Ockham 2024 longlists announced

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

The longlisted titles in each category are:

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

• Audition (Pip Adam, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Backwaters (Emma Ling Sidnam, Text)
• A Better Place (Stephen Daisley, Text)
• Bird Life (Anna Smaill, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Birnam Wood (Eleanor Catton, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Lioness (Emily Perkins, Bloomsbury)
• Pet (Catherine Chidgey, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Ruin and Other Stories (Emma Hislop [Kāi Tahu], Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Signs of Life (Amy Head, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Turncoat (Tīhema Baker [Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira], Lawrence & Gibson)

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

• The Artist (Ruby Solly [Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe], Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• At the Point of Seeing (Megan Kitching, Otago University Press)
• Big Fat Brown Bitch (Tusiata Avia, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Biter (Claudia Jardine, Auckland University Press)
• Calamities! (Jane Arthur, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Chinese Fish (Grace Yee, Giramondo)
• Root Leaf Flower Fruit (Bill Nelson, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• Say I Do This: Poems 2018–2022 (C K Stead, Auckland University Press)
• Talia (Isla Huia [Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku], Dead Bird Books)
• When I Reach for Your Pulse (Rushi Vyas, Otago University Press)

Award for Illustrated Nonfiction (NZ$12,000)

• Don Binney: Flight path (Gregory O’Brien, Auckland University Press)
• Flora: Celebrating our botanical world (ed by Carlos Lehnebach, Claire Regnault, Rebecca Rice, Isaac Te Awa [Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Ngā Puhi] & Rachel Yates, Te Papa 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)
• Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori clay artists (Baye Riddell [Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare], Te Papa Press)
• Our Land in Colour: A history of Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960 (Brendan Graham with Jock Phillips, HarperCollins NZ)
• Pacific Arts Aotearoa (ed by Lana Lopesi, Penguin)
• Rugby League in New Zealand: A people’s history (Ryan Bodman, Bridget Williams Books)
• Sure to Rise: The Edmonds story (Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson & Richard Wolfe, Canterbury University Press)
• Through Shaded Glass: Women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860–1960 (Lissa Mitchell, Te Papa Press)

General Nonfiction Award (NZ$12,000)

• Blood and Dirt: Prison labour and the making of New Zealand (Jared Davidson, Bridget Williams Books)
• Commune: Chasing a utopian dream in Aotearoa (Olive Jones, Potton & Burton)
• The Drinking Game (Guyon Espiner, A&U)
• The Financial Colonisation of Aotearoa (Catherine Comyn [Ngāti Ranginui], Economic and Social Research Aotearoa)
• The Forgotten Prophet: Tāmati Te Ito and his Kaingārara movement (Jeffrey Sissons, Bridget Williams Books)
• End Times (Rebecca Priestley, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
• 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)
• Ora: Healing Ourselves – Indigenous Knowledge, healing and wellbeing (ed by Leonie Pihama [Te Ātiawa, Ngā Māhanga ā Tairi, Waikato] & Linda Tuhiwai Smith [Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou, Tūhourangi], Huia Publishers)
• Snorkelling the Abyss: One woman, striving to survive, fighting for survivors (Jan Jordan, The Cuba Press)
• Soundings: Diving for stories in the beckoning sea (Kennedy Warne, Massey University Press)
• Takahē: Bird of dreams (Alison Ballance, Potton & Burton)
• There’s a Cure for This: A memoir (Emma Espiner [Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou], Penguin).

The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlist of 16 titles (four books in each category) will be announced on 6 March. The winners, including the four Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards recipients, will be announced on 15 May, during the 2024 Auckland Writers Festival.

Category: Awards Local news