New Zealand Post Book Awards
Formed in 1996, this single set of national awards is the latest manifestation of the Montana, previously Goodman Fielder WattieBook Awards and now in 2010 the New Zealand Book Awards. Morph, morph morph
The principal sponsors of the New Zealand Post Book Awards are the New Zealand Post Group and Creative New Zealand. The awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.
The overall winner of the Book of the Year Award receives NZ$15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive NZ$10,000, the Māori Language Award $10,000, Readers' Choice Award NZ$5000, and each of the winners of the three NZSA Best First Book Awards, NZ$2500.
2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards Winners & Finalists
2010 Book of the Year Winner: Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books
NZ Post Book Awards judge, Paul Diamond, described the winning work as one that will profoundly change our understanding of our shared history.
‘Encircled Lands is an exhaustive, comprehensive history of Te Rohe Pōtae o Te Urewera, the only autonomous tribal district that was recognised in law. Not only does it fulfil the author’s hopes of revealing an almost unknown history to a new audience, it also deftly illustrates why the history of the Urewera and its people continues to resonate.’
Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown. Go Fish won the People's Choice Award.
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NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction Award
Winner : As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong, Penguin Books - This title is winner of the Janet Frame Fiction Award 2009. It is the early 1900s and brothers Yung and Shun, immigrants from China, eke out a living as greengrocers in Wellington. The pair must support their families back home, but know they must adapt if they are to prosper in their adopted home. Meanwhile, Katherine McKechnie struggles to raise her rebellious son and her daughter following the death of her husband, Donald. One day, more
Other Shortlisted
Limestone by Fiona Farrell, Vintage, Random House NZ -Clare Lacey is on a quest. In Ireland to attend an Art History conference, she sets out to find her father who walked out one day to buy a pack of cigarettes when she was a child, and disappeared. She is urged on her way by chance encounters: with a woman in a high tower, a blind man at a crossroads, a couple of rotund earthlings, a singer whose song she does not understand...Clues lie all around on a labyrinth of walls - but the final clue lies deep within more
Living as a Moon by Owen Marshall, Vintage, Random House NZ - Being a celebrity impersonator, says the Aussie Elton John, is like living your life as a moon. 'We give up identity and become just a reflection of another personality, like the moon having no fire of its own and be just a pale reflection of the sun when it's not there.' This new collection of stories from master short fiction writer Owen Marshall is rich in people exploring their identities and how they are affected by others. There's Patrick, whose life is radically alerted by a random encounter with a killer; widowed Margaret, who faces a new kind of existence alone; more
Poetry
Winner Just This by Brian Turner,Victoria University Press -One of New Zealand's finest poets and prose writers, Brian Turner was the Te Mata Poet Laureate in 2005. He is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and a very fine memoir. He lives in Oturehua, in central Otago's Maniototo district. More
Other Shortlisted
The Lustre Jug by Bernadette Hall, Victoria University Press - Bernadette Hall is a poet and a playwright and the author of Heartwood, Of Elephants, The Persistent Levitator, and Still Talking. Her play Glad and the Angels won the Aoraki Festival playwriting award. She was the 1996 Burns Fellow at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; the 2006 Victoria University Writer in Residence; and held the 2007 Rathcoola Residency in Donoughmore, Ireland. She is a founding staff member of the Hagley Writers' Institute in Christchurch. More
The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap by Michael Harlow, Auckland University Press - Poetry, Michael Harlow writes, is when words sing. In The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap, his remarkable new collection, words do sing; they also shout and whisper, riddle and recur, express and evade. Though these poems are often allegorical and philosophical, the real underlies the imagined (while the imagination invents the real), so we meet a stranger in the Oyster Bar at the Grand Central', we travel to Athens and Mexico and Troy, we hear from Sappho, Marco Polo, Cavafy and Emily Dickinson. And at the centre of the collection is a tram conductor, 'inside a story that dreams / him'. More
General Non-Fiction
Winner: Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books
Other Shortlisted
Aphrodite's Island by Anne Salmond, Viking, Penguin Group (NZ) - Aphrodite's Island is a bold new account of the European discovery of Tahiti, the Pacific island of mythic status in Western imaginings about sexuality, the exotic, and the nobility or bestiality of 'savages'. In this groundbreaking book, Anne Salmond takes readers to the centre of these societies' shared history to furnish rich insights into Tahitian perceptions of the visitors while illuminating the full extent of European fascination with Tahiti. As she discerns the impact and meaning of the European effect on the island, she demonstrates how, during the earl more
Beyond the Battlefield: New Zealand and its Allies, 1939-1945 by Gerald Hensley, Viking, Penguin Group (NZ) -Beyond the Battlefield by Gerald Hensley is the dramatic unknown story of New Zealand's involvement in World War II told for the first time here in an accessible, popular and enjoyable read. Savage, Nash, Fraser, Freyberg, Churchill, Roosevelt, Menzies, all great names from New Zealand and world history during the Second World War more
Cone Ten Down: Studio pottery in New Zealand, 1945-1980 by Moyra Elliott and Damian Skinner, David Bateman - In the 1960s and 70s not only did potters flourish around the country but it seems that everyone's mum was producing mugs and bowls at night class. This phenomenon was part of a particualr philosophy of pottery - local materials and natural-looking forms, glazes and designs. All those small brown pots are now highly collectible and sought-after in op shops, second hand stores and, increasingly, at auction. Why did this style of pottery reach such heights in New Zealand? More
The Invention of New Zealand Art and National Identity, 1930-1970 by Francis Pound, Auckland University Press - The Invention of New Zealand is an important study of nationalism in twentieth-century New Zealand art. From the 1930s onwards, artists, writers and critics such as Toss Woollaston, Allen Curnow, Colin McCahon, Rita Angus, A R D Fairburn, Doris Lusk and Monte Holcroft deployed art, literature and theory in the construction of a national identity, the search for the essence of New Zealand and the invention of a specifically New Zealand high culture. Francis Pound ponders, decodes, memorialises and celebrates this project from its starting moment when painters and poets became newly self-conscious about New Zealand art. He argues that in the early 1970s more
Illustrated Non-Fiction
