2020 Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards Competition Open
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These Awards honour the work of Ronald Hugh Morrieson (29 January 1922 – 26 December 1972) who was a novelist and short story writer in Hawera, South Taranaki. Morrieson wrote four novels: coming of age tale The Scarecrow (1963), Came A Hot Friday (1964), Predicament (published in 1975) and his only contemporary novel Pallet on the Floor (1976), which may have been unfinished upon his death.
All have been adapted for the cinema, the only New Zealand writer to have acquired this achievement. Two short stories were published posthumously, in 1974; Cross My Heart And Cut My Throat and The Chimney.
According to New Zealand Film 1912 -1996, Morrison's novels contain his "trademark preoccupations .... of sex, death, mateship, voyeurism, violence, booze and mayhem in bleak small town New Zealand - along with his irreverent black humour".
Open to residents and ratepayers of South Taranaki, there are five sections that can be entered into.
Secondary School sections:
- Short Story
- Poetry
- Research Article
Open sections:
- Short Story
- Poetry