NZ Book Month
NZ Book Month is a non-profit initiative started in 2006, with the goal of increasing readership of New Zealand books. It is a nationwide annual event run each September.
The Six Pack
Every year NZ Book Month runs a national competition calling for any New Zealand writer – published or unpublished – to submit their best piece of new writing (fiction, non-fiction, essay or poetry) for inclusion in "The Six Pack"; a collectable book that sees the six best pieces of work put together in an annual anthology. Each finalist also wins NZD $5,000. Five of the winning entries are chosen by a panel of judges and the sixth finalist is chosen by New Zealand readers in an online poll. The Six Pack retails for six dollars and thousands of copies are distributed free to libraries and schools all over the country.
2007 Winners
- Dave Armstrong, scriptwriter and 2008 writer in residence at Victoria University of Wellington.
- Charlotte Grimshaw, short listed for the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
- Jennifer Lane.
- Faith Oxenbridge.
- Tracey Slaughter, emerging novelist and poet.
- Elizabeth Smither, poet, novelist and former Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate.