Organisations, events, and awards celebrating reading
Learn about organisations, events, and awards dedicated to creating and celebrating readers, and children’s literature in New Zealand and overseas.
Provide inspiration and ideas
Exposing your students to authors, book festivals, and great children's literature provides inspiration and ideas for their own reading and writing.
Organisations that celebrate and promote reading
Inspiring students to read and write takes a community. Here are some of the many organisations that offer programmes, events, competitions, workshops, and writer and author visits.
Book News — the New Zealand Booksellers blog with news on book reviews, events and all things books and reading
Christchurch City Libraries — provides an overview of reading communities here and overseas
Duffy Books in Homes — provides free books to children along with resources for teachers and families to help support children become readers
New Zealand Booksellers — runs the NZ Book Awards and competitions
New Zealand Literacy Association — encourages and supports literacy and reading, consists of regional councils
Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand — aims to promote public awareness of the importance of reading and literature for all children
Tai Tokerau Literacy Association (formerly Reading Association) — promotes professional development opportunities for teachers in Literacy
The Wellington Children's Book Association — supports New Zealand writers and illustrators of children's and young adult books, brings overseas writers to Wellington, and hosts literary events in the Wellington area
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
Read NZ (formerly NZ Book Council) inspires New Zealanders to read and supports and promotes the writing of New Zealand literature. Its programmes include:
School Library — provides reviews by member school librarians and teachers of the latest books for children and young adults
Speed Date an Author — workshops that let students train with some of New Zealand’s best writers and illustrators
Writers in Schools — gives you the opportunity to bring authors to your school, in person or through an online session, to inspire your students.
Events celebrating reading and children's literature
New Zealand
National and local organisations often hold activities to accompany and support literature festivals and events.
Auckland Writers festival — brings together acclaimed writers and thousands of readers and thinkers
Dunedin Writers and Readers festival — an annual festival in New Zealand’s only UNESCO City of Literature
National Poetry Day — a celebration of poetry in New Zealand, giving communities all over New Zealand an opportunity to enjoy the written word out loud
New Zealand Festival: 2016 Writers week — a biennial multi-arts festival held in Wellington, which includes a writers week that plays host to renowned New Zealand and overseas authors
New Zealand Book Council directory — a comprehensive listing of all New Zealand literary festivals
The Coalition for Books — has a calendar of literary festivals and events in New Zealand.
WORD Christchurch — a biennial writers and readers festival, and includes information about a variety of other individual events featuring visiting and local authors
International events
All Hallow’s Read — Neil Gaiman’s initiative to gift scary books on or around Halloween
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) — an international network of people who are committed to bringing books and children together
Kids Lit Quiz — an annual literature competition for children aged 10-13, which puts readers onto the stage and lets them compete for prizes
Reading Matters — a biennial event at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne that focuses on young adult authors, illustrators and publishers
ReadWriteThink Calendar — a great resource with a variety of literary events and related activities for students
World Book Day — a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and a celebration of reading
World Read Aloud Day — strengthening kids and communities through the power of their own stories
Writing workshops
National Novel Writing Month — takes place annually in November and challenges participants to write a novel in a month. Educators can set up virtual classrooms and students can network with other writers around the world and set their own word count goals.
New Zealand Society of Authors — has an extensive list of private and institutional writing courses along with resources and information on the Youth Mentor Programme.
Re-draft — is an annual competition for teenage writers run by the School for Young Writers.
School for Young Writers — is a Christchurch based organisation that runs in-school and distance workshops for students interested in creative writing. The school also publishes the biannual Write On, a selection of some of the best writing by New Zealanders aged 8-18.
Awards for young writers
National Schools Poetry Awards — poetry awards for Year 12 to 13 New Zealand students
New Zealand Poetry Society — develops and supports poetry and poets in New Zealand, and holds an annual international poetry competition
Pikihuia Awards — run by Huia, and gives budding writers, published authors, and talented students the opportunity to tell their stories
Book awards around the world
Below is a list of book awards from various countries.
New Zealand awards
LIANZA Children's Book Awards — awards to encourage and promote the work of New Zealand children's authors.
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards — seeks to identify the best adult books written by New Zealanders in four categories: poetry, fiction, illustrated non-fiction and general non-fiction.
New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults — recognises the best books for children and teenagers published annually in New Zealand.
United Kingdom awards
Blue Peter Book Award — celebrates authors and illustrators with awards for Best Story (fiction) and Best Book with Facts (non-fiction).
Branford Boase Award — an opportunity for new writers and their editors to be recognised for their contribution to literature for children aged 7 and above.
The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenway Children’s Book Awards — one of the oldest and most distinguished awards for children’s literature, where books are nominated by librarians who are constantly in contact with books and children.
CLiPPA Poetry Award — sponsored by Travelling Books and launched by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, this award brings into prominence children’s poetry books.
Costa Children’s Award — formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, this award recognises the most pleasurable books written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
The Guardian Children’s Fiction Award — conferred upon the author of a fiction book written for children or young adults, this award sponsored by The Guardian can be won only once in the lifetime of the author.
The Red House Children’s Book Award — this award is entirely voted for by children, with 3 categories: books for younger children, books for younger readers, and books for older readers.
Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize — publishers across the UK submit their best books that communicate science to young people up to the age of 14 to a judging panel of young people from schools and youth groups around the country.
US awards
The American Library Association (ALA) Awards include a variety of annual awards:
Alex Awards — given to 10 books written for adults that will appeal to readers between the ages of 12 and 18.
Asian Pacific Awards for Literature — recognises a picture book and a youth literature award to promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage.
Coretta Scott King Award — named after Coretta Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King Jr, and presented to an African-American author and illustrator of books that reflect and acclaim African American culture and universal values.
John Newbery Medal — awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
Printz Award — awarded for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.
Randolph Caldecott Medal — presented to the illustrator of the most distinguished picture book published the previous year.
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards — conferred annually by The Horn Book and The Boston Globe, this award honours the best in the field of children’s and young adult’s literature. Its categories are picture book, fiction and poetry, and non-fiction.
Lambda Literary Awards — an award to celebrate LGBTQ+ writers across 25 categories including LGBTQ+ children’s books, middle grade, young adult and comics.
Mythopoeic Awards — an award that honours fantasy books for younger readers (up to age 13).
National Book Awards — is an American award presented by the National Book Foundation. A panel of 20 judges selects a book for 4 categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and young people’s literature.
The Walter Awards — named after Walter Dean Myers who was a champion of diversity in children’s books. It recognises diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way. Its categories are teen and young readers.
Australian awards
CBCA Book of the Year — annual book awards from the Children’s Book Council of Australia to promote children's books of high literary and artistic quality.
Inky Awards — young adult literature awards run by the State Library of Victoria where the titles are selected by young adults and voting takes place online on the Inside a Dog website.
Canadian awards
Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award — this award for distinguished illustration is presented for books suitable for children up to the age of 12. The illustrator has to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
International awards
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award — is presented annually and is the largest international children’s and young adult award of the year. It can be presented to a single author or several authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters from any nation in the world.
Hans Christian Andersen Award — is presented every 2 years to a living author and illustrator who has made a remarkable and continuous contribution to children’s literature.
Hugo Awards — voted by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. These awards focus on science fiction and fantasy literature.
Young Readers’ Choice Award (United States and Canada) — titles for this award are nominated and winners are selected by children, teachers, parents and librarians. The 3 categories are junior division, intermediate division and senior division.
