Globally recognised leader, former New Zealand Prime
Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s first book, A Different
Kind of Power, has made the shortlist of the 2026 Ockham
New Zealand Book Awards.
Ardern’s memoir is one of
four finalists announced today in the awards’ General
Non-Fiction category. She is up against journalist and
natural history writer Naomi Arnold’s Northbound: Four
Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa; TV producer/director,
documentary maker and writer Peta Carey’s The Hollows
Boys: A Story of Three Brothers & the Fiordland Deer
Recovery Era; and This Compulsion in Us by novelist,
essayist, short story writer and creative writing
teacher Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa,
Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā).
The
awards’ General Non-Fiction category convenor of judges
Philip Matthews says the shortlisted books are highly
readable works that give honest impressions of this country
and its people.
“The final four were elevated by
artful writing and personal reflections that also offered
profound insights. Each came as a surprise, even to those
who thought they knew the story,” he adds.
The four
General Non-Fiction finalists are joined on the shortlist by
a further 12 writers, across the genres of fiction, poetry,
history, botany, art and te ao Māori. These 16 finalists
were selected by panels of specialist judges from a longlist
of 44 books across four categories: fiction, poetry,
illustrated non-fiction and general
non-fiction.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Internationally acclaimed New Zealand
writer Catherine Chidgey is in the running for the awards’
$65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction with The
Book of Guilt. She has won the award twice before –
the only author to have done so – for The Wish
Child in 2017 and The Axeman’s Carnival in
2023.
Contesting Chidgey for this, the country’s
richest writing prize, is creative writing teacher, poet,
travel writer and essayist Ingrid Horrocks with All Her
Lives; poet and short story writer Laura Vincent (Ngāti
Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) with Hoods Landing; and artist
and author Sam Mahon with How to Paint a
Nude.
The awards’ fiction category convenor of
judges, Craig Cliff, says these four books indicate the
breadth and brio of fiction being produced in Aotearoa
today.
“You laugh, you shudder, you are pulled along
by character and voice and plot. Set in different time
periods and across the globe, these four authors speak
directly to the contemporary concerns of New Zealanders. How
free are we really? How much have attitudes to gender and
sexuality actually changed? What might be killing us and
what sustains us?” he says.
As in previous years,
the fiction panel will be joined by an overseas judge when
it makes its deliberations about the winner. This year that
judge is Leslie Hurtig, the artistic director of the
Vancouver Writers Fest and a respected Canadian literary
juror.
The finalists in the Mary and Peter Biggs Award
for Poetry are poet and academic Anna Jackson for
Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts; poet and
critic Erik Kennedy for Sick Power Trip; and debut
poets Sophie van Waardenberg for No Good and Nafanua
Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu)
for Black Sugarcane.
“As
judges we were filled with imagination and excitement, and
we were also torn by the reasoning, culture, storytelling
and language of the high-quality poetry collections in this
year’s submissions,” says category convenor of judges
Daren Kamali. “We salute the four finalists, from the
island realness of Black Sugarcane and the
love, loss and distance in No Good, to
long COVID in Sick Power Trip and the shape and
form of Terrier, Worrier.”
The authors in the
running for the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
are emeritus professor of history Charlotte Macdonald for
Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and Across
the British Empire; first-time author and emeritus
professor of botany Philip Garnock-Jones for He Puāwai:
A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers; art curator
Sarah Farrar for Mark Adams: A Survey – He Kohinga
Whakaahua; and historian Elizabeth Cox for Mr Ward’s
Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street.
The
category’s convenor of judges Lauren Gutsell says books
that complicate what we think about ourselves, our history,
and the land we live on comprise this year’s
shortlist.
“These four titles each bring new
understandings of their subject matter, not only through
research and narrative but through photography, artwork,
illustration, and mapping. Each book makes a notable
contribution to our understanding of our country,” she
says.
Nicola Legat, spokesperson for the New Zealand
Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa, says this
year’s shortlisted books are fresh, reflective, and pack a
punch.
“It’s a very exciting finalist list
– 16 titles that readers of any genre will enjoy.
They have been beautifully crafted by their authors and
produced with great care by their publishers. The Book
Awards Trust salutes them all.”
