Cristina Sanders wins NZSA Shaw Award

The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) congratulates Cristina Sanders on winning the NZSA Shaw Writer’s Award 2025.

Cristina Sanders will use the award to continue research into her time-travel story of colonial governor, Sir George Grey.

Cristina says: 'Thank you Tina Shaw! The timing of this award is perfect; I’m off to wander Te Rohe Pōtae next week, whispering up ghosts and stories, tracing our colonial history in the geography of hills and rivers. I’m so grateful to the judges for considering my story, with all its peculiarities, worth telling.' The judging panel of Dr Paula Morris and Catherine Roberston said, 'Cristina Sanders is a serious writer, intent on developing her skill and repertoire and with the talent/experience to do so.'

Tina Shaw said, 'I was really impressed with Cristina's ambitious idea for her fifth novel that mashes together time travel and history. It's an interesting progression for this author who has worked hard to achieve success in her writing career. Cristina has already completed a solid first draft of the novel, and I look forward to seeing a new perspective of Aotearoa historical issues in a near-future context.'

The $5,000 award was established by award-winning novelist Tina Shaw to encourage the development of new novels by mid-career fiction writers. The inaugural winner of this award was Steph Matuku, who used the award to help complete the writing of The Blue Dawn, a novel set in early 19th century New Zealand, when the whaling industry was at its peak.

Tina Shaw is a novelist, short story writer and editor who has received many awards for her work, including the CNZ Berlin Writers Residency, the University of Waikato Writer-In-Residence and the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship. She won the 2018 Storylines Tessa Duder Award with Ursa which was published in 2019 by Walker Books Australia and received a Storylines Notable Book Award. As editor, her 7th edition of the Bateman NZ Writer's Handbook was published in 2023. Her novel manuscript A House Built on Sand won the 2023 Michael Gifkins Prize and was published in 2024 by Text Publishing.

Shaw works as a book reviewer, mentor, manuscript assessor, publisher, and is editor of the NZSA quarterly publication NZ Author.

Find out more about the NZSA Shaw Writer’s Award

The NZSA would like to thank the 2025 Judging Panel – Dr Paula Morris and Catherine Robertson - and Tina Shaw for generously establishing this award.