Elliffe awarded the 2025 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize
The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) (NZSA) has announced Susanna Elliffe as the winner of the 2025 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize for her short story collection Relic Party.
Her winning manuscript ‘studies loss, both intimate and global, human and nonhuman, ranging through ugly ghosts, false relics, and desperate pilgrimages, to a dysfunctional 80’s farmhouse and the speculative worlds of climate affected futures’, said the organisers.
Elliffe will receive an advance of $1000 and a publishing contract with The Cuba Press. The runner-up was Belinda O’Keefe, who will receive $1000 for her manuscript ‘Trespassers Will Be Baked, Scrambled, Fried and Eaten’.
Based in Oamaru, Elliffe is a writer whose work has been shortlisted in competitions including the Sargeson Prize and the International Bridport Prize. Elliffe is currently completing a Master’s in Creative Writing at Massey University, focusing on ‘defamiliarisation and linguistic deviation in fiction’.
She said, ‘Creative writing has long been the lifeblood that runs beneath everything I do, my life’s passion. I love to play with language, to unstitch it, pull at the seams, weave it anew, to create something that doesn’t always fit traditional publishing moulds. So to have my work recognised in this way feels nothing short of surreal. I am deeply honoured – especially to receive a prize connected to Laura Solomon. Her short stories were also surreal and strange, but also dwelled in uncanny corners of the human heart.’
Elliffe was chosen as the winner by a judging panel comprising of Mary McCallum from the Cuba Press, Nicky Solomon from the Solomon family and writer Cassie Hart (panel convenor).
Hart said, ‘The final four were all so different from each other, spanning from a very lyrical collection of short stories to a humorous contemporary novel, a middle grade adventure, through to a memoiresque nonfiction book exploring the experience of immigrants! […] The winner, Relic Party, stood out as being the most unique and original of the three though, and I know that readers will fall in love with Susannah Elliffe’s prose and storytelling just like we did.’
Created by NZSA and the Solomon family, the prize is named for novelist, poet and playwright Laura Solomon (1974–2019) and recognises new writing of ‘unique and original vision’.
The Cuba Press plans to release Relic Party in 2026.
Last year’s winner was Tracy Farr for Wonderland.
More information about the prize and Laura Solomon is available on the NZSA website.
Category: Awards Local news
