Close to 150 authors, dreamers, visionaries and complete nobodies have entered the 2026 iteration of New Zealand\u2019s most exciting literary award. It\u2019s a record number, which is absolutely no surprise considering the prize money is doubled and there are now two venues for writers to choose to stay and work on their masterpiece.<\/p>\n
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Surrey Hotel writers residency award, staged by Newsroom, generous patrons Jude and Dick Frizzell have doubled the available loot to $10,000, and the charming hostess at the Apple Pickers Cottage in M\u0101pua has made her boutique accommodation available.<\/p>\n
The deadline is at midnight this Sunday, September 13. Already 146 entries have been sent in by well-known New Zealand authors of considerable repute, people no one has ever heard of, and other hopefuls. All are welcome. <\/p>\n
There has been a significant change to the terms of the prizes since the 2026 residency was announced a few weeks ago. Initially the idea was for the Surrey winner to pocket $3000 and stay a fortnight. But two weeks cooped up in a hotel might be tantamount to madness and a bad case of The Shining. As such, two first prize winners will each win $1500 and seven nights at the Surrey. Second prize is five nights and $1200. Third prize is four nights and $800. As for Apple Pickers Cottage in M\u0101pua, first prize is $3000 and seven nights. Second prize is $1500 and five nights. Third prize is $500 and four nights. Results will be announced live on Jesse Mulligan\u2019s afternoon show on Radio New Zealand, as per tradition. The award began in 2016 and is in exclusive association with Newsroom, which administers it.<\/p>\n
Writers need to eat. The Surrey will throw in a free breakfast and a Sunday roast, and the Apple Pickers will hand winners a breakfast box that should tie them over during their stay in paradise.<\/p>\n
Judges from Melbourne, Los Angeles, Norwich, and Hamilton are right now poring over the entries. They came from Taryn, who wishes to work on Ng\u0101 Tini Ara o te Tamariki: A Complete History of Adoption in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mark wishes to work on From Rogernomics to Y2K: the rise of the independent Aotearoa arts scene (and how it took on the world) 1984-1999.\u00a0In her covering letter, Sharni described her novel provisionally titled Exes of the Apocalypse: \u201cSet on a remote off-grid high-country station in Te Waipounamu, this is the story of a woman forced to navigate living with all her exes at once, after they inexplicably turn up to stay as the world crumbles.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are very serious projects. Jane: \u201cI have developed an original and radically alternative understanding of something that mystifies us all\u2014the female hormonal design as it manifests through the 4M sequence of menarche, menstrual cycles, menopause and mature life.\u201d Elisabeth\u2019s novel sounds more fun: \u201cThe Cortinas were once a famous(ish) Hamilton band, all swagger, chemistry and promise\u2014until they fell apart. Nearly twenty years later, Rod is drowning in tax debt, and Frankie runs a garage and hosts karaoke nights at the local RSA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Applicants are encouraged to send in a sample of their project. There was this brilliant couplet, from Bee:<\/p>\n
I sleepwalk the backyard to find you, climb a ladder of your bones,
your hands chase me on coiled cords of rotary telephones<\/p>\n
Stef\u2019s opening line of her thriller: \u201cI kill people for money. When you say it bluntly like that it sounds bad, but it\u2019s the only work I\u2019ve ever been any good at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shannon gave a background of a memoir she wishes to write about her dear old Mum: \u201cTwenty years after my mother died, I finally met her face to face in her unvarnished and unguarded outpourings in a clutch of green hardback Whitcombe\u2019s Handy Diaries spanning 1956 to 1964. Incomplete in parts, but devastating in general. Nine months ago. I unpacked six diaries written by my mother, but not the mother I knew. They are shocking, compelling, sad and tragic. A woman I have long held in contempt, only to discover too late she was ill and confused and afraid and deeply disappointed in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mel\u2019s covering letter included this memorable sentence: \u201cWhen I was thirty-five, I moved to the Hauraki Gulf, began therapy and learned to freedive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Applicants must identify whether they wish to stay at Grey Lynn or M\u0101pua. Easy to guess Heather\u2019s choice: \u201cI am working on a short story collection themed around a very odd museum in an even odder, but all too imminent, dystopian world and set in the Nelson\/Tasman region.\u201d Past winners are eligible to enter. Breton wishes to return to the Surrey Hotel, and mentioned in his covering letter: \u201cThis would be the first NZ novel to open with someone cleaning a fridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone has heard of The Surrey Hotel<\/a> at 465 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland. It\u2019s decked out in mock-Tudor style, and the rooms are perfect for writing. Authors who have won residencies since 2016 include Becky Manawatu, Liv Sisson, Ashleigh Young, Naomi Arnold, Paula Morris, Colleen Maria Lenihan, Laurence Fearnley, and, in 2024, Dunedin author Breton Dukes, who put in valuable work on the book that became Party Boy, published in February by Te Herenga Waka University Press, which remains the best novel of the year by a long stretch.<\/p>\n