The Trusts are proud to support this year's 2008 Western Districts Short Story Competition as it celebrates its 21st year!

"The Western Districts Short Story Competition has now completed 20 contests & is into the 21st year.  This contest is so generously sponsored by the Waitakere Licensing Trust.  It is now held in high regard & confidence by New Zealand writers.

As a local (New Zealand only) contest, it attracts many of our best writers, but still offers great encouragement & opportunity for the new & unrecognised writers of the future.

Many writers enter repeatedly because of the feedback offered by this contest.  The idea being to encourage & promote writing as an art form.  It is therefore very appropriate that it is held in combination with the Annual Waitakere Licensing Trust Arts Awards.

As an invisible art, writing often suffers from lack of support but the Waitakere Licensing Trust has shown unusual vision in sponsoring this contest over the years. 

Many writers who have entered this contest have gone onto great things. Many achieving publication.  The first ever winner of the very first contest John Conner's "Man of Fire", was part of a publication of his stories called "Distortions".  The book Distortions then was co-winner of the inaugural Reed Fiction award in 1989.

The winner of our tenth contest & recipient of the first 10 year trophy now promotes & produces one of the best writers pages in cyber space.  Tracey Alvrez & her husband's New Zealand Writers Website is one of the most comprehensive & interesting sites on the net, especially for New Zealand writers.  Tracey has also had many of her stories including past winners & place getters' from this contest published here & overseas.

Rhonda Bartle, of New Plymouth, a regular entrant in this competition won a very prestigious New Zealand award with a $5,000 prize.  The Katherine Mansfield Award.

In between these magnificent extremes are many past entrants who have had their works published & achieved great personal goals.  All of these benefits have only been made possible through the sponsorship of the Waitakere Licensing Trust & assistance mainly in promotion from the Western Leader."

David J. Knight
Organiser
WDSSC
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"The Western Districts Short Story Competition (WDSSC) is now in it's 21st year, and I must again congratulate David Knight for his dedication to his yearly competition.  Recently David published a collection of short stories that had been previous winners over the past 20 years.  For those of you who can not stop reading a book until you have finished can I recommend this publication to you."

Warren Flaunty
President
Waitakere Trust
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CONGRATULATIONS to this years winners...

OPEN SECTION

* FIRST PRIZE:          Mrs Anne Martin of Helensville - "Saving Time"

* SECOND PRIZE:         Mr Viv Long of Levin - "Bar-Be-Cues (The Gospel According to Tamati)"

* THIRD PRIZE:          Miss Laura Dunbar of Manukau - "His Lordships Dog"

SECONDARY SECTION

* FIRST PRIZE:          Mr Jona Wrait of Westlake Boys High School - "Dragon The Witch And The Wardrobe"

* SECOND PRIZE:          Ms Jennifer Lavanya Pushparajah of Botany Downs Secondary School - "Fish To Fill Her Stomach"

* THIRD PRIZE:          Mr George Xu of Westlake Boys High School - "Bill"

INTERMEDIATE SECTION

* FIRST PRIZE:          Miss Breidi Jane of Otumoetai Intermediate, Tauranga - "Shades of Grey

* SECOND PRIZE:          Miss Anika Radajkovich of Blockhouse Bay Intermediate - "Coleslaw"

* THIRD PRIZE:          Miss Alice Duncan-Gardiner of Ponsonby Intermediate - "And Then I Say No"