Doig wins NZ$25,000 CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award

Tom Doig has been awarded the 2023 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) Writers’ Award, worth NZ$25,000

Doig was awarded for a project with the working title ‘We Are All Preppers Now: Kiwis making plans for the end of the world’.

Wellington-born Doig, who is based in Australia, is the author of Hazelwood (Viking) and was commissioning editor for Living with The Climate Crisis: Voices from Aotearoa (Bridget Williams Books). He said it was the third time he had applied for the award. ‘I’ve been researching and writing about prepper subcultures in Aotearoa New Zealand since late 2019—nearly four years now. I find the subject endlessly fascinating: every person I speak to or hang out with teaches me something new, or leaves me with a fiendishly difficult question to ponder. Preppers aren’t “crazies”, and prepping isn’t a joke; it’s a sincere, complicated response to taking an unflinching look at the threats to society, whenua and taiao in our collective future.’

The CLNZ / NZSA Writers’ Award is presented annually and is open to writers of any genre of nonfiction, including writers of education material. The judges of this year’s award were Vanda Symon (convenor), Nic Low, and Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod.

Symon said Doig’s proposal was ‘a very timely and topical project in a world affected by a pandemic and climate change. It provides a balanced range of views and motivations from a Māori perspective to sustainability, to climate activism, to everyday people concerned about supply of essentials during a crisis. This is a book all New Zealanders could benefit from.’

Kirkby-McLeod said Doig had ‘shown a commitment to writing about climate issues and an ability to deliver books’.

‘His publisher is based in Australia, and we hope this award will encourage the publisher to have a proactive Aotearoa book promotion campaign. I personally hope that through books like this one, those who are able to make decisions for our world will take the actions needed to provide a future which is better than the one preppers envisage’.

The judging panel also highlighted Peta Carey’s project ‘The Hollows Brothers’, and Chris Bourke’s project ‘Friends and foes, life, death and forgiveness on the Burma-Thailand Railway‘, which were both shortlisted for the award.

Category: Awards Local news