CLL Writers' Awards Open for 2010

The Copyright Licensing Ltd Writers' Awards known as the CLL Writers' Awards are open for 2010. Each year two awards of $35,000 are granted to provide financial support to 2 established writers to devote time to a specific non-fiction writing project.

To be eligible to enter applicants must be either New Zealand citizens or have permanent residency status. Other requirements of entry are that applicants must be proven writers of merit, supply an outline of the proposed work and a completed Working Plan of how the Award will be used.



To qualify for the CLL Writers' Award the project must be non-fiction. Some examples of acceptable themes are history, biography, natural or social history, specialist non-fiction, general non-fiction, personal memoir, educational textbook or reference book, guide book, “how-to” book.

Applications to the CLL Writers' Awards close on 15 July 2010. Successful writers will be notified by 15 September 2010 and announced at a function held in Auckland later in September. The period of the CLL Writers' Awards runs for one calendar year from January 2011.

The CLL Writers' Awards are funded from copyright licensing revenue received by CLL on behalf of publishers and authors. Since its inauguration in 2002 many winners of the Award have produced significant works such as Jill Trevelyan's biography Rita Angus: An Artist's Life which won the 2009 Montana Medal for Non-Fiction.

Last year's winners [2009] of the CLL Writers' Awards were Filmmaker Peter Wells who received financial assistance to write a series of biographical essays on William Colenso, entitled The Hungry Heart: The Enquiring Mind and Art Historian and Curator Damian Skinner for his writing project: The Hands of the Ancestors: Customary Maori Carvers in the Twentieth Century. Other renowned New Zealand writers who have also been recipients of this prestigious award are Sarah Quigley and Stevan Eldred-Grigg. More about past winners of the CLL Writers' Awards.

Full Submission Guidelines and Application Forms

Closing Date 15 July 2010

Related Links
CLL Newsletter Spring 2009 Damian Skinner and Peter Wells Winners

Albert Wendt Wins Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize

Leading New Zealand author Albert Wendt has won the prestigious regional Commonwealth Writers' prize for 2010 for his novel in verse The Adventures of Vela. Wendt won the award for best book in a competition which recognizes the best of Commonwealth fiction written in English. He now goes on to compete for the international Commonwealth Writers' Prize against three other regional winners. The overall winner will receive £10,000 and will be announced on 12 April 2010 in Delhi, India.

Samoan born Wendt, 70, is author of some 20 books. He scooped the South East Asia and Pacific region prize from 5 other strong finalists from across Australasia including New Zealand writer Charlotte Grimshaw. The judges described his epic verse novel The Adventures of Vela as "an exhilarating read". Blending traditional storytelling and song with contempory rock music and hip-hop the novel follows the journeys of Vela as he chronicles the life of the Samoan goddess of war.

Buy The Adventures of Vela
or
Search Fishpond for Other Books by Albert Wendt

Other shortlisted books for the Commonwealth Writers' regional prize for best book were:

Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier in America
J.M. Coetzee - Summertime
Thomas Keneally The People's Train
Nada Awar Jarrar A Good Land
Charlotte Grimshaw - Singularity

Finalists for The Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book are:

From Africa: The Double Crown by Marié Heese.
From the Caribbean and Canada: Galore by Michael Crummey.
From South Asia & Europe: Solo by Rana Dasgupta.
From South East Asia and Pacific: The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt.