Having been a Book Award judge, and having read around 160 books, I love this new idea (three judges per category). Bravo! To just read the poetry books, or the books in your field sounds pretty fine to me. Far more manageable. I agree that it means you can read deeper and slower. All in all, the way the awards are being reshaped is spot on.

Here is the press release:

2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards judges announced

The 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards will be judged by 12 eminent academics, writers, journalist, commentators, former publishers and booksellers from around New Zealand; a three-fold increase on the number of judges in previous years which reflects the Awards’ new judging structure.

Each of the Awards’ four categories – Fiction, Poetry, General Non-Fiction and Illustrated Non-Fiction – and the awards for Best First Book  in those categories, will be judged by a panel of three judges, all specialists in their fields. A Maori language adviser will judge the Maori Language Award.

The judges will announce their longlist finalists on November 25, 2015, and their shortlist on March 8, 2016.
New Zealand Book Awards Trust chairwoman, Nicola Legat, says the judges selected for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are second-to-none.

“Authors and publishers can expect to receive the rigour and respect from this year’s line-up that their books deserve. Rather than four judges reading 150 or more books, as has been the case previously, these specialists will read only the books in their category, allowing for a more detailed examination of the works,” she says.

The Fiction category, whose $50,000 prize is now known as The Acorn Foundation Literary Award, will be judged by distinguished writer Owen Marshall CNZM; Wellington bookseller and reviewer Tilly Lloyd, and former Director of the Auckland Writers Festival and Creative New Zealand senior literature adviser Jill Rawnsley.

The Poetry Prize will be judged by former Auckland University Press publisher Elizabeth Caffin MNZM; James K Baxter expert Dr Paul Millar, of the University of Canterbury, and poet and University of Auckland academic Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh.

The General Non-Fiction Prize will be judged by Metro Editor-At-Large Simon Wilson; Professor Lydia Wevers, literary historian, critic and director of the Stout Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington, and Dr Jarrod Gilbert, a former Book Awards winner for Patched: A History of Gangs in New Zealand, of the University of Canterbury.

The Illustrated Non-Fiction Prize will be judged by former publisher Jane Connor, publisher of the magisterial The Trees of New Zealand, which won the Book of the Year award in 2012; Associate Professor Linda Tyler, Director of the Centre for Art Studies at The University of Auckland, and Leonie Hayden, the editor of Mana magazine.

“It’s always an honour to be invited to judge these prestigious and important awards but also a major commitment of time.” says Ms Legat. “So we are enormously grateful that these very busy and skilled people are happy to demonstrate their support for the awards by diving in to months of reading and debate. We very much look forward to their final longlist, shortlist and winner selections.”

The winners will be announced on May 10, 2016, at an event at the Auckland Writers Festival.

Entries to the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards can be made via http://booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-book-awards/submissions . Books published between June 1, 2014 and December 21, 2015 are eligible for entry.

The New Zealand Book Awards is enormously grateful to the generosity of its partners: Ockham Residential, The Acorn Foundation and enduring funder Creative New Zealand.

ENDS

For interview opportunities and further information please contact: Penny Hartill, director, hPR 09 445 7525, 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz

Attached: one of the 12, 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards judges – Owen Marshall CNZM. Mr Marshall is one of the three fiction category judges.

Editor’s Notes:
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for works written by New Zealanders. After a one year hiatus, the awards will return in 2016 thanks to sponsorship from Auckland property development company, Ockham Residential. The partnership, along with news of the awards’ new structure was announced last month. In July this year, the awards received a $50,000 windfall, earmarked for the top fiction work, from Tauranga community organisation, The Acorn Foundation, on behalf of one of its donors.

First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Post Book Awards. The honours, now given for Fiction, Illustrated Non-fiction, General Non-Fiction and Poetry, as well as for Best First Book and Māori language, are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust (a registered charity).  Members of the Trust are Nicola Legat, Karen Ferns, Paula Morris, Kyle Mewburn, Stella Chrysostomou, David Bowles and Julia Marshall. Creative New Zealand is a significant annual funder of the awards.

The Trust also administers the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and National Poetry Day.

Penny Hartill
Director
P: 09 445 7525
M: 021 721 424
T: @pennyhartill
W: http://www.hartillpr.co.nz