Wednesday is the biggest night of the literary year, when the winners of New Zealand’s most prestigious book awards – the Ockhams – are announced. Here’s our handy guide to the nominees – and what we said about them at the time.
Fiction
The big-money prize at the awards. The winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction – named for the generous Tauranga radiologist who died in 2022 – will collect $65,000.
Previous winners include (pictured above) Stephen Daisley (The Coming Rain), Catherine Chidgey (who’s won twice with The Wish Child and The Axeman’s Carnival), Pip Adam (The New Animals), Fiona Kidman (This Mortal Boy), Becky Manawatu (Auē), Whiti Hereaka (Kurangaituku), and Emily Perkins (Lioness).
This year’s nominees are:
At The Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley. Listener reviewer Elisabeth Easther wrote: “In spite of it being a response to sound, this is a quiet book. Never maudlin or sentimental, The Grand Glacier Hotel is a thoughtful, slow-moving exploration of what it is to face one’s own mortality. Yet, for all the sadness inherent in Libby’s life and the world, there is a thread of hope, a reminder to be grateful for the things that remain.”
The Mires by Tina Makereti. Paula Morris described The Mires as a novel of messages: “The Mires sounds the warning: humanity may try to pollute and control and build over nature, but while nature may be damaged, it remains mighty. ‘Swamp runs beneath everything ... even though you have drained and paved and dammed us,’ as the swamp says. ‘Just watch how we rise after an earthquake, reclaiming the land with our wet.’”
Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn: Reviewing this short story collection for the Listener, Anne Kennedy noted: “Although Pretty Ugly throws its net wide stylistically, there are links to be found: emblems like gardens, animals, characters who pop up here and there and, crucially, characters writing about writing. ‘I will write about this, though …’ (Poor Beasts). Does it give too much away to explain how the meta thing functions here? I was reminded of Atonement, in which the narrator is revealed to ‘a writer’. You’ll need to read the book for more. I highly recommend you do.”
Delirious by Damien Wilkins. David Herkt said: “One function of literature is to communicate experience, and Delirious is closely observed. Set on the very edge of land, the novel is poised between rational assessment and the mysteries of the deep. It’s not a psychological thriller, rather a writer’s revelation of human nature in the unfolding setting of time. Emotions are frequently stark, the surprises constant. Just as in life, there are always other questions.”
Illustrated non-fiction
Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown, Ngarino Ellis, Jonathan Mane-Wheoki. Listener books editor Mark Broatch named this comprehensive survey of mahi toi as one of the best art and craft books of 2024: “Groundbreaking, years in the making, monumental in scale – 600 pages, 500-plus images, weighing in at 4kg – it extends across the arts, from weaving to tattoo, architecture and digital media, written by experts in the field.”
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist by Jill Trevelyan, Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson. Broatch praised the sumptuously illustrated survey, saying it paid long-overdue tribute to the early 20th-century artist from Whanganui.
Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer by Athol McCredie. Talking about his book with the Listener, McCredie said he’d never encountered such an impressive body of work by any other amateur New Zealand photographer than Levin farmer Leslie Adkin: “I love their humour, the enjoyment his subjects seem to have of life, and the consistent cast of family and friends over time. The images depict an idyllic lifestyle of a large, fairly well-off family having fun at picnics, beach outings, travel and entertainments at home.”
Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa by Matiu, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald and Rebecca Rice. Richly illustrated and developed in partnership with iwi, this 480-page hardback explores taonga and artefacts immediately connected with the New Zealand Wars. Asked by the Listener to pick some favourite objects from Te Papa’s New Zealand Wars Collections, its authors chose surprisingly humble-looking items – a flag, a photo, a commemorative certificate and a wax seal – which, like most ordinary things, revealed extraordinary stories.
General Non-fiction
Bad Archive by Flora Feltham. Listener reviewer Sue Reidy said: “Feltham is a compassionate and inquiring chronicler of the quotidian details that contribute to building a life. With the exception of the essay set in Croatia, she doesn’t stray too far from home, finding fascination in a forensic exploration of the ordinary and the familiar.”
Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku. Paula Morris wrote: “One of the book’s strengths is its visceral scenes, but when these take place 50 years ago, the level of detail – and dialogue – makes this read more like fiction than a memoir. In other words, it is not wholly satisfying or successful as life-writing. And yet this is an important book: vital to write, vital to publish and vital to read.”
The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank. Andrew Paul Wood described Cruickshank’s collection of interlocking antic and anarchic essays, sparking off the alluvial gravel of existential angst, as a bold first book: “This is such beautiful writing – clever, lyrical, sensitive to source. Cruickshank’s prose and flow of ideas gives every appearance of effortless elegance, sprezzatura as the Italians say, but even as it glides from topic to topic like an exquisite swan, one can feel the frantic paddling of the feet beneath the water.”
The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation by Richard Shaw. Reviewing Shaw’s second book, Paul Diamond said it was a courageous book and an addition to a growing literature by Pākehā journeying back into the map of memory: “Just as the new Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum resulted from a group of New Zealanders who thought knowing about our own history was important for our collective future, this small but potent book will foster different conversations about the past and its connection with the present.”
Poetry
Art philanthropists Mary and Peter Biggs have funded this award since 2020, but a poetry prize has been handed out since 1976. This year’s short-listed books and poets are:
Emma Neale’s Liar, Liar, Lick, Split was named one of the top poetry books of 2024 by reviewer Nicholas Reid, who wrote: “The 85 poems of Emma Neale’s 7th collection focus on the way we human beings can delude ourselves with lies or with misremembering. But while she shows how flawed we are, she also treasures the good in people and young children, perhaps with a spot of autobiography.”
In the Half Light of a Dying Day by CK Stead. A collection presented in two halves, Nicholas Reid saw the impact of the death of Kay, Stead’s wife of 70 years, threaded throughout the second half, which he noted was the “real of heart” of the book: “Catullus and Kezia, Kezia clearly representing Kay. Stead carefully charts the physical decline in her health. First, as elderly people they know there is ‘no more travel for them … / … old age has taught them / to love what they have / this green enclave where flowers and fruit flourish.’” Heartfelt, moving and a great challenge for the poet to write, Reid reckoned.
Hopurangi - Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka by Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu). Reid described it as a large and detailed collection, encompassing 130 poems and dealing with “a period of personal change and growth.” Reid wrote: “[Sullivan] does occasionally take a shot at colonialism, but this is not his major key. As a detailed work, much of Hopurangi – Songcatcher calls for concentration, but it is rewarding.”
Slender Volumes by Richard von Sturmer. “This is one of those very rare collections that is at once thoughtful, coherent and very engaging – calming us in an uncertain world,” said Reid of former punk rocker – and lyricist for Kiwi band Blam Blam Blam – von Sturmer’s collection of 300 prose poems. Reid praised von Sturmer’s delight in small things, which, our man said, made Slender Volumes a very readable work.
Four Best First Book Awards, sponsored by the Mātātuhi Foundation, will also be awarded on Wednesday.
SHORT LISTS
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin)
Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn (Otago University Press)
The Mires by Tina Makereti (Ultimo Press)
BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist by Jill Trevelyan, Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson (Massey University Press)
Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)
Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa by Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald and Rebecca Rice (Te Papa Press)
Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown and Ngarino Ellis with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Auckland University Press)
General Non-Fiction Award
Bad Archive by Flora Feltham (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku (HarperCollins)
The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
Hopurangi – Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka by Robert Sullivan (Auckland University Press)
In the Half Light of a Dying Day by CK Stead (Auckland University Press)
Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale (Otago University Press)
Slender Volumes by Richard von Sturmer (Spoor Books)