And then there were 44… Books editor Claire Mabey offers thoughts and predictions.
Some notes before we start:
1. The award for publishing goes to Te Herenga Waka University Press, which has 11 books on the longlist of 44. That is a full 25%. Which is pretty wild. Overall, 20 publishers are represented. This year there were 171 entries (20 fewer than the 191 in 2023).
2. Almost certainly sure that this is the first time that two short story collections have made the fiction longlist. The prize money for this category has risen a smidge, from $64,000 to $65,000.
3. We’re at 44 books on the longlist because the General Non-Fiction judges are, like in 2023, allowed to pick 14 titles instead of the 10 that everyone else has to limit themselves to. I’m still irked and vexed by this. See below.
4. An asterisk means first-time writer who will be up for the best first book prize.
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction ($65,000 prize)
A Better Place by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)
Audition by Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam (Text Publishing)*
Bird Life by Anna Smaill (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Pet by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Ruin and Other Stories by Emma Hislop (Te Herenga Waka University Press) *
Signs of Life by Amy Head (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Turncoat by Tīhema Baker (Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) (Lawrence & Gibson)
Thoughts: Yeah, what a hell of a time. I do not envy the judges. I’d be lying awake with stomach cramps over this.
I was instantly struck by the inclusion of not one but two short story collections: Signs of Life from Amy Head and Ruin by Emma Hislop. Amy Head’s collection is (like her first, exceptional collection, Tough) a series of linked stories that reflect on the destabilising and transformative effects of the Christchurch earthquakes. Ruin, by Emma Hislop, is a simmering, unsettling collection that explores the complexities of women’s experiences. I can’t see a time when the short story will meet the popularity of the novel but in this context the form is a strong competitor. Will we see a repeat of the Ockhams 2021 when Airini Beautrais won for her collection Bug Week? I don’t think so (see below).
I suspect that Stephen Daisley’s World War II novel, A Better Place, might have slipped under many readers’ radars, but he’s no stranger to these awards. In 2016, his novel Coming Rain won the big prize, just as his first novel Traitor won a Prime Minister’s Award in Australia (where he lives).
Turncoat was the indie smash hit of 2023 with publisher Lawrence & Gibson scrambling to hoon more copies out to readers. The intellectual exercise of this intergalactic, sci-fi satire that skewers the hypocrisy of the public service, and its failures to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, could not be more timely. Read our review here.
Absolutely zero surprise to see Smaill, Perkins, Chidgey, Catton and Adam on this list. In this recent Guardian article about a spike of interest in NZ books, four of five of these writers are mentioned as spiking international interest in NZ stories. I had a great time with all of their novels (we reviewed Perkins’ Lioness, Chidgey’s Pet, and Catton’s Birnam Wood, as well as interviewed Catton, here. Read Emily Perkins’ stunning launch speech for Anna Smaill’s Bird Life here.)
But Pip Adam (who wasn’t mentioned in the Guardian article) also had a huge year in 2023: powerhouse feminist publishers The Dorothy Project released her Ockham-award winning novel The New Animals in the US, while Audition was released in the UK by Peninsula Press. Adam’s work occupies a space of its own. She’s our own Margaret Atwood: socially conscious, politically activated, fearless. Audition does what art should do: invents a new way to stare into the heart of how we live (read an interview with Adam, about Audition, on The Spinoff here.)
What’s missing: I was bummed that intellectually expansive The Words for Her by Thomasin Sleigh (Lawrence & Gibson) and the emotionally honest Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts (Allen & Unwin) by Josie Shapiro didn’t make the cut. Also feel the absence of another excellent short story collection, Dream Girl by Joy Holley (short stories). Maybe we’ll get to three collections in the list next year. I think we might see some fuming that Airana Ngarewa’s The Bone Tree and Fiona Farrell’s The Deck missed out.
