Mary McCallum of Wellington is the winner of the latest Lillian Ida Smith Award, and receives $3,000 to help further her literary career.

The award is held every two years, and open to writers over 35. It can be a good portent of future talent: the winner in both 1986 and 1988 was Owen Marshall, New Zealand's master of the short story, who last year won the inaugural $100,000 Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship. Debra Daley triumphed in 1992 and published her first novel The Strange Letter Z in 1995. And the 2001 winner was Jackie Davis, who published Breathe in 2002 and Swim in 2003.

Lillian Ida Smith was a Wanganui music teacher who left a third of her estate to PEN NZ. Applications for the next award close on 30 November 2005 and applicants must be members of the NZ Society of Authors. For entry forms and rules, contact the NZSA national office on (09) 630 8077.