud to be the major

  sponsor of the awards.

The 2024 competition will be judged by: novelist and previous Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award finalist Eileen Merriman in the open category; The Space Between author Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) in the emerging Māori and Pasifika category; and poet, educator and children’s author Jane Arthur in the secondary school category.

Entries are judged anonymously, so the judges do not know who has written the pieces. The winning story from the open category will be published in the Sunday Star-Times and on thepost.co.nz.

The awards are also supported by Heft Communications and the Wellington Writers Studio.

Entries are open until 11.45pm on October 7.

The award criteria and entry form can be found at thepost.co.nz/storyawards.