Winner: Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown, Random House NZ - Al Brown can becounted on to find and share great New Zealand cuisine. In Go Fish Al combines his two great passions - cookingand fishing - and brings us more than 100 exceptional fish and shellfish recipes. Covering crustaceans, shellfish and fin fish of many varieties, Go Fish is the ultimate guide to sourcing and cooking fish. Showing passion and respect for our cuisine and delivering it with uncomplicated excellence, Al's recipes are all about simplicity, yet sophistication, character and sometimes an element of surprise. Stunningly photographed by Kieran Scott more
Art at Te Papa edited by William McAloon, Te Papa Press - Art at Te Papa reveals and illuminates New Zealand's vastnational art collection. Reproductions of more than 400 individual artworks, personally selected by curators, are accompanied by brief essays giving expert and engaging commentary on each work. This book spans the entire collection, from the cream of its early European prints holdings to its most exciting contemporary acquisitions. Here are international artworks by Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrechet Durer, Marcel Duchamp, Barbara Hepworth, Natalie Gontchorova and Robert Mapplethorpe, alongside masterpieces from some of New Zealand's most significant and best-loved artists more
Māori Architecture: From fale to wharenui and beyond by Deidre Brown, Raupo, Penguin Group (NZ) - A landmarkachievement in New Zealand history, Maori Architecture charts, for the first time, the genesis and form of indigenous buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores the vast array of Maori-designed structures and spaces - how they evolved over time, and how they tell the story of an ever-changing people. Throughout this captivating story, the book looks at facets of early Polynesian settlement, the influence of Christian and western technology, the buildings of religio-political movements such as Ringatu, more
Marti Friedlander by Leonard Bell, Auckland University Press - From Maori moko to Dame Whina Cooper (Te Rarawa) and the 1975 Maori land march, from Rita Angus to Norman Kirk, from Israel to Fiji, Marti Friedlander's photographs have captured the transformation of our lives over the last 50 years. But Friedlander has not simply recorded the places, events, and personalities of recent history. She has brought to her subjects a distinctive eye. Arriving in New Zealand as a Jewish immigrant from England in 1958, Marti Friedlander has always viewed life through the lens of an outsider. Whether photographing artists and writers or protests and street scenes, more
Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation by Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling, Auckland University Press - The story of twentieth-century art is dominated by a major shift from representation to abstraction, from Cezanne's paintings of hills and houses to Pollock's pictures of nothing. Yet in New Zealand we know a lot about Rita Angus and Colin McCahon but little about the post-representational art that now dominates the art world. This book is the first account of the work of New Zealand's leading abstract painter, Milan Mrkusich. Trained as an architect and working for the innovative design firm Brenner Associates in the 1940s, Mrkusich quickly established a new mode of painterly abstraction. More
2009 Finalists and Winners | 2008 Winners | 2008 Shortlist | Past Winners 1996 - 2007 |
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi (Longacre Press)
Frankie Parsons is twelve going on old man, an apparently sensible, talented boy with a drumbeat ofworrying questions steadily gaining volume in his head: Are the smoke alarm batteries flat? Does the cat,and therefore the rest of the family, have worms? Will bird flu strike and ruin life as we know it? Is the Kidney-shaped spot on his chest actually a galloping cancer? Only Ma takes seriously his catalogue of persistent queries. But it is Ma who is the cause of the most worrying question of all, the one that Frankie can never bring himself to ask. Then the new girl arrives at school and has questions of her own: relentless, unavoidable questions. So begins the unravelling of Frankie Parsons's carefully controlled world. More
Winner: Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins (Allen & Unwin).
A chilling gothic tale about a gorgeous young wife's descent into madness, from a rising literary star.
When Tom moves with his wife, Ann, from their tiny Camden flat into a large house in Hackney, he feels as if it's the start of the rest of their life together. Deeply in love, and with a baby on the way, Tom thinks everything is finally coming together. He and Ann anticipate the arrival of the baby, as Ann, particularly galvanized, spends hours cleaning and reorganizing the house, and sitting up all night talking with a renewed passion about life, love, and art. But there is a darker side to this new fervor, somehow linked with her conviction that someone is lingering threateningly around their new home. Someone who--Tom soon realizes--may not exist at all. More
Runner-up
The 10pm Question by Kate de Goldi (Longacre Press)
Frankie Parsons is twelve going on old man, an apparently sensible, talented boy with a drumbeat ofworrying questions steadily gaining volume in his head: Are the smoke alarm batteries flat? Does the cat,and therefore the rest of the family, have worms? Will bird flu strike and ruin life as we know it? Is the Kidney-shaped spot on his chest actually a galloping cancer? Only Ma takes seriously his catalogue of persistent queries. But it is Ma who is the cause of the most worrying question of all, the one that Frankie can never bring himself to ask. Then the new girl arrives at school and has questions of her own: relentless, unavoidable questions. So begins the unravelling of Frankie Parsons's carefully controlled world. More
Runner-up
Acid Song by Bernard Beckett(Longacre Press).
It's election day in contemporary New Zealand. A young father confronts a teenage burglar. A psychologist's political stand threatens to see him driven from the university community. A staffroom argument flares up - does a play-ground fight warrant a student's expulsion? A young girl sets about mending her broken heart, a skinhead riot erupts and Richard, the biology lecturer at the heart of this simmering forty-eight hours, must deal with the secret which compels them all, unknowingly, to the same conclusion.
In Acid Song, an absorbing and darting novel, a varied cast of characters is linked by chance and circumstance. With a powerful, addictive intensity Bernard Beckett composes a corrosive song of our times. More
The Crocus Hour by Charlotte Randall (Penguin Group New Zealand).
The first half of this new novel is set in Crete in 1981. The narrator is a young man who has come to a small, religious village for a holiday. In the main village cafe, he meets a New Zealand man, Henry Davis, who befriends him. Henry Davis soon reveals that his daughter Sally had gone missing in the village in 1979. Over a period of weeks, Henry slowly builds up a picture of his daughter and her friend Jane and explores the baffling circumstances of Sally's disappearance. He escorts the narrator to various parts of the island, More
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Victoria University Press).
