Brain Bunny Workshops - Creative Writing Classes for Children

📚 EVERY READER HAS A STORY ... What’s yours? 📚

To help celebrate Read NZ Te Pou Muramura 's first-ever Aotearoa New Zealand Children's Book Week, Kiwi Christmas Books is launching a nationwide creative writing competition for young readers.
We're inviting children and teenagers across Aotearoa to tell us a true story about a book that made a difference in their lives.

✨ Win $250 worth of brand-new books for yourself and $500 worth of books for your school.
✨ Have your story published in The Sapling
✨ Learn from some of New Zealand's leading writers

Participants can choose from three themes:

📖 A Book that came along just at the right time
📖 A book that changed the way I saw the world
📖 A book that took me on an adventure

We're also offering a FREE online masterclass with award-winning author and University of Auckland creative writing lecturer Dr Paula Morris on 21 July to help budding writers hone their skills.

The competition will be judged by editor, book reviewer and award-winning author Claire Mabey.

🏆 Four age categories
🏆 $250 worth of books for each winner
🏆 $500 worth of books for each winner's school

Entries close Sunday 2 August 2026.

For more info see: www.kiwichristmasbooks.org.nz

Submissions for ToiToi close on the 3rd July. Get writing now!

It's just under a month to go until submissions are due for Toitoi 35!

Send your writing and art to [email protected] by midnight on July 3 and take the leap! We can't wait to hear from you.

Attention young writers! Check out this inspiring new challenge from Earth4All

Stories of the Future creative challenge - Earth4All We hear about climate change, inequality, and injustice every day, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But the future isn’t fixed. It’s shaped by what we do

Attention secondary school students who like to write speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror etc.) Check out Te Pae Tawhiti Distant Horizon Awards Secondary School Competition.

Submit your 800 word story by Friday 3rd July.

Te Pae Tawhiti Distant Horizons Secondary School Speculative Fiction Competition | Te Pae Tawhiti Awards Te Pae Tawhiti Distant HorizonsSecondary School Competitionfree entry Te Pae Tawhiti Awards is a SpecFicNZ initiative to celebrate and inspire speculative fiction writers from Aotearoa and the Pacific Islands. If you are a secondary school Student of Aotearoa or the Pacific Islands you can be a par...

PLAYWRIGHTS b4 25 CLOSES WEDNESDAY
If you were born after 2001 and you’ve been making your laptop sing as you’ve written your latest epic stage saga, we wanna hear all about it.

Wild urban comedy? We love it. Form-busting genre-breaking take on the twentysomething experience? Yes please. Whatever the form, whatever the narrative, we’re interested in your take on the world. And bonus - there’s a cash prize of $1500 up for grabs, courtesy of Auckland Live.

You've got until midnight this Wednesday to get us your latest and greatest.

MORE HERE: https://www.playmarket.org.nz/competitions

Calling young poets and secondary school teachers! It's time to enter to Schools Poetry Award.

Enter Competition Visit the post for more.

𝐖𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐬 (𝟏𝟐-𝟏𝟖 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬).

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝟒, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲.

NZPS is running a blackout poetry contest in collaboration with Blackout Poetry Aotearoa. The contest opens today, October 20, and will close on November 30, 2025.

Simply black out one of the retro youth-themed newspaper ads you will find here:
http://bit.ly/3IWCfsm

The folder includes examples of blackout poetry and ads from the 1940s through to the 1970s that you will use to create your blackout poem.

The contest is open to young poets in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Entries are via Submittable. Make sure to read the guidelines:

http://bit.ly/4o1kQ0R

The winner will receive a 1-year free subscription to NZPS, which includes four issues of our flagship poetry magazine, ‘a fine line.’

The judge for the competition is H**e Kearney from Blackout Poetry Aotearoa.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!!

CALLING ALL MINI ARTISTS!

Your kid's art could be in the BATS Theatre 2026 Calendar!

We want to welcome the next generation of creatives to take their first step into publication and share their art by offering them the chance to have their work featured in our calendar.
If your little one (aged 5–15) loves to draw, paint, or doodle, we want to see their take on:
- A bat (the animal)
- The BATS Theatre building
- Any Theatre inspired illustrations
Twelve artworks will be selected to feature, one for each month of the year, and every calendar sold will help raise funds to support emerging artists and bold new performances at BATS Theatre.
Find all information here: https://bats.co.nz/about-bats/news/calling-all-mini-artists/

Submission dates: Wed 15 Oct to Sun 2 Nov

Wondering how to keep your little ones busy during the upcoming school holidays? Check out the Spring Superheroes school holiday events coming up at Porirua Libraries. Super fun!

Porirua Library Summer Festival 2025 Spring Superheroes September / October School Holidays