Ockham 2024 shortlists announced

The shortlists for the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced.

Chosen from longlists announced earlier this year, the shortlisted titles in each category are:

Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction (NZ$65,000)

• Audition (Pip Adam, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• A Better Place (Stephen Daisley, Text)
• Birnam Wood (Eleanor Catton, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Lioness (Emily Perkins, Bloomsbury)

Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry (NZ$12,000)

• At the Point of Seeing (Megan Kitching, Otago University Press)
• Chinese Fish (Grace Yee, Giramondo)
• Root Leaf Flower Fruit (Bill Nelson, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
  
• Talia (Isla Huia [Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku], Dead Bird Books)

Award for Illustrated Nonfiction (NZ$12,000)

• Don Binney: Flight path (Gregory O’Brien, Auckland University Press)
  
• Fungi of Aotearoa: A curious forager’s field guide (Liv Sisson, Penguin)
• Marilynn Webb: Folded in the hills (Lauren Gutsell, Lucy Hammonds & Bridget Reweti [Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi], Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
• Rugby League in New Zealand: A people’s history (Ryan Bodman, Bridget Williams Books)

General Nonfiction Award (NZ$12,000)

• An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific essays (Damon Salesa, Bridget Williams Books)
• Laughing at the Dark: A memoir (Barbara Else, Penguin)
• Ngātokimatawhaorua: The biography of a waka (Jeff Evans, Massey University Press)
• There’s a Cure for This: A memoir (Emma Espiner [Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou], Penguin).

The winners of the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, including the four Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards recipients, will be announced on 15 May, during the 2024 Auckland Writers Festival.

Category: Awards