A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power.The sudden and total publicity seems to turn every act into a performance, and every platform into a stage. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve. More
Winner: The Rocky Shore by Jenny Bornholdt (Victoria University Press).
The six long poems which make up The Rocky Shore were written over the course of six years. Together, theyare as much autobiographical essay as long poem, and Jenny Bornholdt's most significant achievement to date.
Jenny Bornholdt is a poet and anthologist. Born in Lower Hutt in 1960, she holds a BA in English Literature and a Diploma in Journalism. She attended Bill Manhire’s original composition course at Victoria University of Wellington in 1984.
She is the author of a number of collections of poetry including Summer (April 2003) and These Days (2000) and Miss New Zealand: Selected Poems which was published in 1997 and this contains work from her four earliest collections of poetry This Big Face (1988), Moving House (1989), Waiting Shelter (1991) and How We Met (1995). She was Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate 2005–2007.
Get Some by Sonja Yelich (Auckland University Press).
The Lakes of Mars by Chris Orsman (Auckland University Press).
The Lakes of Mars is a stunning new collection of poems by Chris Orsman that follow on from his most recent book, South: An Antarctic Journey, a sequence about Captain Scott's final expedition to Antarctica. These new poems are a characteristic mix of thoughtful reflection and precise imagery of landscape and object. Chris Orsman captures 'the plainness of life' with a visual clarity, but always pushes his descriptions further, broadening the poems 'into intellectual and moral meaning'. He is also particularly good at vividly recreating historical moments, while evoking the gifts and loss of the past. The first part of The Lakes of Mars encompasses the Wellington hills; a wonderful long poem of the camera and its nostalgia, read more
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
Winner : Rita Angus: An Artist's Life by Jill Trevelyan (Te Papa Press).
Rita Angus was a pioneer of modern painting during the 1930s and 1940s who went on to become one of New Zealanda??s leading 20th century artists. Today, more than 100 years after her birth, works such as Rutu (1951) Central Otago (1940) and Portrait of Betty Curnow (1941-1942) have become national icons, while Angus is perhaps New Zealand's best-loved painter. Yet the story of her life remains little known and poorly understood, and until now little has been written about it. In this revelatory and subtle book, Jill Trevelyan traces Angus's entire life, from her childhood in Napier and Palmerston North to her death in Wellington in 1970. Drawing on a wealth of newly available archives and letters, she brings to life Rita Angus the person: highly articulate and full of zest, intellectually curious and forthright in her attitudes and emotions, powerfully committed to her pacifist and feminist beliefs and dedicated, above all, to life as an artist. Rita Angus: An Artist's Life is generously illustrated with more than 150 artworks and private photographs to bring Angus - her private struggles and public reputation and her greatest legacy, her art - to complex, colourful life. More
The Love School: Personal Essays by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press).
The Love School collects more than twenty years of Elizabeth Knox’s non-fiction. These frank and revealingessays and talks tell the story of her writing’s beginnings, while later pieces give insights into the life of an author, and touch on the imaginative roots of Knox’s novels. More
Heaphy by Iain Sharp (Auckland University Press).
Born in England c1820, Englishman Charles Heaphy - the first 'New Zealander' to win the Victoria Cross, the first European to explore the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island and the most distinguished 19th-century landscape painter in that country is, by any measure, a central figure in colonial history. In this engaging book, lavishly illustrated with Heaphy's paintings, drawings and maps, author Iain Sharp reveals the story of Heaphy's life and art.From his earliest surviving watercolour of birdlife in the Marlborough Sounds in August 1839 to his last known sketch on the back of an envelope, showing Maori witnesses at a Native Land Court hearing in December 1879, Charles Heaphy's paintings and drawings represent a remarkable visual diary of settler life read more
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
Winner
A Continent on the Move: New Zealand Geoscience into the 21st Century edited by Ian Graham (Geological Society of New Zealand).
Adrift in the South Pacific Ocean, separated from the rest of the world by vast distances and blessed with some of the most varied and spectacular natural landscapes on Earth, New Zealand is rather special. Generations of geoscientists have developed an increasing understanding of what makes New Zealand geologically unique and why. Highlights of this research, including many discoveries of global significance, are presented in this book. A Continent on the Move explains what makes New Zealand tick geologically, and illustrates the ways that geoscience research can make this country a better place in which to live. This book will be a stimulating addition to any read more
Into the Wider World: A Back Country Miscellany by Brian Turner (Random House New Zealand).
Brian Turner is one of this country's best-known and best-loved poets and also one of its most determined conservationists. In this beautifully illustrated anthology he brings together both old and new essays, columns, articles and poetry that concentrate on the wild places and outdoor pursuits he loves and of which he is such an unabashed, articulate and passionate champion. More
Albatross: Their World, Their Ways by Tui De Roy and Mark Jones (David Bateman).
The albatross is a creature of legend, poetry and dreams. But today, over three-quarters of albatross species are edging towards extinction. This book is a celebration of these amazing birds, featuring photographs by award-winning wildlife photographer Tui De Roy, the latest research by leading international experts and a factual natural history. More
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
Winner
Buying the Land, Selling the Land by Richard Boast (Victoria University Press).
This is a study of Crown Maori land policy and practice in the period 1865–1929. The story the book tells is in many ways a bleak and grim one of a tsunami of Crown purchasing crashing over a people who were in very difficult circumstances. Yet Buying the Land, Selling the Land is something of a reaction to the ‘the-Crown-has-been-very-naughty’ school of New Zealand history. Alienation of land by sale requires two parties, a buyer and a seller. This book is about both. More
First Catch Your Weka: A Story of New Zealand Cooking by David Veart (Auckland University Press).
