The 2025 Sargeson Prize judge Elizabeth Knox selected Manawatu\u2019s short story, \u2018The Vase\u2019, from over 1,160 entries to take out this year\u2019s first prize in the Open Division. At the award ceremony on October 13, Knox said Manawatu\u2019s story is powerfully moody and has plot and mystery. \u201cIt keeps offering solutions to its mysteries that all feel possibly true \u2013 which is a real accomplishment. \u2018The Vase\u2019 is an unsettling work that ends with the dilemma of its protagonist\u2019s sense that they\u2019ve lost everything, and that what they\u2019ve lost leaves them alone, but will never leave them in peace.\u201d The story is published in full on Newsroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last night, on October 19, Manawatu was awarded the biennial Keri Hulme Award for her second novel, Kataraina. The honour is part of the Pikihuia Awards which celebrate emerging M\u0101ori writers in te reo M\u0101ori and English, as well as mid-career M\u0101ori writers. The awards ceremony was held at Te Puia in Rotorua as part of Kupu M\u0101ori Writers Festival.<\/p>\n The Keri Hulme Award is supported by funds raised from the sale of the original manuscript of Hulme\u2019s Booker Prize-winning novel, the bone people. The proceeds of the auction were gifted to the M\u0101ori Literature Trust to manage the award which is intended to recognise a mid-career M\u0101ori writer who represents the \u201cvalues Keri Hulme [K\u0101i Tahu, K\u0101ti M\u0101moe] embodied through her work and storytelling.\u201d The honour includes $5000 and guardianship of the Keri Hulme Award taonga for two years. Manawatu is the second ever recipient, after\u00a0essa may ranapiri who won the inaugural award in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n Mary McCallum, Manawatu\u2019s publisher at M\u0101karo Press said: \u201cFor Becky to win this prize in the name of the West Coast\u2019s most famous writer, someone Becky has long admired, is an unquantifiable boost to her confidence as a writer, especially coming hard on the heels of the Sargeson Prize. It will give her the strength and self-belief she needs to apply her extraordinary talent to new projects, as well as helping buy her more time to write. We could not be more proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n Manawatu gave a heartfelt speech thanking her wh\u0101nau, her publishers Mary McCallum and Paul Stewart at M\u0101karo Press, and Keri\u2019s Hulme\u2019s wh\u0101nau for making this award happen, along with the M\u0101ori Literature Trust. \u201cIt means a lot to us writers, who have looked to Keri and her legacy often in our careers,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel honoured to be a part of a vast and growing, sprawling and wild greater story of us.\u201d Manawatu continued the tradition, started by essa may ranapiri, of offering a poem\u00a0in gratitude:<\/p>\n Untitled (in response to \u2018Ng\u0101 k\u0113hua\u2019 by Keri Hulme)<\/strong><\/p>\n To Joe and Kerewin\u2019s Simon, If I never carried these ghosts on my shoulders, I think I would float up, away from the stories Did I know tears?<\/p>\n I thought I did. Indulged the prayers. That is a delusion.<\/p>\n Because here is a picture of me and, you, my silent cousin, lying in the grass and I am smiling the smile of the lucky one.<\/p>\n You knew tears, my silent cousin.<\/p>\n What will happen if I let you be Will we weigh nothing at all. Like a ghost, weighing nothing at all. \u00a0<\/p>\n Kia ora t\u0101tou.<\/p>\n Mauri ora. \/ Becky Manawatu<\/p>\n All winners and highly commended writers for the 2025 Pikihuia Awards are:<\/b><\/p>\n The Keri Hulme Award,<\/b> judged by Robyn Bargh and Nic Low and sponsored by the Hulme wh\u0101nau<\/strong><\/p>\n Winner: Becky Manawatu (Ng\u0101i Tahu, Ng\u0101ti M\u0101moe, Waitaha) for Kataraina<\/strong><\/p>\n Poetry \u2013 te reo M\u0101ori, judged by H\u0113mi Kelly<\/strong><\/p>\n Winner:<\/strong> Aperahama Te Kapua-I-Waho Hurihanganui (Wairarapa, Te Arawa, Te Tai R\u0101whiti) for \u2018Te Matatini\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Aperahama Te Kapua-I-Waho Hurihanganui (Wairarapa, Te Arawa, Te Tai R\u0101whiti) for \u2018K\u012bngi T\u016bheitia P\u014dtatau Te Wherowhero VII\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Te Aomihia Kaipara (Ng\u0101ti Naho, Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa, Ng\u0101ti Awa, Ng\u0101i T\u016bhoe) for \u2018Kia \u016b, kia mau!\u2019<\/p>\n Poetry in English,<\/b> judged by Tayi Tibble<\/strong><\/p>\n Winner:<\/strong> Shelley Burne-Field (Ng\u0101ti Mutunga, Ng\u0101ti R\u0101rua, Te \u0100tiawa) for \u2018skin\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Jessica Hinerangi Thompson-Carr (Ng\u0101ruahine, Ng\u0101ti Ruanui, Ng\u0101puhi) for \u2018T\u012bpuna go fishing to catch another mokopuna\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Marama Salsano (Ng\u0101i T\u016bhoe, Te Aitanga-a-M\u0101haki, Ng\u0101ti Porou, Ng\u0101ti Wairere) for \u2018Calabashes in my mouth\u2019<\/p>\n Short story \u2013 te reo M\u0101ori, judged by Maiki Sherman<\/b><\/p>\n Winner:<\/strong> Darryn Joseph (Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto, Ng\u0101ti Rereahu) for \u2018Te Hapori Whanok\u0113\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Darryn Joseph (Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto, Ng\u0101ti Rereahu) for \u2018He K\u014drero Par\u0101oa\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> H\u0101wea Apiata (Ng\u0101ti Kura, Ng\u0101puhi, Ng\u0101ti Toarangatira) for \u2018Te Tohunga me te Pirihi\u2019<\/p>\n Short story in English, judged by Carol Hirschfeld<\/b><\/p>\n Winner: <\/strong>Mark Horsefield (Ng\u0101 Puhi, Ng\u0101ti Rehia) for \u2018The Sea Within\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Anthony Kohere (Ng\u0101ti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Mua\u016bpoko, Waikato-Tainui, Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa) for \u2018L!PSTICK CALLS\u2019<\/p>\n Highly commended:<\/strong> Toni Pivac-Hohaia (Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua, Ng\u0101puhi, Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga) for \u2018Paradise Duck\u2019<\/p>\n Tauira Short Story Award, judged by Mike Ross<\/strong><\/p>\n Winner:<\/strong> Tamihana Simmonds (Ng\u0101ti Raukawa, Ng\u0101ti Huri, Pikit\u016b Marae) for \u2018The Price of War\u2019<\/p>\nBecky Manawatu (left) and Secondary Schools Division winner, Brooke Smith (Waiuku College).<\/p>\n
I never want to be free of the weight of you,
don\u2019t leave me at my desk alone.<\/p>\n
who would I even be.<\/p>\n
the anchoring kupu that make me believe in
something truer than the truth<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not truer than the truth.<\/p>\n
free of the weight of me, e tama?<\/p>\n
Like in the photo,
like on the grass,
like in the bed when you peeled the thin skin from my back
after I had been sunburned,
and we went to the window and watched my skin float up into the night<\/p>\n
Weighing nothing at all.
As if those that might hurt
the people
we love
had never been born.<\/p>\nBecky Manawatu accepting the Keri Hulme Award. (Photo: Kararaina Pene.)<\/p>\n