Debut novel wins Deutz medal

The Montana awards' Deutz Medal for best fiction book, worth $15,000, went to rookie Craig Marriner for his debut novel, Stonedogs.

One judge, Witi Ihimaera, called the book subversive and crackling with energy.

Lynley Hood won the Montana Medal for non-fiction for her book about the Christchurch Civic Creche sex abuse case, A City Possessed.

A special honour award was presented to Te Onehou Phillis for the biography Eruera Manuera, written in Maori.

Maurice Shadbolt received the A.W. Reed Lifetime Achievement Award.

- NZPA