Wellington writer Mikee Donato finished a short story on the floor at Auckland Airport, submitted it nine minutes before the deadline, and won the $15,000 Sargeson Prize.
Donato had been working on Wilding Pines during a Gold Coast holiday with a friend. Back in New Zealand, she still had only half a story and no ending. She submitted the finished work at 11.50pm.
“My writing is like that second life where all the real stuff happens,” she said in the University of Waikato’s announcement.
The story follows two people travelling south through the North Island towards Wellington. Donato drew partly on bands she loved as a teenager, exploring how pieces of conversation could establish characters and their surroundings.
Chief judge Becky Manawatu said she recognised the winner on her first reading, praising its distinctive voice and its understanding of people wanting to be wanted.
For this entry, Donato used the name Lourdes David, her late maternal grandmother. She was returning to a competition that had recognised her work before: in 2021, she finished second with The Duwende.
The Sargeson competition judges manuscripts without the writers’ names attached, and accepts work from both established and unpublished authors.
Donato has a master’s degree in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her fiction has appeared in adda, Overland, The Spinoff and Newsroom.
Her work has also reached an international shortlist. In 2024, writing as M Donato, she was among 23 authors selected for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize from 7,359 entries. Her shortlisted story, Manananggal, follows a young woman visiting the Philippines who becomes caught up in her cousin’s life.
The Commonwealth Foundation describes Donato as a Filipino New Zealander based in Wellington. Alongside her creative writing qualification, she has an English literature degree from Victoria University.
The 2026 Sargeson awards were announced at the University of Waikato’s Frank Sargeson Memorial Lecture on 3 October.
Established in 2019 and conceived by writer Catherine Chidgey, the prize is named after New Zealand short story writer Frank Sargeson. Entry is free, with each writer allowed one original, unpublished story. The open division accepts work of up to 5000 words.
Wellington also features elsewhere in this year’s results. Tess Upperton received a highly commended placing for Cleaner, while Wellington High School student Esmé Hollings was highly commended in the secondary schools division for Running Parallel.
Wilding Pines was published by ReadingRoom on 10 October and can be read through the University of Waikato’s Sargeson Prize winners page. https://newsroom.co.nz/readingroom/
