Buchanan wins 2024 Michael Gifkins Prize

Author Jeffrey Buchanan is the winner of the 2024 Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished manuscript by an Aotearoa New Zealand writer.

Chosen from a shortlist of four, Buchanan wins a publishing contract with Text and a NZ$10,000 advance against royalties for his manuscript The Birds Began to Sing, which the publisher described as ‘a warm and humorous coming-of-age story set in small-town New Zealand during the 1960s as a young boy’s secret life collides with the disappearance of the local barman’.

Buchanan is the author of five novels concerned primarily with LGBTQI+ issues, including Sucking Feijoas (Tandem Press, 1998). He worked in international development for 30 years and lives with his husband by a remote stretch of North Canterbury beach on the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Buchanan said winning the Michael Gifkins Prize was an ‘extraordinary milestone’. ‘It inspires me to continue exploring new narratives and pushing the boundaries of fiction,’ said the author, offering ‘sincere thanks to Text Publishing and the New Zealand Society of Authors for their support and belief in my work’.

The prize honours the late literary agent, writer, critic and publishing consultant Michael Gifkins, and is funded through a sponsorship from Gifkins’ family and Text Publishing. It is administered by the NZ Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa (PEN NZ) Inc.

The winner of the 2023 prize, A House Built on Sand by Tina Shaw, is publishing later this month. Text plans to publish The Birds Began to Sing in August 2025.

Category: Awards Local news