The 2026
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted titles
are:
*represents debut authors
Jann
Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
All Her
Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te
Herenga Waka University Press)
Hoods
Landing by Laura Vincent
(Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) (Āporo
Press)
How to Paint a Nude by
Sam Mahon (Ugly Hill
Press)
The Book of Guilt by
Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka
University Press)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for
Poetry
Black
Sugarcane by Nafanua
Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu)
(Te Herenga Waka University
Press)*
No
Good by Sophie van Waardenberg
(Auckland University
Press)*
Sick Power
Trip by Erik Kennedy (Te
Herenga Waka University Press)
Terrier,
Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
by Anna Jackson (Auckland
University Press)
BookHub Award for Illustrated
Non-Fiction
Garrison World: Redcoat
Soldiers in New Zealand and Across the British
Empire by Charlotte Macdonald
(Bridget Williams Books)
He Puāwai: A
Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by
Philip Garnock-Jones (Auckland University
Press)*
Mark Adams: A
Survey – He Kohinga Whakaahua by
Sarah Farrar (Massey University Press and
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
Mr
Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by
Street by Elizabeth Cox
(Massey University Press)
General Non-Fiction
Award
A Different Kind of
Power by Jacinda Ardern
(Penguin, Penguin Random
House)*
Northbound: Four
Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa by
Naomi Arnold (HarperCollins Aotearoa New
Zealand)
The Hollows Boys: A Story of Three
Brothers & the Fiordland Deer Recovery Era
by Peta Carey (Potton &
Burton)
This Compulsion in Us
by Tina Makereti (Te
Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore,
Pākehā) (Te Herenga Waka University
Press)
The 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards winners
– including the four Mātātuhi Foundation Best
First Book Awards recipients and potentially, at the
discretion of a specially appointed judge, Te Mūrau o te
Tuhi Māori Language Award – will be announced at a
public ceremony on 13 May during the Auckland Writers
Festival.
The winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize
for Fiction will receive $65,000 and each of the other main
category winners will receive $12,000. Each of the Best
First Book winners, for fiction, poetry, general non-fiction
and illustrated non-fiction, will be awarded
$3,000.
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are
supported by Ockham Residential, Creative New Zealand, the
late Jann Medlicott and the Acorn Foundation, Mary and Peter
Biggs CNZM, BookHub, The Mātātuhi Foundation and the
Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o
Tāmaki.
Notes:
The 2026 Ockham New
Zealand Book Awards judges are: For the
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction:
novelist, short story writer and reviewer
Craig Cliff (convenor); novelist, poet and Arts
Foundation Te Tumi Toi Laureate Alison Wong;
and bookseller, writer and reviewer Melissa
Oliver (Ngāti Porou). For the Mary and
Peter Biggs Award for Poetry: poet, musician and
multi-disciplinary artist Daren Kamali
(convenor); poet, writer,
performer and editor Jordan Hamel; and
writer, musician and translator Claudia Jardine.
For the General Non-Fiction Award:
journalist, author and reviewer Philip
Matthews (convenor); academic and writer
Georgina Stewart (Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki);
and screen director, producer, and author
Dan Salmon. And for the BookHub Award for
Illustrated Non-Fiction: art historian and
curator Lauren Gutsell (convenor);
photographer, moving-image artist, writer and
academic Natalie Robertson (Ngāti Porou, Clann
Dhonnchaidh); and non-fiction writer and former
magazine editor Rebekah
White.
Leslie Hurtig is
Artistic Director of the Vancouver Writers Fest. She has
worked in a range of senior positions across the Canadian
literary landscape for the last 35 years. In addition to
curating year-round and festival events, Leslie regularly
moderates literary conversations, acts as juror for a number
of prizes, and sits on the board of the Canadian Association
of Literary Festivals and organizing committee for the
Global Association of Literary Festivals.
The
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s
premier literary honours for books written by New
Zealanders. First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book
Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they
have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards
and the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Awards are given for
Fiction (the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction), Poetry
(the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry) Illustrated
Non-Fiction (the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction)
and General Non-Fiction. There are also four Best First Book
Awards for first-time authors (The Mātātuhi Foundation
Best First Book Awards) and, at the judges’ discretion, Te
Mūrau o te Tuhi, a Māori Language Award. The awards are
governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i
Te Rau Hiringa (a registered charity). Current members of
the Trust are Nicola Legat, Richard Pamatatau, Elizabeth
Jones, Garth Biggs, Renée Rowland, Kim Tairi, Suzy Maddox
and Elena de Roo. The Trust also governs the New Zealand
Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and Phantom
Billstickers National Poetry Day.
