The country’s most prestigious literary awards are preparing for their 51st year of presentations. The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have announced their longlist nominee’s, and the community is rife with enthusiasm.
The categories for awards are Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Illustrated Non-Fiction and Poetry, ensuring an extensive variety of New Zealand authors are represented. Ten books are nominated in each category, putting a host of New Zealand writers on display for the whole country to celebrate. Prizes range in value, but the prestige and publicity that come with even a nomination are invaluable to these authors.
The shortlist for nominations will be announced next month, with the final ceremony taking place at a public festival in May.
Bellow is the final longlist of nominees; the awards provide the perfect booklist for any reader looking for a new favourite.
Fiction:
The Man Who Would Not See by Rajorshi Chakraborti
The Life of De’Ath by Majella Cullinane
The New Ships by Kate Duignan
Mazarine by Charlotte Grimshaw
Caroline’s Bikini by Kirsty Gunn
The Cage by Lloyd Jones
The Ice Shelf by Anne Kennedy
This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman
The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti
All This by Chance by Vincent O’Sullivan
Non-Fiction:
Filming the Colonial Past: The New Zealand Wars on Screen by Annabel Cooper
Song for Rosaleen by Pip Desmond
Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love by Joanne Drayton
Memory Pieces by Maurice Gee
The Heart of Jesús Valentino: A Mother’s Story by Emma Gilkison
We Can Make a Life by Chessie Henry
Swim: A Year of Swimming Outdoors in New Zealand by Annette Lees
The Vulgar Wasp: The Story of a Ruthless Invader and Ingenious Predator by Phil Lester
With Them Through Hell: New Zealand Medical Services in the First World War by Anna Rogers
Dear Oliver: Uncovering a Pākehā History by Peter Wells
Illustrated Non-Fiction
Fight for the Forests: The Pivotal Campaigns that Saved New Zealand’s Native Forests by Paul Bensemann
Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Māori World, 1880-1910 by Roger Blackley
The New Zealand Horse by Deborah Coddington and photographs by Jane Ussher
Wanted: The Search for the Modernist Murals of E. Mervyn Taylor edited by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith
Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing by Sean Mallon with Sébastien Galliot
Mataatua Wharenui: Te Whare i Hoki Mai by Hirini Mead, Layne Harvey, Pouroto Ngaropo and Te Onehou Phillis
Birdstories: A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Geoff Norman
Whatever it Takes: Pacific Films and John O’Shea 1948-2000 by John Reid
Down the Bay: A natural and cultural history of Abel Tasman National Park by Philip Simpson
Hillary’s Antarctica: Adventure, Exploration and Establishing Scott Base by Nigel Watson, photographs by Jane Ussher
Poetry:
Edgeland and other Poems by David Eggleton
The Farewell Tourist by Alison Glenny
Are Friends Electric? by Helen Heath
All of Us by Adrienne Jansen and Carina Gallegos
There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime by Erik Kennedy
The Facts by Therese Lloyd
Winter Eyes by Harry Ricketts
Walking to Jutland Street by Michael Steven
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
Aspiring Daybook: The Diary of Elsie Winslow by Annabel Wilson
