2023 Judges

Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) lives in Taranaki and is this year's judge for the Short Story sections of the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards.

She has an MA with Distinction from the IIML. In April 2021 she was awarded the Louis Johnson New Writers Bursary. In March 2021 she was awarded an NZSA Mentorship. In January 2021 she was the Emerging Māori Writer in residence at the Michael King Centre.

She was shortlisted for the Pikihuia Awards, 2021. Her work has been published in Action Spectacle, Newsroom, Sport, Verb, Ronald Hugh Morrieson Finalist Stories 2020, Takahē, Ika 4 and Ora Nui. Her debut collection of short fiction, titled Ruin, was published with Te Herenga Waka in March, 2023. She is currently working on her first novel.

Emma is part of Te Hā Taranaki, a collective for Māori writers, established in 2019.

Mikaela Nyman is this year’s judge for the Poetry sections of the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards. She lives in Taranaki.

Mikaela writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction in English and Swedish. Her work has been widely anthologised and published in the US, the UK, Nepal, Vanuatu, Australia, Spain and in the Nordic countries. She was the 2021 Writer in Residence for Massey University, Palmerston North City and Square Edge Arts Centre. Her debut poetry collection was shortlisted for the prestigious Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020 and her poems have been set to music and videos. Her second poetry collection is forthcoming in August. For the fifth year, she's a judge of the Given Words National Poetry Day competition together with Charles Olsen. She has been an award-winning finalist in the RHM short story category 2019 and the poetry category in 2021 and 2022. Her debut novel SADO (‘Shadow/Shadows’) was published by Te Herenga Waka Press in 2020. She is a co-editor of the critically acclaimed Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology (THWUP, 2021) and works in collaboration with writers in Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.