EVENTS:
NZSA Northland Branch meeting
Monday 2 March, 2026, via Zoom (Note change from our usual Tuesday.)
Secretary, Trish Fenton, will send the Zoom link with the agenda.
Save the day: NZSA Northland AGM
Sunday 22 March, 2026. 10.30 am at the McKay Stadium.
Details to follow.
SATURDAY 9 MAY 2026
REGISTRATIONS OPEN 9 March, 2026
VENUE: NORTHTEC, WHANGĀREI
Preferential Booking for NZSA Northland Members
Our day of talks and panel sessions on indie publishing is coming soon! We are giving Northland members the first opportunity to register from Monday 2 March, so don’t delay. We do have a cap on numbers, due to the venue’s size, and we’d hate you to miss out.
Our CCS grant means you can attend for the whole day, lunch included, for $60.00 – programme and booking link on our website. Don’t delay!
https://northlandauthors.co.nz/northwrite-2026-pathways-to-indie-publishing/
POETS@ONEONESIX
116a Bank Street Whangārei
Wednesday 25 March, 5.30 – 7.30pm
Share your poetry and enjoy the company of fellow poets.
Check out this latest edition of Live Encounters Aotearoa edition
https://liveencounters.net/…/live-encounters-aotearoa…/
OPPORTUNITIES:
Send your best 300 words. Submissions open through 30 April. The 2026 judges for the national competition are the award-winning writers Ingrid Horrocks and Louise Wallace. The 2026 youth judge is Josiah Morgan.
How to enter can be found on the NFFD Competition page.
MICRO MADNESS
A free competition open to international writers. For stories up to 100 words.
The 2026 Micro Madness competition will open 15 April.
Each year we see two judges, one from Aotearoa New Zealand and one from overseas. The 2025 Micro Madness judges are the award-winning writers Tim Saunders and Tania Hershman. Follow this micro competition, and see past winners at the bottom of the page, here.
JUNE CELEBRATIONS
Watch for details about workshops, events and more in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Ōtepoti Dunedin, Kirikiriroa Hamilton, Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington, Taranaki and Whangārei. Our Events page will be updated in the coming months.
ONLINE INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
Each year, we celebrate with online panels, discussions and special readings that take place in June, leading up to our big day. Stay tuned for more! And if you have a flash idea for a panel or presentation, email us and let us know: info@nationalflash.org You can enjoy last year’s Festival of Flash, plus previous online panels and readings, at the website here.
Enjoy writing your flash submissions – submit today!
INVITATION:
Members may contact lynn.jenner2@gmail.com for an invitation.
There will be poems from Elaine Webster, Viv Thonger, Jac Jenkins, Shelley Arlidge and Volha Kastsiuk as well as some from Lynn’s new collection.
A celebration of Northland poetry and poets!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Author and NZSA Member, Alice Fairley, was the recipient of the 2025 NORTHTEC CREATIVE WRITING EXCELLENCE AWARD sponsored by NZSA Northland, NorthTec and NZSA (PEN Inc). Alice has now published her novel, due to be released on 3 March 2026.
1855
George Hollings has fled London—and the treacherous lover who nearly ruined him—for New Zealand. But the world is smaller than he’d hoped. When his former lover resurfaces, carrying a threat that could destroy his fragile new life, George is forced to run again.
He joins his sister on an expedition to a remote island, a place whispered about in colonial circles: its indigenous people, the Yunher, are said to bathe in waters that grant eternal youth . . .
While the explorers chase gold and glory, George discovers something far more precious: a community, a sense of acceptance and a love he never expected. But as tensions rise and loyalties fray, George must choose between the world he knows and the people who might finally give him a home.
978-0-473-76840-9
Release day: 3 March 2026
Paperback available from the author: $35.00
eBook available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Flower-Alice-Fairley-ebook/dp/B0GGW79884
Review:
Yellow Flower by Alice Fairley
George is a lovely character – gentle, but with a core of ethical steel – and Alice has built him a world that suits him far better than the one he was born to. His journeys, both literal and emotional, are painted beautifully, and his dilemmas are real. Alice not only created a new island, with special trees that have almost magical properties, she even wrote a completely new language for the island’s inhabitants. And it’s in this language that George will finally be able to articulate true acceptance and love.
Lesley Marshall
SHARING NZSA NORTHLAND BRANCH NEWS AND EVENTS:
Share with us on our Facebook Pages for NZSA Northland
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1618171775233622 (Private members’ group)
https://www.facebook.com/NZSANorthlandBranch (Public)
Submit your news, including events, awards, recent publications and book launches to: northlandauthors[at]gmail.com for inclusion in our monthly newsletter.
Free for financial members. 50 cents per word for non-members.
Check for further updates on: https://northlandauthors.co.nz/
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemingway
(Okay – laptop, but it still rings true!)
Northland Branch 