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New Zealand Book Awards 2016 shortlists announced

Tuesday, 8 March 2016   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

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

The shortlists in each category are:

Fiction

  • The Back of His Head (Patrick Evans, Victoria University Press)
  • Chappy (Patricia Grace, Penguin)
  • Coming Rain (Stephen Daisley, Text)
  • The Invisible Mile (David Coventry, Victoria University Press)

General nonfiction

  • Maurice Gee: Life and Work (Rachel Barrowman, Victoria University Press)
  • The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City (Fiona Farrell, Vintage)
  • Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood (Witi Ihimaera, Random House)
  • Lost and Gone Away (Lynn Jenner, Auckland University Press)

Illustrated nonfiction

  • Te Ara Puoro: A Journey into the World of Māori Music (Richard Nunns, Potton & Burton)
  • New Zealand Photography Collected (Athol McCredie, Te Papa Press)
  • Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History (Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney & Aroha Harris, Bridget Williams Books)
  • Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s (Bronwyn Labrum, Te Papa Press)

Poetry

  • How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (Chris Tse, Auckland University Press)
  • The Night We Ate the Baby (Tim Upperton, Haunui Press)
  • Song of the Ghost in the Machine (Roger Horrocks, Victoria University Press)
  • The Conch Trumpet (David Eggleton, Otago University Press).

The winners will be announced on 10 May on the opening night of the Auckland Writers Festival.

The winner of the fiction award receives NZ$50,000 (A$45,354) and the winners of the general nonfiction, illustrated nonfiction, poetry and Māori Language awards each receive NZ$10,000 (A$9070). No longlist has been released for the Māori Language award. Books by debut authors are also eligible to win the Best First Book Award in each category, worth $NZ2500 (A$2267) each.

The New Zealand Book Awards have undergone significant changes since they were last presented in August 2014. Following the withdrawal of former sponsor New Zealand Post Group, a new charitable trust comprising members from the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ), the New Zealand Society of Authors and Booksellers New Zealand took over administration of the awards in October 2014.

In July 2015 the trust announced a new structure for the awards, including an annual NZ$50,000 prize for fiction provided by the Acorn Foundation, as well as the introduction of specialist judging panels in each category. In August it announced that Auckland-based property developer Ockham Residential had taken over sponsorship of the awards.

For more information about the New Zealand Book Awards, click here.

 

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