2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

Updated October 23, 2023
K
KOTUI / National Library of New Zealand
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Better the Blood
Bennett, Michael
Paper Book
'A compelling, atmospheric page turner with an authentic insight into Māori culture' Val McDermid A DETECTIVE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH. A KILLER IN SEARCH OF RETRIBUTION. A CLASH BETWEEN CULTURE AND DUTY. THE PAST NEVER TRULY STAYS BURIED. WELCOME TO...

FINALIST: Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize For Fiction

Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand
Bollinger, Nick
Paper Book
Award-winning writer Nick Bollinger's deep history of the transformation of New Zealand life wrought by the counterculture in the 1960s and '70s.

WINNER: Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction

Te Motunui Epa
Buchanan, Rachel
Paper Book
'This is a story about the power of art to help us find a way through the darkness. It is about how art can bring out the best in us, and the worst. The artworks in question are five wooden panels carved in the late 1700s by relatives in Taranaki.' Commissioned, created, mounted, dismantled, hidden,...

FINALIST: Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction

The axeman's carnival
Chidgey, Catherine
Paper Book
Everywhere, the birds: sparrows and skylarks and thrushes, starlings and bellbirds, fantails and pipits - but above them all and louder, the magpies. We are here and this is our tree and we're staying and it is ours and you need to leave and now. Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by...

WINNER: Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction

People Person
Cho, Joanna
Paper Book
People Person is a debut collection by Joanna Cho. These adventurous, funny and dissonant poems are about the endless work of fitting in when the goalposts are constantly changing. They ask: how can we nail the perfect routine? How can we be a people person in the world? What parts of ourselves must...

FINALIST: Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry

Downfall : The destruction of Charles Mackay
Diamond, Paul.
Paper Book
In 1920 New Zealanders were shocked by the news that the brilliant, well-connected mayor of Whanganui had shot a young gay poet, D'Arcy Cresswell, who was blackmailing him. They were then riveted by the trial that followed. Mackay was sentenced to hard labour and later left the country,...

FINALIST: E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction

Robin White: Something Is Happening Here
Farrar, Sarah.
Paper Book
Major survey of the 50-year career of one of New Zealand's best-loved artists

FINALIST: Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction

The English text of the Treaty of Waitangi
Fletcher, Ned
Paper Book
This exceptional analysis of the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi represents a major reassessment in our understanding of this foundational document. Historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher calls upon a wealth of archival sources and years of research to provide important new insights into how and...

WINNER: General Non-Fiction Award

Sedition
Gildea, Anahera
Paper Book
"Comprising a significant body of previously unpublished work, Sedition represents a vital political intervention in the poetic landscape of Aotearoa. The work ranges and rages through generations, taking in a mothers anguish and a daughters hunger for justice. Born of lava, this poetry responds to...

FINALIST: Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry

Home theatre
Lapwood, Anthony
Paper Book
Welcome to the Repertory Apartments-where scenes of tenderness and trouble, music and magic, the uncanny and the macabre play out on intimate stages. A mother and her young son battle an infestation of ants. A bass player is beset by equine hallucinations. A widow seeks a new home with a spare room...

WINNER: Hubert Church Prize for Fiction

Kai : food stories and recipes from my family table
Lowe, Christall
Paper Book
The gathering of food and the gathering of people to share a meal are at the heart of Maori family life. Award-winning food photographer Christall Lowe invites us to join her whanau table and experience for ourselves an abundance of mouthwatering dishes, a veritable feast for the eyes and for the...

WINNER: Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction

Grand: Becoming my mother's daughter
McCarthy, Noelle.
Paper Book
"I'll be grand, girl, I've great faith." - Mammy, just before she died Funny, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pub lounges all over Cork City, Noelle McCarthy's mother Carol rages against her life and everything she's lost. As soon as she...

WINNER: E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction

Were All Made of Lightning
Mohamed, Khadro
Paper Book
Khadro Mohamed expertly navigates the experience of being a Muslim women in Aotearoa, bringing us along on her journey of selfhood. Shifting between Aotearoa, Egypt and Somalia, we get a glimpse into her worlds, which are rich and full of life. Mohamed has a sense of wonder for the world around her,...

WINNER: Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry; FINALIST: Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry

Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant
Sanders, Christina
Paper Book
It's 1866 and the three-masted sailing ship General Grant is on the southern route from Melbourne to London, with gold from the diggings secreted in returning miners' hems and pockets. In the fog and the dark, the ship strikes the cliffs of the Auckland Islands, is sucked into a cave and wrecked....

FINALIST: Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize For Fiction

Kawai: ; For Such a Time As This
Soutar, Monty.
Paper Book
Kawai: For Such a Time as This is the remarkable first novel by respected historian Dr. Monty Soutar, in a series that reveals the role of colonisation in shaping Aotearoa New Zealand, balanced with an honest appraisal of the country in pre-colonial times.

FINALIST: Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize For Fiction

Always italicise : how to write while colonised
Te Punga Somerville, Alice
Paper Book
Shrink-wrapped, vacuum-packed, disassembled, sold for parts, butt of jokes, scapegoats, too this for that, too that for this, gravy trains, too angry, special treatment, let it go . . . 'Always italicise foreign words', a friend of the author was advised. In her first book of poetry, M&...

WINNER: Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry

Secrets of the sea : the story of New Zealand's native sea creatures
Vennell, Robert
Paper Book
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARD BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF NONFICTION** An illuminating tour through the native sea creatures of Aotearoa, by the bestselling author of The Meaning of Trees Secrets of the Sea is a fascinating introduction to New Zealand's fish...

FINALIST: Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction

A Fire in the Belly of Hineamaru: A Collection of Narratives about Te Tai Tokerau Tupuna
Webber, Melinda
Paper Book
'E kore e mōnehunehu te pūmahara ki ngā momo rangatira o neherā nā rātou nei i toro te nukuroa o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa me Papa Tū a Nuku. Ko ngā tohu o ō rātou tapuwae i kākahutia ki runga i te mata o te whenua - he taonga, he tapu. Time will...

FINALIST: E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction


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