Jeffrey Buchanan has been named the winner of the 2024 Michael Gifkins Prize for his manuscript The Birds Began to Sing. Buchanan wins a publishing contract with Text and a NZ$10,000 advance against royalties.

The prize is awarded annually to an unpublished manuscript by a New Zealand writer, and celebrates the life and work of the esteemed writer and literary agent Michael Gifkins.

The Birds Began to Sing is a warm and humorous coming-of-age story set in small-town New Zealand during the 1960s as a young boy’s secret life collides with the disappearance of the local barman.

Jeffrey Buchanan has written five novels concerned primarily with LGBTQI+ issues, Sucking Feijoas being his first. He worked in international development for 30 years and lives with his husband by a remote stretch of North Canterbury beach in the South Island of New Zealand.

Buchanan said: “Winning the Michael Gifkins Prize is an extraordinary milestone in my literary career. It inspires me to continue exploring new narratives and pushing the boundaries of fiction. My sincere thanks to Text Publishing and the New Zealand Society of Authors for their support and belief in my work.”

The Birds Began to Sing is due to be published by Text in August 2025.

Buchanan was shortlisted by Text Publishing alongside J. S. Michaels, Helen Crampton and Patrick Hunn from an impressive longlist of thirteen manuscripts selected by judges Michelle Elvy and Ruby Porter, who won the inaugural Michael Gifkins Prize.

Text Publisher Michael Heyward said, ‘We are proud of the achievements of the Michael Gifkins Prize and honoured by our association with Michael’s family and with NZSA. We thank them for their support. We are delighted to announce Jeffrey Buchanan as this year’s winner.

The winner of last year’s prize, A House Built on Sand by Tina Shaw, will be published in August 2024. The novel is a gripping story of a mother–daughter relationship, with a mother who battles her unreliable memory to unravel a mystery from her past.

Previous winners of the Michael Gifkins Prize are Ruby Porter (2018) for Attraction, Tom Remiger (2019) for Soldiers, Gigi Fenster (2020) for A Good Winter, Tom Baragwanath (2021) for Paper Cage and Emma Ling Sidnam (2022) for Backwaters.

The Michael Gifkins Prize is made possible by a generous financial commitment from the Gifkins family and from Text Publishing. It is administered by the NZ Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc).

Key dates and submission information can be found at authors.org.nz