New Zealand Post Book Awards

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

2010 was the first year of the New Zealand Post Book Awards. From 1996 to 2009, the awards were known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

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 $15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive $10,000, the Māori Language Award $10,000, Readers’ Choice Award $5000, and each of the winners of the three NZSA Best First Book Awards, $2500.

The 2011 Awards Ceremony took place on Wednesday 27 July at the Wellington Town Hall.

Read Kiwi Music History Takes Top Literary Prize on the Booksellers NZ website.

2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards

Book of the year

Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of NZ Popular Music 1918-1964 by Chris Bourke (Auckland University Press)

People's Choice

Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of NZ Popular Music 1918-1964 by Chris Bourke (Auckland University Press)

Fiction

• The Hut Builder by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Group NZ) Winner
• The Night Book by Charlotte Grimshaw (Vintage, Random House NZ)
• Their Faces Were Shining by Tim Wilson (Victoria University Press)

Poetry

• The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls by Kate Camp (Victoria University Press) Winner
• The Radio Room by Cilla McQueen (Otago University Press
• Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English – Whetu Moana II by Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (Auckland University Press)

General non-fiction

• Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of NZ Popular Music 1918-1964 by Chris Bourke (Auckland University Press) Winner
• 99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry by Paula Green and Harry Ricketts (Vintage, Random House NZ)
• Mune: An Autobiography by Ian Mune (Craig Potton Publishing)
• No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson by Paul Millar (Auckland University Press)
• The Tasman: Biography of an Ocean by Neville Peat (Penguin Group NZ)

Illustrated non-fiction

• The Passing World: The Passage of Life: John Hovell and the Art of Kowhaiwhai by Damian Skinner (Rim Books) Winner
• Brian Brake: Lens on the World by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)
• Pounamu by Russell Beck, Maika Mason and Andris Apse (Viking, Penguin Group NZ)
• Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton by Nigel Watson and Jane Ussher (Murdoch Books)
• The Dress Circle by Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Claire Regnault and Lucy Hammonds (Godwit, Random House NZ)

New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Best First Book Award

NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction Award winner: Everything We Hoped for by Pip Adam (Victoria University Press).

NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award winner: Dear Sweet Harry by Lynn Jenner (Auckland University Press).

NZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book of Non-fiction Award winner: Whaikōrero: The World of Māori Oratory (Auckland University Press).

2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards

Book of the Year

Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books (winner of the General Non-Fiction category)

People's Choice Award

Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown, Random House NZ (winner of the Illustrated Non-Fiction category)

Fiction

As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong, Penguin Books Winner

Limestone by Fiona Farrell, Vintage, Random House NZ

Living as a Moon by Owen Marshall, Vintage, Random House NZ

General Non-Fiction

Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books Winner

Aphrodite’s Island by Anne Salmond, Viking, Penguin Group (NZ)

Beyond the Battlefield: New Zealand and its Allies, 1939-1945 by Gerald Hensley, Viking, Penguin Group (NZ)

Cone Ten Down: Studio pottery in New Zealand, 1945-1980 by Moyra Elliott and Damian Skinner, David Bateman

The Invention of New Zealand Art and National Identity, 1930-1970 by Francis Pound, Auckland University Press

Poetry

Just This by Brian Turner, Victoria University Press Winner

The Lustre Jug by Bernadette Hall, Victoria University Press

The Tram Conductor’s Blue Cap by Michael Harlow, Auckland University Press

Illustrated Non-Fiction

Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown, Random House NZ Winner

Art at Te Papa edited by William McAloon, Te Papa Press

Māori Architecture: From fale to wharenui and beyond by Deidre Brown, Raupo, Penguin Group (NZ)

Marti Friedlander by Leonard Bell, Auckland University Press

Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation by Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling, Auckland University Press

New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Best First Book Award

NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction Award winner: Relief Anna Taylor, Victoria University Press

NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award winner: Fast talking PI Selina Tusitala March, Auckland University Press

NZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book of Non-fiction Award winner: Trust: A True Story of Women & Gangs Pip Desmond, Random House New Zealand

About New Zealand Literary Prizes

Before 1996, there were two major New Zealand literary prizes. They merged in 1996 to form the Montana New Zealand Book awards.

The New Zealand Book Awards ran from 1976 to 1995.

The other major award from 1968-1993 was the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards (when the Wattie’s company merged with Goodman Fielder, the Wattie book awards became the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book awards).

Montana took over sponsorship in 1994 and the awards became the Montana Book Awards (1994-1995).

In 1996, the Montana Book Awards merged with the New Zealand Book Awards to become the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The Montana New Zealand Book Awards ran from 1996-2009.

In 2010, sponsorship of the Awards was assumed by New Zealand Post.