Feature winner

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 3

Feature winner

A Wellington woman has won the newspaper feature article competition organised by “The Press” and the South Island Writers’ Association and run in conjunction with the Christchurch Festival. Mrs Sheila Natusch won the competition with a feature called “Thanks for Meat.” That feature appears on today’s feature page. - Second place went to “New Zealand’s Golden Coast,” by Jane Wells of Blackball. That feature will also be printed in “The Press.” The results of the competition were announced last evening at the opening function of a seminar for writers organised by the South Island Writers’ Association. The winning en-

try won $lOO and the second entry $5O. The chief judge for the competition was Mr E. T, Beardsley, a former member of the staff of “The Press” who has been the information officer at the University of Canterbury for the last 20 years.

Mr Beardsley said this week that after reading the 105 competition entries he felt confident of the future of newspapers and magazines in this country.

Some of the writers had done a lot of research on their subject, he said. “Wisely a lot had written about their own special interests,” Mr Beardsley said. About a quarter of the entries were publishable without very much editorial

work being required on them. “Some of the writers had not been stern enough critics of their own work. They have to stand back and be very critical rather than stand by it because they wrote it,” Mr Beardsley said. He also criticised the heavy use of “trite and hackneyed phrases.” “The first prize was an unusual topic and dealt with in an unusual way. It was fresh and quite lively,” Mr Beardsley said. “The second was workmanlike, authoritative and imaginatively written,” he said.

The organiser of the contest for the 5.1.W.A., Dr D. P. Seed, said this week that it was the first time the contest had been held and that the association had been very pleased with the response to it. “we would certainly like to repeat it some time,” she said.