The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders. 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. Awards are given for Fiction (the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction), Poetry (the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry), Illustrated Non-Fiction (the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction) and General Non-Fiction. There are also four awards for first-time authors and, at the judges’ discretion, Te Mūrau o te Tuhi, a Māori Language Award.
Bestselling books by both debut writers and established literary luminaries feature among the 16 finalists in the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The shortlist - selected from a longlist of 44 books by four panels of specialist judges (for fiction, poetry, illustrated non-fiction and general non-fiction - offers entertaining and enriching reading experiences that traverse Aotearoa's cultural and physical landscapes, revealing relationships and deepening our understanding of the world.
The 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted titles are: *represents debut authors
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
- Better the Blood by Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) (Simon & Schuster)
- Kāwai: For Such a Time as This by Monty Soutar (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Kahungunu) (Bateman Books)
- Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press)
- The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
- Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised by Alice Te Punga Somerville (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) (Auckland University Press)
- People Person by Joanna Cho (Te Herenga Waka University Press)*
- Sedition by Anahera Maire Gildea (Ngāti Tukorehe) (Taraheke | Bush Lawyer)*
- We’re All Made of Lightning by Khadro Mohamed (We Are Babies Press, Tender Press)*
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
- Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger (Auckland University Press)
- Robin White: Something is Happening Here edited by Sarah Farrar, Jill Trevelyan and Nina Tonga (Te Papa Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
- Secrets of the Sea: The Story of New Zealand’s Native Sea Creatures by Robert Vennell (HarperCollins)
- Te Motunui Epa by Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Ātiawa) (Bridget Williams Books)
General Non-Fiction Award
- A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru: A Collection of Narratives about Te Tai Tokerau Tūpuna by Melinda Webber (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whakaue) and Te Kapua O’Connor (Ngāti Kurī, Pohūtiare) (Auckland University Press)
- Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay by Paul Diamond (Ngāti Hauā, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) (Massey University Press)
- Grand: Becoming my Mother’s Daughter by Noelle McCarthy (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
- The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi by Ned Fletcher (Bridget Williams Books)*