Predictions (Honestly this makes me want to throw up. But here goes…)
Shortlist: Pet by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press), Audition by Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press), Bird Life by Anna Smaill (Te Herenga Waka University Press), Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
Best first book: Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam (Text Publishing)*
The winner: Audition by Pip Adam (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry ($12,000 prize)
At the Point of Seeing by Megan Kitching (Otago University Press)*
Big Fat Brown Bitch by Tusiata Avia (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Biter by Claudia Jardine (Auckland University Press)
Calamities! by Jane Arthur (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Publishing)*
Root Leaf Flower Fruit by Bill Nelson (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Say I Do This: Poems 2018–2022 by C. K. Stead (Auckland University Press)
Talia by Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku) (Dead Bird Books)*
The Artist by Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
When I Reach for Your Pulse by Rushi Vyas (Otago University Press)
Thoughts: Look out David Seymour, the literary community is once again applauding Tusiata Avia (who has been writing about the ongoing saga with the Act leader on her Substack, here). Big Fat Brown Bitch gives Seymour the shits, but we love its wit, its ferocity and its defiance of racist gits.
I haven’t finished Megan Kitching’s At the Point of Seeing but did receive an outraged note from a reader when the collection wasn’t in our best of list for 2023. So, am delighted for that person and for Otago University Press who make a good dent in Te Herenga Waka Press’s dominance with Rushi Vyas’s When I Reach for Your Pulse also listed.
Ruby Solly and Bill Nelson‘s books are both verse novels in that there is a narrative to follow from beginning to end. They share a focus on intergenerational storylines, and achievement in an ambitious form. Solly regularly astounds with her artistry and Bill Nelson’s is one of the most beautiful and somehow serene reads of 2023. Grace Yee’s Chinese Fish slides beside these two as it also follows a familial narrative. In a visually exciting (sometimes images form the poetry) collection, Yee looks under the hood at the migrant experience in New Zealand between the 1960s-80s. The mother-child relationship is at the heart of this inventive and textured book, complete with archival interjections.
Dead Bird Books is quickly becoming the go-to publisher for discovering new talent. Talia by Isla Huia is a strong contender with its heartful, airy, startling imagery. Auckland University Press’s offer with Claudia Jardine’s Biter gives the list a love bite of a book. It crackles with classical drama and lust. The project of the book (which you read about on The Spinoff, here) is audacious, nerdy and brilliant. Jardine makes Classics cool again.
Bookseller and children’s author Jane Arthur’s Calamities! was one of my favourites of 2023 (read an interview between Arthur and fellow poet Louise Wallace on The Spinoff here). I was seduced by the exclamation mark which surely breaks some kind of code-of-poetry-covers rule, and then charmed by the relatable, off-kilter wit and worry.
Stead’s is the only anthology on the list. An anthology is totally different to a single collection: they perform differently on the page, which I assume might come into consideration when the judges weigh these 10 up against each other. Harry Ricketts is a fan of Stead’s efforts in this book, categorising him a “civic” poet in this review on Kete.
What’s missing: A lot. Saga by Hannah Mettner, Birdspeak by Arihia Latham, Middle Youth by Morgan Bach, This Is A Story About Your Mother by Louise Wallace, Neither by Liam Jacobson, Aria by Jessica Hinerangi Carr, Past Lives by Leah Dodd. Goes to show the riotous health our poetry scene is in.
Predictions
Shortlist: Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Press), Big Fat Brown Bitch by Tusiata Avia (Te Herenga Waka University Press), Root Leaf Flower Fruit by Bill Nelson (Te Herenga Waka University Press), The Artist by Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Best first book: Talia by Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku) (Dead Bird Books)*
The winner: Chinese Fish by Grace Yee (Giramondo Press)
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction ($12,000 prize)
Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press)
Flora: Celebrating our Botanical World edited by Carlos Lehnebach, Claire Regnault, Rebecca Rice, Isaac Te Awa and Rachel Yates (Te Papa Press)
Fungi of Aotearoa: A Curious Forager’s Field Guide by Liv Sisson (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
Marilynn Webb: Folded in the Hills by Lauren Gutsell, Lucy Hammonds and Bridget Reweti (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists by Baye Riddell (Te Papa Press)*
Our Land in Colour: A History of Aotearoa New Zealand 1860-1960 by Brendan Graham with Jock Phillips (HarperCollins NZ)
Pacific Arts Aotearoa edited by Lana Lopesi (Penguin, Penguin Random House)
Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History by Ryan Bodman (Bridget Williams Books)*
Sure to Rise: The Edmonds Story by Peter Alsop, Kate Parsonson and Richard Wolfe (Canterbury University Press)
Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860-1960 by Lissa Mitchell (Te Papa Press)*
Thoughts: The male peacock of the categories, showcasing the most magnificent looking publications. This is where Te Papa Press generally shine with their opulent tomes of a definitive feel. Flora is a triumph: it’s so hard to resist the allure of botanical drawing (somehow kind of fantastical, but it’s science, but it’s art). Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists was a revelation to me. The photography shines, and the project of capturing this history and these artists make reading book feel like an honour. Lissa Mitchell’s Through Shaded Glass was similarly revelatory: unearthing women from the confines of archives and letting their work speak (you can read an excerpt on The Spinoff here).
