Wow! I am so chuffed Wild Honey is on this list! I am still reeling Elizabeth Knox’s The Absolute Book is not on the fiction list because that book just blew my socks off it is so astonishing. After a bite of sleep I am a weird mix of sad glad reader writer. But crikey I am feeling very moved. And very soon I will do a happy dance (and it rained last night so our water tank will join in).

Full Ockham NZ Book Award list here

I am posting a feature on the Poetry shortlist this morning.

THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION

Auē, by Becky Manawatu (Mākaro Press)

Pearly Gates, by Owen Marshall (Vintage, Penguin Random House)

A Mistake, by Carl Shuker (Victoria University Press)

Halibut on the Moon, by David Vann (Text Publishing)

 

ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION

Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of Making in New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania, edited by Karl Chitham, Kolokesa U Māhina-Tuai, Damian Skinner (Te Papa Press)

Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of Resistance, Persistence and Defiance, edited by Stephanie Gibson, Matariki Williams, Puawai Cairns (Te Papa Press)

We Are Here: An Atlas of Aotearoa, by Chris McDowall and Tim Denee (Massey University Press)

McCahon Country, by Justin Paton (Penguin Random House)

 

GENERAL NON-FICTION

Dead People I Have Known, by Shayne Carter (Victoria University Press)

Shirley Smith: An Examined Life, by Sarah Gaitanos (Victoria University Press)

Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, by Paula Green (Massey University Press)

Towards the Mountain: A Story of Grief and Hope Forty Years on from Erebus, by Sarah Myles (Allen & Unwin)

 

THE MARY AND PETER BIGGS AWARD FOR POETRY

Moth Hour, by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press)

How to Live, by Helen Rickerby (Auckland University Press)

Lay Studies, by Steven Toussaint (Victoria University Press)

How I Get Ready, by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press)