The biggest night on New Zealand’s literary calendar is here. The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards take place in Tāmaki Makaurau this evening but, if you can’t make it to the in-person ceremony at Auckland’s Aotea Centre, you can watch the entire ceremony right here on nzherald.co.nz.
The ceremony - which will be hosted by Jack Tame, starts at 7pm tonight and is an exciting part of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki, the largest annual literary festival in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Ockham NZ Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders.
The major prize of the night is the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, with the winner set to receive $65,000, while the three other main category winners will receive $12,000.
Jack Tame will MC the award show this year. Photo / TVNZ
A prize of $3000 will be awarded to the winners of the Best First Book, for fiction, poetry, general non-fiction and illustrated non-fiction.
The shortlisted finalists for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize were announced in March. Among the shortlist are Eleanor Catton, recipient of the Booker Prize in 2013 for her work The Luminaries, and former national award winners Emily Perkins, Pip Adam and Stephen Daisley.
The group of finalists proves it has been the country’s strongest-ever year for book publishing, as it also includes a selection of 16 talented authors whose works span memoir, poetry, history, art and te ao Māori.
Pip Adam, Stephen Daisley and Emily Perkins join Eleanor Catton in this year's competition for the $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
In a statement released to the Herald, the convenor of judges for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Juliet Blyth, said readers will be rewarded by the richness within the pages written by this year’s finalists.
“These four singular and accomplished titles encompass pertinent themes of social justice, violence, activism, capitalism, war, identity, class and more besides. Variously confronting, hilarious, philosophical and heart-rending, these impressive works showcase Aotearoa storytellers at the top of their game.”
Past winners include Becky Manawatu, Whiti Hereaka, Fiona Kidman, Charlotte Grimshaw and Patricia Grace.
The ceremony begins at 7pm and you can watch the livestream in the video above.
The 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted titles are:
