Montana book winner mistakenly announced

Next Magazine announced the winner of the fiction section of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards - before the judges have even made their decision! The magazine published who it believed had won the fiction category in the August edition of its magazine.

"The magazine has advised us that they have done this in error, that they do not know who has won the awards and that they became confused in an article which also discussed this year's winner of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards," Booksellers NZ chief executive Lincoln Gould said.

"The Next article was written before judges had even decided who the winners were," he said.

"Any suggestion as to the winner of Montana New Zealand Book Award categories at this stage is purely speculative - guess work."

The actual winner of the award will be announced at a ceremony at the Auckland Museum on July 27.

- NZPA