'First catch your Weka', the explorer Charles Heaphy advised in 1842, then stuff it with sage andonion and roast it on a stick. In that simple way began a great tradition of New Zealand cooking, from Heaphy to the Edmonds Cookery Book, Alison Holst, Hudson and Halls, and the meal on your plate today. In this book, David Veart tells the story of what New Zealanders cooked through the recipes we used. Analysing the crusty deposits and grubby thumb prints on a century and a half of cook books, Veart chronicles the extraordinary foods that we have loved: from boiled calf's head to the Bill Rowling cake, Irish famine soup to tinned kidneys with mushrooms. First Catch your Weka illuminates the basic elements that make New Zealand cooking distinctive and reveals how our cuisine and our culture have changed. Throughout that history, Veart finds a people who frequently first liked to catch their weka - building a meal out of oysters taken from the rocks, vegetables from the garden and a lamb from the neighbouring farm. By telling the history of what we ate, First Catch your Weka tells us a great deal about who we have been. More
Mates & Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand by Chris Brickell (Random House New Zealand).
What are the historical changes through which the modern gay New Zealander has emerged? If he has not always been with us, then who preceded him? A landmark publication, this first-ever New Zealand gay male history combines lively and engaging scholarship with a remarkable collection of images. Chris Brickell tells the evolving story of New Zealand gay men through the lives of clerks, labourers, shop assistants, soldiers, actors and writers of all classes, and he shows that our erotic past was vibrant, complex and often surprising. With over 300 fascinating images, many never seen previously. More
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
Winner: Len Castle: Making the Molecules Dance by Len Castle (Lopdell House Gallery).
Len Castle’s potting career, which started in 1947, spans the emergence, flourishing and subsequent transformation of the craft movement of the 20th century. His work epitomises its vitality, its deeply indigenous origins and the sophistication of its craftsmanship and artistry. He has been described as a ‘national treasure’.
Peter Peryer: Photographer by Peter Simpson with photos by Peter Peryer (Auckland University Press).
Peter Peryer is one of New Zealand's leading contemporary photographers. Peryer is also an innovative photographer, constantly refining his photographic practice, notably with his embrace of digital photography from 1998 and increasing interest in colour. Peter Peryer: Photographer includes a section of eighty photographs, the largest body of Peryer's work yet assembled, personally selected by the photographer. A wide-ranging introduction to Peryer's work, by Peter Simpson, and an illustrated autobiographical essay by Peryer himself are also included. Interested in doubles, pattern and repetition, problems of scale, the surreal and the grotesque, Peryer's work most often focuses on the 'thingness' of his subjects and objects. MoreCertain Words Drawn by John Reynolds (Random House New Zealand).
John Reynolds is one of New Zealand's most significant and most admired contemporary artists. An Arts Laureate, his Cloud was last year a centrepiece of the Sydney Bienale, at which he was New Zealand's representative, a rare honour for a New Zealand painter. Certain Words Drawn brings together examples of his recent work and practice in a stunning book designed by Arch McDonnell of InHouse Design. Magnificently packaged, this book is a limited edition of 1500 copies only, each numbered and signed by the artist. Edited by University of Auckland professor Laurence Simmons, the book is generously laden with images and contains essays by interalia Frank Stark, Andrew Clifford, Tessa Laird, Nicholas Stevens, Dianne Bardsley, Ian Wedde Shirley and Roger Horrocks, and Leigh Davis
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
LIFESTYLE AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
Winner:
Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Baking by Alexa Johnston (Penguin Group New Zealand).
There is a good chance you can remember a time when the family cake tins were always full of biscuits, slices, fruit loaves and cakes baked by mothers, aunts and grandmothers. And, of course, home-made sponges, ginger loaves, lamingtons, custard squares were an integral part of all special occasions - whether it was a birthday, a christening, a wedding or a wake. In Ladies, A Plate, Alexa Johnston looks back to this gentler time and shares her favourite traditional New Zealand recipes. An avid collector of community cookbooks, Alexa also writes about the history of some New Zealand baking classics, showing how our favourite recipes evolved over time. This gorgeous book contains over ninety recipes and will be treasured by every kitchen enthusiast, whether in your twenties or your nineties. More
The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand's Culinary History by Helen Leach (Otago University Press).
dessert cake said to emulate the lightness of the famous ballerina, Anna Pavlova), the real story of the ballerina's
While Australians and New Zealanders have long debated which country invented the pavlova (a large meringue visit to the Antipodes and the emergence of three different pavlovas was neglected. The contributions of a gelatine manufacturer, a Dunedin spinster, and numerous other New Zealand housewives are all revealed in this fascinating contribution to food history. The book shows the evolution of the three pavlova types, that their recipes have never been set in stone, and that creative and innovative cooks have played the most important roles in transforming a fashionable afternoon tea cake into an iconic dessert. More
Art Icons of New Zealand: Lines in the Sand by Oliver Stead (David Bateman).
Certain images, art objects and art styles have embedded themselves in the consciousness of many New Zealanders. But why and how have they become part of our visual vocabulary? Oliver Stead has had the difficult task of not only selecting 40 of these iconic works but putting them into a context of New Zealand art history.
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
The Painted Garden in New Zealand Art by Christopher Johnstone (Random House New Zealand).
From James Busby on, European settlers made gardens from the moment they set foot on New Zealand soil, and of course Maori had extensive cultivations of kumara around their kainga. Many settler gardens were matters of survival - kitchen gardens on which families were reliant - but as individual circumstances allowed and prosperity spread, many gardens became increasingly ambitious and extensive. It is hardly surprising that artists were drawn to depicting them, as they have from the 1820s right through to the present day. This collection of 100 delightful works, selected by Christopher Johnstone, author of the highly successful LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS OF NEW ZEALAND: A JOURNEY FROM NORTH TO SOUTH, tells the story of our gardening history as it intersected with our cultural and artistic development. Beautifully packaged and carefully researched, it is a treasure trove of magnificent images, many of gardens now lost to the passage of time. More
The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Volume 5: 1922 edited by Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott (Oxford University Press).
