Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2019 longlists announced

The longlists for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced.

The longlisted titles in each category are:

Fiction

• The Man Who Would Not See (Rajorshi Chakraborti, Penguin)
• The Life of De’Ath (Majella Cullinane, Steele Roberts)
• The New Ships (Kate Duignan, Victoria University Press)
• Mazarine (Charlotte Grimshaw, Random House NZ Vintage)
• Caroline’s Bikini (Kirsty Gunn, Faber)
• The Cage (Lloyd Jones, Text)
• The Ice Shelf (Anne Kennedy, Victoria University Press)
• This Mortal Boy (Fiona Kidman, Random House NZ Vintage)
• The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke (Tina Makereti, Random House NZ Vintage)
• All This by Chance (Vincent O’Sullivan, Victoria University Press)

General nonfiction

• Filming the Colonial Past: The New Zealand Wars on Screen (Annabel Cooper, Otago University Press)
• Song for Rosaleen (Pip Desmond, Massey University Press)
• Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love (Joanne Drayton, Otago University Press)
• Memory Pieces (Maurice Gee, Victoria University Press)
• The Heart of Jesús Valentino: A Mother’s Story (Emma Gilkison, Awa Press)
• We Can Make a Life (Chessie Henry, Victoria University Press)
• Swim: A Year of Swimming Outdoors in New Zealand (Annette Lees, Potton & Burton)
• The Vulgar Wasp: The Story of a Ruthless Invader and Ingenious Predator (Phil Lester, Victoria University Press)
• With Them Through Hell: New Zealand Medical Services in the First World War (Anna Rogers, Massey University Press)
• Dear Oliver: Uncovering a Pākehā History (Peter Wells, Massey University Press)

Illustrated nonfiction

• Fight for the Forests: The Pivotal Campaigns that Saved New Zealand’s Native Forests (Paul Bensemann, Potton & Burton)
• Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Māori World, 1880-1910 (Roger Blackley, Auckland University Press)
• The New Zealand Horse (Deborah Coddington, photographs by Jane Ussher, Massey University Press)
• Wanted: The Search for the Modernist Murals of E Mervyn Taylor (ed by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Massey University Press)
• Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing (Sean Mallon with Sébastien Galliot, Te Papa Press)
• Mataatua Wharenui: Te Whare i Hoki Mai (Hirini Mead, Layne Harvey, Pouroto Ngaropo & Te Onehou Phillis, Huia Publishers)
• Birdstories: A History of the Birds of New Zealand (Geoff Norman, Potton & Burton)
• Whatever it Takes: Pacific Films and John O’Shea 1948-2000 (John Reid, Victoria University Press)
• Down the Bay: A natural and cultural history of Abel Tasman National Park (Philip Simpson, Potton & Burton)
• Hillary’s Antarctica: Adventure, Exploration and Establishing Scott Base (Nigel Watson, photographs by Jane Ussher, A&U NZ)

Poetry

• Edgeland and other Poems (David Eggleton, Otago University Press)
• The Farewell Tourist (Alison Glenny, Otago University Press)
• Are Friends Electric? (Helen Heath, Victoria University Press)
• All of Us (Adrienne Jansen & Carina Gallegos, Landing Press)
• There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime (Erik Kennedy, Victoria University Press)
• The Facts (Therese Lloyd, Victoria University Press)
• Winter Eyes (Harry Ricketts, Victoria University Press)
• Walking to Jutland Street (Michael Steven, Otago University Press)
• Poūkahangatus (Tayi Tibble, Victoria University Press)
• Aspiring Daybook: The Diary of Elsie Winslow (Annabel Wilson, Mākaro Press).

The winner of the fiction award receives NZ$53,000 (A$50,400).

The shortlists will be announced on 6 March and the winners—including the Best First Book Awards and a Māori Language Award, presented at the judges’ discretion—will be announced at a ceremony on 14 May, the first public event of the 2019 Auckland Writers Festival.

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

Category: Local news