Ockham
Residential is Auckland’s most thoughtful
developer. Through creating elegant and enduring buildings
that are well-loved by those who make them home, Ockham
hopes to enhance Auckland – and to contribute to its many
communities. Founded in 2009 by Mark Todd and Benjamin
Preston, Ockham supports a number of organisations in arts,
science and education. These include the Ockham Collective,
their creative and educational charity, the acclaimed BWB
Texts series, the People’s Choice Award in New Zealand
Geographic’s Photographer of the Year Award, and
Ponsonby’s Objectspace gallery. But its principal
sponsorship of the New Zealand Book Awards, a relationship
now in its eleventh year, is perhaps Ockham’s most visible
contribution. Says Mark Todd: “Our communities would be
drab, grey and much poorer places without art, without
words, without science – without critical thought.
That’s why our partnership with the Ockham New Zealand
Book Awards means the world to us.”
Creative
New Zealand has been a sustaining partner of New
Zealand’s book awards for decades. The national arts
development agency of the New Zealand government encourages,
promotes and supports the arts in New Zealand for the
benefit of all New Zealanders through funding, capability
building, an international programme, and advocacy. Creative
New Zealand provides a wide range of support to New Zealand
literature, including funding for writers and publishers,
residencies, literary festivals and awards, and supports
organisations which work to increase the readership and
sales of New Zealand literature at home and
internationally.
Acorn Foundation is
a community foundation based in the Western Bay of Plenty
that encourages people to establish an endowment fund to
support causes they love in the local community forever.
Donations are pooled and invested, and the investment income
is used to make annual donations to local charities, while
the capital remains intact. Acorn has now distributed over
$25 million to causes important to their donors. Community
foundations are the fastest growing form of philanthropy
worldwide, and there are currently 18 located across the
country, with more than 85% of New Zealanders able to access
a local foundation. The Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New
Zealand Book Awards has been provided through the generosity
of one of Acorn’s donors, the late Jann Medlicott, and
will be awarded to the top fiction work each year, in
perpetuity.
Mary and Peter
Biggs CNZM are long-time arts advocates and patrons
– particularly of literature, theatre and music. They have
funded the Biggs Family Prize in Poetry at Te Herenga
Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s International
Institute of Modern Letters since 2006, along with the Alex
Scobie Research Prize in Classical Studies. They have been
consistent supporters of the International Festival the of
the Arts, the Auckland Writers Festival, Wellington’s
Circa Theatre, the New Zealand Arts Foundation, Featherston
Booktown, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra, the Featherston Sculpture Trust, the
Martinborough Music Festival, the Featherston Heritage
Festival, and the Wairarapa’s Kokomai Arts Festival. Peter
was Chair of Creative New Zealand from 1999 to 2006 and is
active across numerous governance roles, including Chair of
the Featherston Booktown Trust, which he and Mary founded in
2015. Peter led the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce in 2010
and the New Zealand Professional Orchestra Sector Review in
2012. He was appointed a Companion of New Zealand Order of
Merit for arts governance and philanthropy in 2013. Mary has
been the driving force behind the growth and success of the
popular annual Featherston Booktown Karukatea
Festival.
Founded in 1921,
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand
is the national association for bookshops. It helps
booksellers grow and succeed through education, information,
advocacy, marketing campaigns – such as Bookshop Day –
and services – such as BookHub. Launched
in 2023, BookHub is an e-commerce platform
that enables people to browse books, buy books and find
local bookshops, directly connecting readers with
independent bookstores across the motu. Local bookshops are
essential community hubs, and champions of Aotearoa New
Zealand books and of the Ockham New Zealand Book
Awards.
The Mātātuhi
Foundation was established by the Auckland Writers
Festival in 2018 to support the growth and development of
New Zealand’s literary landscape. To achieve this outcome,
the Foundation funds literary projects that have the
potential to develop sustainable literary platforms that
help grow awareness and readership of New Zealand books and
writers, increase engagement with New Zealand children’s
literature, or build access to, and awareness of, New
Zealand’s literary legacy.
For 26 years, the
Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki
has been a champion of thought leadership, literary
engagement and community building. It is New Zealand’s
premier celebration of books and ideas, with annual
attendances of over 80,000. The Festival offers a six-day
programme of inspiring discussions, conversations, readings,
debates and performances for every age, audience and
interest. Featuring over 200 of the world’s best writers
and thinkers from Aotearoa and overseas and with 25 percent
of the programme delivered free, this year’s Festival
takes place 12 – 17 May
2026.
© Scoop Media
Using Scoop for work?
Scoop is free for personal use, but you”ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.
Join Pro Individual
Find out more
