Utopian Writing Competition

Dystopian stories are everywhere, and disaster is perennially exciting. But can we imagine a better future for society? The 2025 Chaplaincy VUW Utopian Writing Competition was an experiment to find out!

The competition closed on 28 June 2025,
and the prizegiving event was held at Ramsey House 10 September 2025.

Our judge was Elizabeth Knox. She chose as overall winner Margaret Mitchell’s piece 'Utopia – I call it Otūrēhua’. Runners-up were '“Just about the corner”' by Carla Hazel Finn, and ‘Forecast for Tomorrow’ by Rohit Gunasekaran. Congratulations to those three, to the 14 people who made the long-list, and to everyone who took the time to submit an entry.

You can read all the finalists in the below booklet. We’re working on getting some printed copies done… watch this space.