LIVE FROM 7PM
The biggest night on New Zealand’s literary calendar is here. The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards take place in Tāmaki Makaurau this evening but, if you can’t make it to the in-person ceremony at Auckland’s Aotea Centre, you can watch the entire ceremony right here on nzherald.co.nz.
The ceremony – which will be hosted by Jack Tame, starts at 7pm tonight and is an exciting part of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki, the largest annual literary festival in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Ockham NZ Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders.
The major prize of the night is the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, with the winner set to receive $65,000, while the three other main category winners will receive $12,000.
A prize of $3000 will be awarded to the winners of the Best First Book, for fiction, poetry, general non-fiction and illustrated non-fiction.
The shortlisted finalists for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize were announced in March. Among the shortlist are Eleanor Catton, recipient of the Booker Prize in 2013 for her work The Luminaries, and former national award winners Emily Perkins, Pip Adam and Stephen Daisley.
The group of finalists proves it has been the country’s strongest-ever year for book publishing, as it also includes a selection of 16 talented authors whose works span memoir, poetry, history, art and te ao Māori.
In a statement released to the Herald, the convenor of judges for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Juliet Blyth, said readers will be rewarded by the richness within the pages written by this year’s finalists.
“These four singular and accomplished titles encompass pertinent themes of social justice, violence, activism, capitalism, war, identity, class and more besides. Variously confronting, hilarious, philosophical and heart-rending, these impressive works showcase Aotearoa storytellers at the top of their game.”
Past winners include Becky Manawatu, Whiti Hereaka, Fiona Kidman, Charlotte Grimshaw and Patricia Grace.
The ceremony begins at 7pm and you can watch the livestream in the video above.
The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted titles are:
*represents debut authors
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
A Better Place by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)
Audition by Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
At the Point of Seeing by Megan Kitching (Otago University Press) *
Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Publishing) *
Root Leaf Flower Fruit by Bill Nelson (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Talia by Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku) (Dead Bird Books) *
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press)
Fungi of Aotearoa: A Curious Forager’s Field Guide by Liv Sisson (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
Marilynn Webb: Folded in the Hills by Lauren Gutsell, Lucy Hammonds, Bridget Reweti (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History by Ryan Bodman (Bridget Williams Books)*
General Non-Fiction Award
An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays by Damon Salesa (Bridget Williams Books)
Laughing at the Dark: A Memoir by Barbara Else (Penguin, Penguin Random House)
Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka by Jeff Evans (Massey University Press)
There’s a Cure for This by Emma Wehipeihana (Espiner) (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) (Penguin, Penguin Random House) *