The fifth and final volume of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield covers the almost thirteen months during which her attention at first was firmly set on a last chance medical cure, then finally on something very different - if death came to seem inevitable, how should one behave in the time that remained, so one could truly say one lived? Mansfield's biographers, like her friends, have wondered at the seemingly extraordinary decision to ditch conventional medicine, for the bizarre choice of Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau. These letters show the clarity of mind and will that led to that decision, the courage and distress in making it, and the gaiety even once it was made. She went against what her education, her husband, and most of her friends would regard as reasonable, as she opted to spend her last months with Russian emigres and a strange assortment of Gurdjieff disciples (which she was not). More
Collected Poems 1951-2006 by C.K. Stead (Auckland University Press).
This Collected Poems includes the work of fourteen volumes of poetry, from Stead's first collection, Whether the Will is Free, to The Black River of 2007. In addition, it reprints 22 early previously uncollected poems that date from 1951 to 1961. Annotated by the author, the Collected Poems illustrates more than fifty years of the range and ambition of Stead's verse, in which the world always looks 'hard / at the word and the / word at the world'. More
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
Māori Language Award
He Pātaka Kupu: te kai a te rangatira, Māori Language Commission, Raupo
NZ SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (NZSA)
BEST FIRST BOOK AWARDS WINNERS & FINALISTS
FICTION
Winner
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (Victoria University Press).
A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power.The sudden and total publicity seems to turn every act into a performance, and every platform into a stage. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve. More
The Year of the Shanghai Shark by Mo Zhi Hong (Penguin Group New Zealand).
Hai Long is a teenager living in the Chinese city of Dalian. It's the year of the SARS epidemic in China. This is a modern China that's eye-catchingly contemporary. Hai Long and his mates drink Coca-Cola and eat American fast food. They watch American NBA basketball on television and argue whether Michael Jordan is the greatest player ever. They go to English language lessons and hilariously mock Karl, their hopelessly naive Canadian teacher, who drinks too much beer and is just dying to get away to Thai beaches to hang
out with German babes. This is also the year in which Hai Long leaves school to learn the unlikely trade of his uncle. 'Uncle' has many books, but he's actually a highly successful professional pick-pocket who specialises in robbing dazed foreigners - Koreans and Japanese as well as Europeans - and makes special trips to Beijing for the purpose. More
Misconduct by Bridget van der Zijpp (Victoria University Press).
Misconduct is a moving novel about the possibility of reinvention, the sweet and sour taste of revenge, and a woman's search for friendship and love. Moreback to top
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Winner
Everything Talks by Sam Sampson (Auckland University Press).
"Everything Talks" is AUP's first collection of poetry by up-and-coming Auckland poet Sam Sampson. Organised in sections ('An Arena of Reflected Caches', 'Mirror Mirror', 'Orpheus at Whatipu', 'Frisson', 'The Dirty Monk', 'The Deep End'), "Everything Talks" has a resonant overall cohesiveness; the poems are original and contradictory: earthy, cryptic, exquisite in turn. Sampson has an ear for the lilting phrase, and his poems - 'attuned to the day's inflections' - have a gentle ebb and flow, which is often echoed visually by the way the poems are laid out upon the page. This tidal lyricism is never fragile or overly lavish and often a marvellous stanza is undercut - 'sounds are askew' - by a laconic expression or surprisingly forthright final image. More
The Propaganda Poster Girl by Amy Brown (Victoria University Press).
Insightful and intelligent, this compelling collection of poems touches on themes of memory, travel, and the unconscious. With images and scenes carrying the burden of disclosure, these pieces create a thoughtful and provocative narrative along with a palpable and engaging outside world. More
The World's Fastest Flower by Charlotte Simmonds (Victoria University Press).
Winner
Mates & Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand by Chris Brickell (Random House New Zealand).
What are the historical changes through which the modern gay New Zealander has emerged? If he has not always been with us, then who preceded him? A landmark publication, this first-ever New Zealand gay male history combines lively and engaging scholarship with a remarkable collection of images. Chris Brickell tells the evolving story of New Zealand gay men through the lives of clerks, labourers, shop assistants, soldiers, actors and writers of all classes, and he shows that our erotic past was vibrant, complex and often surprising. With over 300 fascinating images, many never seen previously. More
First Catch Your Weka: A Story of New Zealand Cooking by David Veart (Auckland University Press).
'First catch your Weka', the explorer Charles Heaphy advised in 1842, then stuff it with sage and onion and roast it on a stick. In that simple way began a great tradition of New Zealand cooking, from Heaphy to the Edmonds Cookery Book, Alison Holst, Hudson and Halls, and the meal on your plate today. In this book, David Veart tells the story of what New Zealanders cooked through the recipes we used. Analysing the crusty deposits and grubby thumb prints on a century and a half of cook books, Veart chronicles the extraordinary foods that we have loved: from boiled calf's head to the Bill Rowling cake, Irish famine soup to tinned kidneys with mushrooms. First Catch your Weka illuminates the basic elements that make New Zealand cooking distinctive and reveals how our cuisine and our culture have changed. Throughout that history, Veart finds a people who frequently first liked to catch their weka - building a meal out of oysters taken from the rocks, vegetables from the garden and a lamb from the neighbouring farm. By telling the history of what we ate, First Catch your Weka tells us a great deal about who we have been. More
Nga Tama Toa, The Price of Citizenship - C Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939-1945 by Monty Soutar (David Bateman).
