Aspiring writers throughout the region were celebrated on Thursday night at the annual Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards presentation night.
The literary awards honour the work of Ronald Hugh Morrieson who was a novelist and short story writer from Hawera. The awards offer poets, short story authors and research profilers the chance to win prize money for their pieces.
St Mary's Diocesan School students were stand-outs in the research article category section, scooping all the top prizes with their profiles on people making an impact in the community.
Eva Grensill was placed first for her piece titled Preaching Style, which was a profile written on her school chaplain, Jacqui Paterson.
"I chose Ms Paterson as she has made an impact on so many girls within the school as well as inspiring me personally."
Katie McGregor's piece A woman of the community earned her second place and third place was presented to Alex Howard with her piece titled A new kind of drama.
Honourable mentions also were extended to Hannah Landers for her piece, It's not just me, it's a huge group of people coming together and Charlotte Helms with her piece The Importance of Returning a Favour.
St Mary's students made an impression in the other categories this year as well with Hannah placing first in the Secondary School Poetry section with a piece titled History's Drum and receiving a highly commended in the Secondary School Short Story section.
Eva's short story Plain White was placed third in the Open Short Story Section and Megan Jackson's poem Safe Place earned her a highly commended in the Secondary School Poetry section.