Three battle for fiction prize

By MARGIE THOMPSON books editor

Two past winners and a first-time author have made it to the final cut for the Montana Book Award fiction prize.

On the shortlist are Elizabeth Knox, whose Vintner's Luck won in 1999, with Billie's Kiss, and Lloyd Jones, whose Book of Fame won last year, with Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance. Joining them is Craig Marriner for his first novel, Stonedogs, described by judge Bill Ralston as "a seriously destabilising read".

The winner will be announced on July 20.

Lynley Hood's controversial A City Possessed: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case won the history category, with judges Ralston, Witi Ihimaera and Lindsey Dawson saying its value "lies in the way that Lynley Hood has put events into a much wider context, so that the book speaks volumes about the nature of modern New Zealand society".

Hood again called for a Royal Commission into the Christchurch creche case. She said the issues raised in the book had still not been dealt with.

In what was probably one of the hardest categories to judge, Peter Wells' highly personal, memory-driven Long Loop Home won the biography section, ahead of scholarly works such as Roger Horrocks' Len Lye and Ranginui Walker's He Tipua: The Life and Times of Sir Apirana Ngata.

Also entered in that category was Te Onehou Phillis' Maori-language biography of her late father, Eruera Manuera. Ihimaera was the only judge able to read it, so the panel appointed a Maori language adviser, Te Awanui Arangi Black, who also read the three competing biographies.



Phillis received an Honour Award.

Waitakere City Mayor Bob Harvey won the environment section for Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare.

The drawn-out structure of the awards this year - which partly reflects the organisers' desire to create as much hype as possible - has led to the "finalists" preceding the "shortlist", a confusing state of affairs that needs to be explained every time a further lot of names is announced.

What was announced yesterday was the "shortlist", the final list before the award ceremony on July 20.

Other winners:

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

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

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

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