Having said that, Gregory O’Brien’s book on Don Binney (Auckland University Press) might be hard to beat. It’s just so beautiful and the quality of the writing and the research is, as expected, top notch. Marilynn Webb: Folded in the Hills, produced to go with the Dunedin Public Art Gallery retrospective, also looks at an artist’s body of work but takes an anthology approach with essays from various writers and artists.
Turning to the natural world, Liv Sisson’s Fungi (genius publishing by Penguin NZ, read an excerpt on The Spinoff, here) was the popular non-fiction hit of 2023 with its electric blue shroom and guide-sized appeal. This is a hands-on, user-friendly guidebook which sets it apart from the larger format, coffee-table weight of the rest.
Pacific Arts Aotearoa edited by Lana Lopesi (read an excerpt, here) is the result of mammoth effort and an unprecedented publication. The design is lush and the sheer muscle involved in conceiving and producing such an ambitious project deserves applause.
What’s missing: Modern Chinese by Sam Low! And seems bizarre that Rewi by Jade Kake and Jeremy Hansen (Massey University Press) isn’t here. Over the summer I dipped in and out of Living Between Land & Sea: The bays of Whakaraupō Lyttleton Harbour by Jane Robertson (Massey University Press). It’s a vast (but well-structured) insight into a beguiling piece of Aotearoa: reckon it must have been on the long-longlist.
Predictions
Shortlist: Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press), Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists by Baye Riddell (Te Papa Press)*, Pacific Arts Aotearoa edited by Lana Lopesi (Penguin, Penguin Random House), Fungi of Aotearoa: A Curious Forager’s Field Guide by Liv Sisson (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
Best first book: Ngā Kaihanga Uku: Māori Clay Artists by Baye Riddell (Te Papa Press)*
The winner: Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press)
General Non-Fiction Award ($12,000 prize)
An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays by Damon Salesa (Bridget Williams Books)
Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand by Jared Davidson (Bridget Williams Books)
Commune: Chasing a Utopian Dream in Aotearoa by Olive Jones (Potton & Burton)*
End Times by Rebecca Priestley (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Laughing at the Dark: A Memoir by Barbara Else (Penguin, Penguin Random House)
Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka by Jeff Evans (Massey University Press)
Ora: Healing Ourselves – Indigenous Knowledge, Healing and Wellbeing edited by Leonie Pihama and Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Huia Publishers)
Snorkelling the Abyss: One Woman, Striving to Survive, Fighting for Survivors by Jan Jordan (The Cuba Press)
Soundings: Diving for Stories in the Beckoning Sea by Kennedy Warne (Massey University Press)
Takahē: Bird of Dreams by Alison Ballance (Potton & Burton)
The Drinking Game by Guyon Espiner (Allen & Unwin)
The Financial Colonisation of Aotearoa by Catherine Comyn (Economic and Social Research Aotearoa)*
The Forgotten Prophet: Tāmati Te Ito and His Kaingārara Movement by Jeffrey Sissons (Bridget Williams Books)
There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir by Emma Espiner (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
Thoughts: Turn me off if you’re sick of this. But I’ll crack the record and play what I said in 2023: “I still don’t understand this category. It’s apples and oranges and pears. The bugbear is: how do you judge a category that includes literary forms (like personal essays and memoir), which have the freedom to use the tools of fiction; and that also includes literary forms that must employ plain English and robust research methods to be successful (e.g. history and academic texts)? This is not to say that the latter books don’t use the tools of fiction, where appropriate, and that the former doesn’t use robust research, but by and large the two genres serve a different purpose.”