The fascinating story of C Company, Maori Battalion told through personal recollections, eyewitness accounts, numerous anecdotes and fantastic photographs. At times heart-rending, at times heart-warming, this impressive book captures the special 'spirit' of the Maori Battalion - an amazing story that documents the stories of those who were actually there. More
Readers Choice | Fiction | Poetry | Biography | Environment | History | Illustrative | Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture | Reference and Anthology |Māori Language Award|NZSA First Book |NZSA Poetry | NZSA Nonfiction
2008 Montana Book Awards Winners
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Fiction and Montana medal for fiction or poetry: Opportunity Charlotte Grimshaw
Fiction runner up: Edwin and Matilda: An Unlikely Love Story, Laurence Fearnley
NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction and Readers choice award: The Blue, Mary McCallum
Environment and Montana Medal for Non-fiction: Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bittersweet Story Janet Hunt
History:Te Tau Ihu o te Waka: a History of Nelson and Marlborough: v. 2: Te Ara Hou - The New Society by Hilary and John Mitchell
Lifestyle and contemporary culture: Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Poetry: Cold Snack, Janet Charman, Auckland University Press
NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry: Incognito Jessica Le Bas
NZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non-fiction: The Great Sacred Forest of Tane: Te Wao Tapu Nui a TaneAlan Clarke
Reference and Anthology: A Nest of Singing Birds: One Hundred Years of the New Zealand School Journal by Gregory O'Brien
Illustrative: Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, Jennifer Hay, with Ron Brownson, Chris Knox and Laurence Aberhart; designed by Aaron Beehr, Christchurch Art Gallery
Biography: The Life and Times of James Walter Chapman-Taylor, Judy Siers (Millwood Heritage Productions Ltd)Maori Language: Te Tu a Toka: He Ieretanga no nga Tai e Wha edited by Piripi Walker and Huriana Raven
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Details about 2008 winning books and authors
2008 Montana Book Awards Shortlist
The finalists:
Fiction:
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Opportunity by Charlotte Grimshaw- WINNER
Edwin and Matilda: An Unlikely Love Story, Laurence Fearnley runner up:
The Blue, by Mary McCallum
Luminous by Alice Tawhai
Poetry:
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Cold Snack,,by Janet Charman - Winner
A Long Girl Agoby Johanna Aitchison
The Pop-up Book of Invasions by Fiona Farrell
Biography:
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The Life and Times of James Walter Chapman-Taylor by Judy Siers - Winner
The Best Man Who Ever Served the Crown?: A Life of Donald McLean by Ray Fargher
Waimarino County: & Other Excursionsby Martin Edmond
History:
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Te Tau Ihu o te Waka: a History of Nelson and Marlborough: v. 2: Te Ara Hou - The New Society by Hilary and John Mitchell - Winner
Age of Enterprise: Rediscovering the New Zealand Entrepreneur 1880-1910 by Ian Hunter
Devils on Horses: in the Words of the Anzacs in the Middle East 1916-19 by Terry Kinloch
Environment:
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Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bittersweet Story Jby Janet Hunt
Southern Alps by Alison Ballance
The Surface of the Sea: Encounters with New Zealand's Upper Ocean Life by Iain Anderson
Illustrative:
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Aberhartby Laurence Aberhart, with essays by Gregory O'Brien and Justin Paton
Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morningby Jennifer Hay, with Ron Brownson, Chris Knox and Laurence Aberhart; designed by Aaron Beehre
Comma Dot Dogmaedited by Aaron Kreisler
Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture:
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Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattooby Ngahuia Te Awekotuku - Winner
InForm: New Zealand Graffiti Artists Discuss Their Work by Elliot O'Donnell
Shot in New Zealand: The Art and Craft of the Kiwi Cinematographer by Duncan Petrie
Reference and Anthology:
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A Nest of Singing Birds: One Hundred Years of the New Zealand School Journal by Gregory O'Brien- Winner
Look This Way: New Zealand Writers on New Zealand Artists edited by Sally Blundell
The Transit of Venus edited by Mary Varnham
Montana Winners 1996 to 2007
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996
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2007
Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry Winner: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books)
Montana Medal for Non-Fiction Winner: Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand by Audrey Eagle (Te Papa Press)
Fiction Category Winner:Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books)
Fiction - Runners up: The Fainter by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press), The Cowboy Dog by Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press).
Poetry Category Winner: The Goose Bath Poems by Janet Frame (Vintage)
Readers Choice Award Winner:Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books)
Non-Fiction Category Winners:
History: Vaka Moana - Voyages of the Ancestors: The Discovery and Settlement of the Pacific edited by K.R.Howe (David Bateman Ltd)
Biography: Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music by Philip Norman (Canterbury University Press)
Environment: Ghosts of Gondwana: The History of Life in New Zealand by George Gibbs (Craig Potton Publishing)
Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture: Stitch: Textile Art in New Zealand by Ann Packer (Random House)
Reference and Anthology: Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History, 1830-1900 by William Cottrell (Reed Publishing)
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The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction went to The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King (Black Swan)
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry was won by Airini Beautrais for Secret Heart (Victoria University Press)
The New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction was presented to William Cottrell for Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History, 1830-1900 (Reed Publishing)
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Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry Winner: Blindsight by Maurice Gee (Penguin Books)
Fiction Category Winner: Blindsight by Maurice Gee (Penguin Books)
Fiction – Runners Up: The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman (Vintage), Responsibility by Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press)
Poetry Category Winner: Lifted by Bill Manhire (Victoria University Press)
Montana Medal for Non Fiction Winner: Pohutukawa and Rata: New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees by Philip Simpson (Te Papa Press)
Non Fiction Category Winners:
History: Thrift to Fantasy: Home Textile Crafts of the 1930s-1950sby Rosemary McLeod (HarperCollins Publishers)
Biography: Dingle by Graeme Dingle (Craig Potton Publishing)
Reference & Anthology: Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport Magazine 1988-2004edited by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press)
Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture: How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton (Awa Press)
Environment: Pohutukawa and Rata: New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees by Philip Simpson (Te Papa Press)
Illustrative: Contemporary New Zealand Photographers edited by Hannah Holm and Lara Strongman (Mountain View Publishing)
Readers’ Choice Award joint winners: Blindsight by Maurice Gee (Penguin Books); The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman (Vintage)
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The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction went to Gillian Ranstead for A Red Silk Sea (Penguin Books).
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry was won by Karlo Mila for her collection, Dream Fish Floating (Huia Publishers).
The New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction was presented to Patrick Snedden for Pakeha and the Treaty: Why it's Our Treaty Too (Random House New Zealand).
