Book on child abuse case wins Montana history award

12.00pm

Dunedin author Lynley Hood's A City Possessed was today named winner of the history section in this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

The 600-page book gives an account of the controversial Christchurch Civic Creche case which led to the jailing of creche worker Peter Ellis in 1993 on child abuse charges.

As one of seven section winners, Hood's work, published by Longacre Press, is on the shortlist for the major non-fiction prize, the Montana Medal.

The other six section winners for the shortlist are:

Poetry: Piggy-back Moon by Hone Tuwhare (Godwit)

Lifestyle: The Art of Tivaevae: Traditional Cook Islands Quilting by Lynnsay Rongokea with photography by John Daley (Godwit).

Biography: Long Loop Home: A Memoir by Peter Wells (Vintage).

Illustrative: Akekeia! Traditional Dance in Kiribati by Tony and Joan Whincup (Susan Barrie)

Environment: Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare by Bob Harvey (Exisle Publishing)

Reference & Anthology: Nga Pepeha a Nga Tipuna: The Sayings of the Ancestors by Hirini Moko Mead and Neil Grove (Victoria University Press)

The three-book fiction shortlist for the Deutz Medal fiction prize announced today is:

* Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books)

* Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press)

* Stonedogs by Craig Marriner (Vintage).

The medal winners will be named at an Auckland function on July 20.

- NZPA