Chidgey wins NZ$50,000 fiction prize at New Zealand Book Awards

The winners of the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Auckland Writers Festival on 16 May.

Catherine Chidgey won the NZ$50,000 (A$46,380) fiction prize for her novel The Wish Child (Victoria University Press). Chidgey’s fourth novel, published 13 years after her last work, was praised by the judges as ‘compelling and memorable’.

Other category winners include Paris-based poet Andrew Johnston, who won the poetry prize for his collection Fits & Starts (Victoria University Press); Ashleigh Young, who won the general nonfiction prize for her collection of personal essays Can You Tolerate This? (Victoria University Press); and Barbara Brookes, who won the illustrated nonfiction prize for A History of New Zealand Women (Bridget Williams Books). Each author receives NZ$10,000 (A$9280).

In the best first book categories, Gina Cole won the fiction prize for Black Ice Matter (Huia Publishers); Hera Lindsay Bird won the poetry prize for Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press); Adam Dudding received the general nonfiction prize for My Father’s Island: A Memoir (Victoria University Press); and Ngarino Ellis picked up the illustrated nonfiction prize for A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830-1930 (Auckland University Press). Each of the first book award winners receive NZ$2500 (A$2320).

The winners were chosen from shortlists announced in March.

For more information about the awards, click here.

Category: Awards Local news