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2005
Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry Winner: Tu by Patricia Grace (Penguin Books)
Fiction Category Winner: Tu by Patricia Grace (Penguin Books)
Fiction – Runners Up: Mansfield by C K Stead (Vintage), Tarzan Presleyby Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press)
Poetry Category Winner: Nice morning for it, Adam by Vincent O’Sullivan (Victoria University Press)
Montana Medal for Non Fiction Winner: At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins (Godwit)
Non Fiction Category Winners:
History: At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins (Godwit)
Biography: Chronicle of the Unsung by Martin Edmond (Auckland University Press)
Reference & Anthology: The New Zealand Oxford Paperback Dictionaryedited by Tony Deverson & Graeme Kennedy (Oxford University Press)
Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture: Hip Hop Music in Aotearoaby Gareth Shute (Reed Publishing)
Environment: Tiritiri Matangi: A Model of Conservation by Anne Rimmer (Tandem Press)
Illustrative: Handboek: Ans Westra Photographs by Luit Bieringa and Lawrence McDonald (BWX (Blair Wakefield Exhibitions))
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Readers’ Choice Award: Made in Morocco: a Journey of Exotic Tastes and Places by Julie Le Clerc and John Bougen (Penguin Books)
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction went to Julian Novitz for his collection of short stories, My Real Life (and Other Stories) (Vintage).
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry was won by Sonja Yelich for her collection, Clung (Auckland University Press).
The New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction was presented to Douglas Wright for his memoir, Ghost Dance (Penguin Books).
The winner of the Best Review Page or Programme Award was North & South magazine.
The winner of the Reviewer of the Year Award was Tony Simpson.
2004
Deutz Medal for Fiction: Slow Water by Annamarie Jagose (Victoria University Press).
Montana Medal for Non Fiction: The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Allen Lane/Penguin Books).
Non Fiction Category Winners:
Poetry: Sing-Song by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press).
Biography: Mason: The Life of R A K Mason by Rachel Barrowman (Victoria University Press).
History: The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond.
Reference and anthology: Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English edited by Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (Auckland University Press).
Lifestyle and contemporary culture: Classic Fly Fishing in New Zealand Rivers written by John Kent, photography by David Hallett (Craig Potton Publishing).
Environment: Deep New Zealand: Blue Water, Black Abyss by Peter Batson (Canterbury University Press).
Illustrative: Central by Arno Gasteiger (Viking).
Readers' Choice Award: The Penguin History of New Zealand, Michael King (Penguin Books).
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction was presented to Kelly Ana Morey for Bloom (Penguin Books).
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry went to Cliff Fell for his collection The Adulterer's Bible (Victoria University Press).
The New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction was presented to Deidre Brown for her book Tai Tokerau Whakairo Rakau: Northland Maori Wood Carving (Reed Publishing Ltd).
The A W Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature was presented to Joy Cowley. Reviewer of the Year Award: Michael King.
The Review Page or Programme of the Year Award was presented to The New Zealand Listener.
2003
Deutz Medal for Fiction: Stephanie Johnson, The Shag Incident.
The Montana Medal for Non Fiction was won by Michael Cooper for The Wine Atlas of New Zealand.
The Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for poetry was presented to Kay McKenzie Cooke for her anthology, Feeding the Dogs.
Paula Morris was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for fiction with Queen of Beauty.
Glenn Colquhoun received the coveted Montana Readers' Choice Award for his collection of poetry, Playing God (Steele Roberts). After earlier winning the Montana poetry section, Colquhoun is the first poet to be awarded the Readers' Choice Award in a readers' vote.
Canterbury sculptor Sam Mahon was awarded the E H McCormick Best First Book Award for non- fiction for The Year of the Horse (Longacre Press), a personal account of the creation of a life-sized sculpture of a South Island musterer and his horse.
David Eggleton won the Reviewer of the Year Award, while The Listener received the award for the best book review pages.
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2002
Deutz Medal for Fiction: Craig Marriner for his debut novel Stonedogs (published by Vintage).
Montana Medal for Non Fiction: Lynley Hood for A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case (published by Longacre Press).
Poetry: Piggy-back Moon by Hone Tuwhare.
Biography: Long Loop Home by Peter Wells
Environment: Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare by Bob Harvey
Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture: The Art of Tivaevae: Traditional Cook Islands Quilting by Lynnsay Rongokea and John Dalley (photorapher)
Illustrative: Akekeia! Traditional Dance in Kiribati by Joan and Tony Whincup with Jula Parkinson (designer)
Reference and Anthology: Nga Pepeha a Nga Tipuna: The Sayings of the Ancestors by Hirini Moko Mead and Neil Grove.
An Honour Award was presented to the book Eruera Manuera by Te Onehou Phillis (Huia Publishers).
New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction: Stonedogs by Craig Marriner, published by Vintage.
New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry: Husk by Chris Price, published by Auckland University Press.
New Zealand Society of Authors E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction: Fool's Paradise by Steve Braunias, published by Random House.
Readers' Choice Award: A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Case by Lynley Hood (published by Longacre Press)
A W REED Lifetime Achievement Award The recipient of the A W Reed Lifetime Achievement Award 2002 is Maurice Shadbolt.
The Reviewer of the Year Award goes to Jane Hurley.
The Review Page of the Year Award has been won by North & South.
2001
Deutz Medal for Fiction:The Book of Fame, Lloyd Jones, Penguin.
Montana Medal for Non-Fiction: Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame, Michael King, Penguin.
Poetry:The Bells of Saint Babels, Allen Curnow, Auckland University Press.
History & Biography, two awards, first equal: Wrestling with the Angel, Michael King, Penguin; Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance, eds, Te Miringa Hohaia / Gregory O'Brien / Lara Strongman, published jointly by City Gallery Wellington / the Trustees of Parihaka Pa / Victoria University Press.
Environment: Dancing Leaves: The story of New Zealand's cabbage tree, Philip Simpson, Canterbury University Press.
Lifestyle: Fresh, Julie Biuso / Ian Batchelor (photographer), New Holland Publishers.