OK? Done. Moving on.
Really enjoyed seeing the way that The Financial Colonisation of Aotearoa by Catherine Comyn (Economic and Social Research Aotearoa)* has inserted itself in to the Unity bestseller lists as the political climate heats up. Jared Davidson’s pithy summary (in here) is a good one: “its analysis of finance, colonisation and the dodgy dealings of the NZ Company. It’s both revealing and timely.”
Davidson’s own book, Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand, was yet another triumph from leading non-fiction publisher Bridget Williams Books, a sobering history (told with lively writing, read an excerpt here) that makes you look at the built landscape with fresh questions.
BWB also has Damon Salesa’s stonking new book, An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays, in the mix. Epic in scope, rigorous in research, suitably sturdy in production: I’ll be putting money on this one for the shortlist at least.
Yes please and thank you to all three of Emma Wehipeihana (review here, excerpt here), Rebecca Priestley (excerpt here) and Barbara Else’s (review here) memoirs. And a nod to the eagle eye of Cuba Press, the indie publisher of such global hits as Becky Manawatu’s Auē, for unearthing Jan Jordan’s survival story: harrowing, at times, but extraordinary. Quiet, constant star of nature publishing, Potton & Burton, has Olive Jones’s compelling Commune memoir: a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of the good life; and Alison Ballance’s sweet, good-news book about the greatest of the endangered flightless birds, the Takahē.
Massey University Press has an impressive pair of offerings. I’ve always liked Kennedy Warne’s work and really enjoyed Soundings: a satisfying, vivid account of his adventures as a photographer for National Geographic that will leave you feeling thoroughly immersed in the enchanting sea. Ngātokimatawhaorua: The Biography of a Waka by Jeff Evans is an impressive, focussed piece of history.
Recent recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, worked with Leonie Pihama on Ora: Healing Ourselves – Indigenous Knowledge, Healing and Wellbeing, summarised by Nicole Titihuia Hawkins as: “Based on research, this collection weaves together tikanga Māori and ancestral knowledge to assist in healing journeys. These wāhine Māori powerhouses have brought together indigenous leaders and practitioners from Aotearoa and across the world, to present this exceptional guide to wellbeing. If you’re a health worker or someone who has experienced trauma, get this pukapuka to get authentic, intelligent, indigenous Aunty wisdom.”
What’s Missing: Ithaca, Alie Benge’s superb collection of essays.
Predictions (Have taken mix of painkillers by this stage to get through the mind-fuck of this selection…)
Shortlist: An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays by Damon Salesa (Bridget Williams Books), Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand by Jared Davidson (Bridget Williams Books), Ora: Healing Ourselves – Indigenous Knowledge, Healing and Wellbeing edited by Leonie Pihama and Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Huia Publishers), End Times by Rebecca Priestley (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
Best first book: There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir by Emma Espiner (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
The winner: An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays by Damon Salesa (Bridget Williams Books)
As always, thoughts and prayers to the judges:
The Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction will be judged by reading advocate and former bookseller Juliet Blyth (convenor); writer, reviewer and literary festival curator Kiran Dass; and fiction writer Anthony Lapwood (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Pākehā). They will be joined in deciding the ultimate winner from their shortlist of four by an international judge.
Judging the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry will be poet, critic and editor Erik Kennedy (convenor); poet and performance writer Tru Paraha (Ngāti Hineāmaru, Te Kahu o Torongare ki Waiomio, Ngāti Te Tarawa); and author, editor and university lecturer Dougal McNeill.
The General Non-Fiction Award will be judged by journalist and academic Jim Tully ONZM (convenor), writer, editor, broadcaster and literary festival curator Kerry Sunderland; and academic, researcher and author Rebecca Kiddle (Ngāti Porou, Ngā Puhi).
The Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction will be judged by former radio broadcaster and book reviewer Lynn Freeman (convenor); arts advocate and former festival director Marianne Hargreaves; and artist, curator and writer Ane Tonga.
All of the above books can be ordered through Unity Books Wellington or Unity Books Auckland today.