Marshall heads scoop by male writers

Timaru author Owen Marshall has won the country's top fiction prize for his novel Harlequin Rex about the new millennium and a frightening disease it ushers in.

His triumph was announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in Christchurch last night.

Marshall wins $15,000 and the Deutz Medal.

Convener of judges Stephen Stratford said Marshall provided readers with "an emotionally rich and distinctively New Zealand experience that no other writer in the world could deliver."

Harlequin Rex showed the author "at full stretch."

Golden Deeds by Catherine Chidgey and Talking About O'Dwyer by C. K. Stead were runners-up in the fiction section.

The top non-fiction prize, the Montana Medal, went to artist Grahame Sydney for his retrospective work The Art of Grahame Sydney.

Sydney, who wins $10,000, also won the Readers' Choice Award.

Mr Stratford said this year's awards attracted more entries than ever.

"What's really exciting to see is the exceptional quality of work from our younger writers, in particular our male writers."

New writers had been overwhelmingly female in the past, but this year's three best first books were all written by men.

Mr Stratford hoped for continued "enlightened support" from the Government and sponsors for the awards and industry.

Helen Clark said the awards were vital in recognising and rewarding entrants, but also in helping to promote reading and literature in New Zealand.

Poet Allen Curnow was presented with the A. W. Reed lifetime achievement award in recognition of his contribution to New Zealand writing.

Other winners included:

Non-fiction awards ($5000 each):

Poetry - The Lark Quartet, Elizabeth Smither, Auckland University Press.

History & Biography - Kapiti, Chris Maclean, Whitcombe Press.

Environment - Classic Tramping in New Zealand, Shaun Barnett and Rob Brown, Craig Potton Publishing.

Lifestyle - The Gardener's Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Native Plants, Yvonne Cave and Valda Paddison, Goldwit.

Illustrative Arts - The Art of Grahame Sydney, Grahame Sydney, Longacre Press.

- NZPA

To buy the award-winning books online from FlyingPig:

Harlequin Rex - Owen Marshall

Golden Deeds - Catherine Chidgey

Talking About O'Dwyer - C.K. Stead

The Art of Grahame Sydney - G. Sydney

The Lark Quartet - Elizabeth Smither

Classic Tramping in New Zealand - Shaun Barnett and Rob Brown

The Gardener's Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Native Plants - Valda Paddison