2026 Writing Successes

Our Russley writers have had some fantastic successes this year! You can read more about them at the links below:

Poetry Box challenge - He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most?

Tyler 's poem titled What Matters Most poem published on Poetry Box and Paula Green picked Tyler to receive a copy of the book ‘He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most?’ courtesy of Mana Mokopuna the NZ Children’s Commission.

Poetry Box - Sky Poem Challenge

These students had their poems published on Poetry Box for the ‘Sky Poem Challenge’:

Tasha, age 10, Y5-6

Hugo P, 10 years, Y5-6

Abigail O, Age 9

Ava K, age 10

Harrison, 10yrs

Maggie M age 11

Bodhi H, age 10 years

Hollie, age 11, Y7-8

Noah C, age 12, Y7-8

Savannah, age 11, Y7-8

Joshua T, age 12, Y-8

Paula has picked Abigail, Harrison and Noah to receive a book prize!

The Toy Press - UK children’s literary magazine

The  following students have had poems accepted for publication in the UK magazine The Toy Press:

• Kimberly Boycott, The Adventurer
• Lily Burgess, Emi the Sweet Guinea Pig
• Claire Beedie, The New Zealand Forest
• Haylee Greene, Sheldon the Iconic Turtle
• Maddie Todd, Hot sand sizzling underneath my bare feet
• Rongo Henderson, Don't Go Out at Midnight
• Tyler Ryan, The Owl

Little Thoughts Press | USA children’s literary magazine, based in Baltimore, Maryland

These students selected for publication in the print issue of Little Thoughts Press - ‘In the Dark’ scheduled for publication late October:

• Libby Greenall, The Cat in the Dark (poem + illustration) (TW6)
• Tyler Ryan - In the Dark (poem) (TW5)

Little Thoughts Press

These students poems have been selected for e-published on Little Thoughts Press blog with interview:

• TayJe Bangu, Walking Through Midnight Dark
• Rongo Henderson, My Dinosaur in the Dark Adventure
• Maddison Huang, In the Dark
• Katherine Lord, Calm Darkness
• Tenushki Ranasinghe, The Eerie Night

Toitoi - A Journal for Young Writers and Artists

Writing accepted for publication in the 2026 issue of Toitoi. (Selected from over 1000 submissions from students in years 1-13 from schools across Aotearoa.)

• Aggie Huang

• Jacob Braggins

Poetry Box | Winter poem challenge

Poems published on Poetry Box website:

• Rongo Henderson

• Tyler Ryan 

The New Zealand Poetry Society Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa | International Competition

Open Category for Juniors (under 18yrs) - all selected for publication in the anthology (to be released 25 Nov)

• Chithralie Herath - Runner Up ($50 prizemoney + publication in anthology)

• Lachlan Hogan - Highly Commended, at christmas we go to castle hill

• Dwayne Sangkop, My Sister   

• Denzel Sangkop, proud

• Divisha Kharola, This is Me

• Carter Aitchison, We Might Have

• Scarlett Henderson, 'swimming in my house'

Poetry Box

e-published poets - Place Poems

These students had their place poems published on Poetry Box. In addition, Keanu won a book prize.

• Keanu Raru (book prize winner)

• Mimi Lan

• Nora Yang

• Denzel Sangkop

• Emily Saleh Barsoum

• Max Chiang

• Harrison Evans

• Ava Koster

• Hannah Chiang

Given Words Poetry

Poem selected for publication in anthology (print book) by Charles Olsen (based in Spain):

• Bharaati Sharma

Little Thoughts Press | USA literary magazine

These students had their poems selected for publication in the print magazine:

• Agatha Huang

• Ryan Jacob Jijo

Little Thoughts Press | USA literary magazine

These students had their poems selected for e-publication on website & invited to answer some interview questions:

• Hania Dawood

• Noah Clark

• Kieran Beckingham

• William Holmes

• Basti Clare

• Ryan Cui

• Jessica Pollard

Poetry Box 

e-published poets

These students had their bird poetry selected for publication on Paula Green’s Poetry Box website:

• Emily Saleh-Barsoum (book prize winner)

• Hayley Chen

• Hannah Chiang

• Lewis (Junwoo) Shin

• Kastubh Khadka

• Ammar Shoaib

• Damon Wu

• Mason Cox

New Zealand Flash Fiction Day 2026 Competition

Longlisted & invited to read his flash fiction at the NZFFD event at Tūranga 22/6/26,

Youth category (18 years and under). His writing was also published on Flash Frontier:

• Kastubh Khadka

NZ Poetry Society 

These students received their copies of the NZ Poetry Society’s 2025 anthology There Are Rabbits Here, in which their poems were published:

• Henry Peters (1st Prize, Junior haiku)

• Kelvin Ma (Commended, Junior open)

• Angela Zhao (2nd Place, Junior open)