2017 Ockham book awards long list announced

The 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist is out.

Looking for something to read this summer?

Then you might want to get your hands on some of the 40 books on the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist. That's the message from the chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Nicola Legat who says competition for a place on the list was tough.

"The awards received a large number of entries again this year and the standard was very high across all categories," says Legat. "That shows that this country's publishing, and indeed its literature, is in rude good health."

The 40 longlisted books were selected by four panels of specialist judges and drawn from 150 entries. They are:

FICTION (The Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize)
•The Wish Child by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press)
•A Briefcase, Two Pies and a Penthouse by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson)
•My Mother and the Hungarians by Frankie McMillan (Canterbury University Press)
•Love as a Stranger by Owen Marshall (Penguin Random House)
•Tail of the Taniwha by Courtney Sina Meredith (Beatnik Publishing)
•Billy Bird by Emma Neale (Penguin Random House)
•Deleted Scenes for Lovers by Tracey Slaughter (Victoria University Press)
•The Name on the Door is Not Mine by C.K. Stead (Allen & Unwin)
•Dad Art by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press)
•Strip by Sue Wootton (Makaro Press)

ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
•Islands: A New Zealand Journey by Bruce Ansley & Jane Ussher (Penguin Random House)
•A History of New Zealand Women by Barbara Brookes (Bridget Williams Books)
•A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngati Porou Carving 1830-1930 by Ngarino Ellis with Natalie Robertson (Auckland University Press)
•101 Works of Art by Ken Hall, Jenny Harper, Felicity Milburn, Nathan Pohio, Lara Strongman, Peter Vangioni (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu)
•Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing (Victoria University Press)
•New Zealand Wine; The Land, the Vines, the People by Warren Moran (Auckland University Press)
•Futuna: Life of a Building by Gregory O'Brien & Nick Bevin (Victoria University Press)
•A Beautiful Hesitation by Fiona Pardington (Victoria University Press)
•Dark Matter by Ann Shelton (Auckland University Press)
•Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-1953 by Peter Simpson (Auckland University Press)

GENERAL NON- FICTION (Royal Society of New Zealand Award for General Non-Fiction)
•Goneville: A memoir by Nick Bollinger (Awa Press)
•This Model World: Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art by Anthony Byrt (Auckland University Press)
•My Father's Island by Adam Dudding (Victoria University Press)
•New Zealand's Rivers: An environmental history by Catherine Knight (Canterbury University Press)
•The Broken Decade: Prosperity, depression and recovery in New Zealand, 1928-39 by Malcolm McKinnon (Otago University Press)
•The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 by Vincent O'Malley (Bridget Williams Books)
•The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840-1920 by Ben Schrader (Bridget Williams Books)
•The World, the Flesh and the Devil; The Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the Antipodes, 1765-1838 by Andrew Sharp (Auckland University Press)
•Being Chinese: A New Zealander's Story by Helene Wong (Bridget Williams Books)
•Can You Tolerate This? By Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press)

POETRY
•Back with the Human Condition by Nick Ascroft (Victoria University Press)
•Fale Aitu/Spirit House by Tusiata Avia (Victoria University Press)
•Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press)
•In the Supplementary Garden: New and Selected Poems by Diana Bridge (Cold Hub Press)
•Thought Horses by Rachel Bush (Victoria University Press)
•As the Verb Tenses by Lynley Edmeades (Otago University Press)
•Fits & Starts by Andrew Johnston (Victoria University Press)
•This Paper Boat by Gregory Kan (Auckland University Press)
•And So It Is by Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University Press)
•Beside Herself by Chris Price (Auckland University Press)

Judges will announce their shortlist on March 7 and the winners will be announced on May 16 at the opening night event of the Auckland Writers Festival.