The finalists for the country's leading book awards, the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, have been announced today.
The twenty finalists were selected from nearly 180 entries by a three-person judging panel comprising Radio New Zealand chief executive Sharon Crosbie, author and lecturer Lawrence Jones and Wellington bookseller Tilly Lloyd.
The
winners will be announced on July 31 in Napier.
Finalists:
Fiction: Belief, Stephanie Johnson (Vintage); Nineteen Widows Under Ash, Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press); Room, Laurence Fearnley (Victoria University Press); The Book of Fame, Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books); The Curative, Charlotte Randall (Penguin Books).
Poetry: Late Song, Lauris Edmond (Auckland University Press); Lucky Table, Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University Press); The Bells of Saint Babel's, Allen Curnow (Auckland University Press).
History & biography: Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance, edited by Te Miringa Hohaia, Gregory O'Brien, Lara Strongman (Victoria University Press); Pukaki: A Comet Returns, Paul Tapsell (Reed Publishing); Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame, Michael King (Viking).
Environment: Dancing Leaves: The story of New Zealand's cabbage tree, ti kouka, Philip Simpson (Canterbury University Press); Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forest, John Dawson, Rob Lucas (Godwit); Wellington's Heritage: Plants, gardens and landscape, Winsome Shepherd (Te Papa Press).
Lifestyle: Fresh, Julie Biuso, photography Ian Batchelor (New Holland Publishers); Gone Surfing: The Golden Years of Surfing in New Zealand, 1950-1970, Luke Williamson (Penguin Books); Grandparenting with Love and Laughter, Trish Gribben (Tandem Press).
Illustrative arts: Marti Friedlander Photographs, Ron Brownson (Godwit); Ralph Hotere: Black Light, general editor Ian Wedde (Te Papa Press); West, Stanley Palmer (Godwit).
