The promise of publication and a $5000 reward for each of the six winners proved a magnet for writers in this year’s Six Pack Competition. Attracting a record 500 entries, the competition and resulting book are a highlight of NZ Book Month celebrated throughout New Zealand every September.

The 2008 winning entries – five selected by celebrity judges, one by the voting public – are announced on Sunday 31 August at the launch of NZ Book Month at Te Papa Tongarewa on Wellington’s waterfront. At the same time, copies of The Six Pack Three containing the six winning entries will hit the book stores.

Now in its third year, the Six Pack Competition is open to all New Zealanders and provides a chance for unknown writers to foot it with the literary heavyweights. In the first year, for instance, 15-year-old student Phoebe Wright was one of the winners – alongside well-known writers Briar Grace-Smith and Brian Turner. And last year, emerging writer Jennifer Lane saw her story in print with one by Charlotte Grimshaw, winner of the fiction prize at this year’s Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Read the rest of this NZLive.com featured article here.

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