Montana finalists announced

The shortlists for this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards were announced at a lunch today at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland. Judged across eight categories, the seven non-fiction works, announced at the lunch, make up the shortlist for the Montana Medal for Non-fiction.

Three novels have been short-listed for the Deutz Medal for Fiction.

Montana Medal finalists:

Reference & Anthology:

Spirit in a Strange Land: A Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse edited by Paul Morris, Harry Ricketts and Mike Grimshaw (Godwit)

History:

No Idle Rich: The Wealthy in Canterbury and Otago 1840-1914 by Jim McAloon (Otago University Press)

Environment:

Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail by Geoff Chapple (Random House)

Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture:

Wine Atlas of New Zealand by Michael Cooper (Hodder Moa Beckett)

Biography:

A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields by Philip Temple (AUP)

Illustrative:

Len Castle: Potter by Nancy Pel and Len Castle (Ron Sang)

Poetry:

Playing God by Glenn Colquhoun (Steele Roberts)

Deutz Medal finalists:

The Hopeful Traveller by Fiona Farrell (Vintage)

The Shag Incident by Stephanie Johnson (Vintage)

When Gravity Snaps by Owen Marshall (Vintage)