Illustrative Arts: Ralph Hotere: Black Light, ed. Ian Wedde, Te Papa Press /Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Readers's Choice: Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame, Michael King, Penguin.
Best Review Page: Ruth Nichol.
Reviewer of the Year: David Eggleton.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book for Fiction: Emerald Budgies, Karyn Hay, Vintage.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book for Poetry: Animals Indoors, Stephanie De Montalk, Victoria University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Best First Book for Non-Fiction: Pukaki: A Comet Returns, Paul Tapsell, (Reed Publishing)
2000
Deutz Medal for Fiction: Harlequin Rex, Owen Marshall, Vintage.
Montana Medal for Non-Fiction: The Art of Graeme Sydney, Graeme Sydney, Longacre.
History & Biography: Kapiti, Chris McLean, The Whitcombe Press.
Poetry: The Lark Quartet, Elizabeth Smither, Auckland University Press.
Illustrative Arts: The Art of Graeme Sydney, Graeme Sydney, Longacre.
Environment: Classic Tramping in New Zealand, Shaun Barnett / Rob Brown, Craig Potton Publishing.
Lifestyle: The Gardner's Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Native Plants, Yvonne Cave / Valda Paddison, Godwit.
Readers' Choice Award: The Art of Graeme Sydney, Graeme Sydney, Longacre.
Best Review Page: The Evening Post.
Reviewer of the Year: Michael King.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction: Stray Thoughts and Nosebleeds, Duncan Sarkies, Victoria University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry: The Art of Walking Upright, Glenn Colquhoun, Steele Roberts.
The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Award for Best First Book of Non-Fiction: Kava in the Blood, Pether Thomson, Tandem Press.
1999
Deutz Medal for Fiction: The Vintner's Luck, Elizabeth Knox, Victoria University Press.
Montana Medal For Non-Fiction: The Loving Stitch: A history of knitting and spinning in New Zealand, Heather Nicholson, Auckland University Press.
History & Biography: Under the Bridge and Over the Moon, Kevin Ireland, Vintage.
Poetry: Seeing You Asked, Vincent O'Sullivan, Victoria University Press.
Illustrative Arts: 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, Helen Schamroth, Godwit.
Environment & Heritage: The Natural World of New Zealand, Gerard Hutching, Penguin.
Lives & Lifestyle: The Loving Stitch: A history of knitting and spinning in New Zealand, Heather Nicholson, Auckland University Press.
Readers' Choice Award: The Vintner's Luck, Elizabeth Knox, Victoria University Press.
Best Review Page: Landfall.
Reviewer of the Year: Iain Sharp.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction: Alpha Male, William Brandt, Victoria University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry: Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars, Kate Camp, Victoria University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Award for Best First Book of Non-Fiction: 100 New Zealand Craft Artists, Helen Schamroth, Godwit.
1998
Deutz Medal for Fiction: Live Bodies, Maurice Gee, Penguin.
Montana Medal for Non-Fiction: Dictionary of New Zealand English, Harry Orsman, Oxford University Press.
History & Biography Award: Dictionary of New Zealand English, Harry Orsman, Oxford University Press.
Poetry: Shape-Shifter, Hone Tuwhare, Steele Roberts.
Illustrative Arts: Goldie, Roger Blackley, David Bateman.
Environment & Heritage: Pick of the Bunch: New Zealand Wildflowers, Peter Johnson, Longacre Press.
Lives & Lifestyle: The Complete New Zealand Fisherman, Geoff Thomas, David Bateman.
Readers' Choice Award: New Zealand Historical Atlas, ed. Malcolm McKinnon, David Bateman.
Best Review Page: The Evening Post.
Reviewer of the Year: Graeme Lay.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction: In a fishbone church, Catherine Chidgey, Victoria University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry: All Roads Lead to the Sea, Kapka Kassabova, Auckland University Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Award for Best First Book of Non-Fiction: Olives: The new passion, Genevieve Noser, Penguin.
1997
Book of the Year / Cultural Heritage: The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Jessie Munro, Auckland University Press / Bridget Williams Books.
Fiction: What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, Alan Duff, Vintage.
Poetry: An Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English, ed. Jenny Bornholdt / Gregory O'Brien / Mark Williams, Oxford University Press.
Illustrative Arts: Mataora, Sandy Adsett / Cliff Whitiing, ed. Witi Ihimaera, David Bateman.
Natural Heritage: New Zealand Coast and Mountain Plants, John Dawson / Rob Lucas, Victoria University Press.
Leisure & Lifestyle: The Wines and Vineyards of New Zealand, Michael Cooper & John McDermott, Hodder Moa Beckett.
Honour Award, Fiction: Dove on the Waters, Maurice Shadbolt, David Ling.
Honour Award, Poetry: Dedications, J.C. Sturm, Steele Roberts.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction: Finding Home, Dominic Sheehan, Secker & Warburg.
The New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry: Before the Divorce We Go To Disneyland, Diane Brown, Tandem Press.
The New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick Award for Best First Book of Non-Fiction: The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Jessie Munro, Auckland University Press / Bridget Williams Books.
1996
Book of the Year / Cultural Heritage: Redemption Songs - A Life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turiki, Judith Binney, Auckland University Press / Bridget Williams Books.
Fiction: Zoology, Sheridan Keith, Penguin.
Poetry: My Sunshine, Bill Manhire, Victoria University Press.
Illustrative Arts: Gold & Silversmithing in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century New Zealand, Winsome Shepherd, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Natural Heritage: Wild Dunedin, Neville Peat / Brian Patrick, Otago University Press.
Leisure & Lifestyle: Cook!, Michael Lee-Richards, Reed Publishing.
Honour Award: Nga Iwi O Tainui, Pei Te Hurinui Jones, Auckland University Press.
Best First Book, Fiction: Not Her Real Name, Emily Perkins, Victoria University Press.
Best First Book, Poetry: Go Round Power Please, James Brown, Victoria University Press.
Best First Book, Non-Fiction: Salmond: Southern Jurist, Alex Frame, Victoria University Press.
