Media release – embargoed until 12.01am, Thursday 3 December 2015
Twenty-five years ago, renowned novelist, historian playwright and film-maker Peter Wells launched his short story collection, Dangerous Desires, the country’s first gay themed work published with the author’s actual name; today he launches the country’s inaugural LGBTIQ Writers Festival –  samesame but different.

Mr Wells, who co-founded The Auckland Writers Festival, says samesame but different is a celebration of difference and a statement of confidence in how far we have come as LGBTIQ New Zealanders.

“Samesame but different will be broad in scope, featuring some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top writers and will also focus on new LGBTIQ voices, introducing emerging talent.

“Audiences can expect interviews, panels and discussions on a broad number of issues affecting our lives.

“Intelligent, funny, smart and controversial, samesame but different seeks to broaden the audience beyond core LGBTIQ to include friends, family and those interested in celebrating difference.”

Samesame but different features: broadcaster Alison Mau, actor and playwright Victor Rodger, Whaitiri Mikaere aka Deisel Dyke Poet, novelist Witi Ihimaera, Labour party politician Grant Robertson, Metro magazine editor Susannah Walker, Home magazine editor Jeremy Hansen, YA novelist Paula Boock,  novelist Stevan Eldred Grigg, biographer Joanne Drayton, memoirist, dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright and playwright Aroha Awarau.

Samesame but different runs 12-14 February 2016 at AUT in central Auckland and is part of the Auckland Pride Festival. Go to www.samesamebutdifferent.co.nz for the full programme.  For tickets go to https://www.iticket.co.nz/go-to/same-same-but-different-lgbtqi-writers-festival

Auckland Pride Festival curator Ta’i Paitai acknowledges Peter Wells for organising the inaugural samesame but different Literary Festival.

“Featuring some of New Zealand’s esteemed writers, this event brings together artists and audiences for what will be one of the ‘not to be missed’ highlights of Auckland Pride Festival 2016,” says Mr Paitai.

Mr Wells says written and spoken language became useful weapons, honed during his secondary school years.

“I was always a very timid boy after I was bullied at Mt Albert Grammar. But I have to thank them, because I became a writer, as I could say on paper what I couldn’t say out loud.

“But when I am faced with an audience at festivals, I always have an involuntary reaction. For one moment the audience turns into the boys at MAGS and I close down. I learnt to get past this moment of primal fear and in fact I began to feel the enormous freedom of being able to say exactly what I wanted. I developed what is called ‘a sharp tongue’.

“This is one of the motivations behind me putting together, with a group of people, the country’s first LGBTIQ Writers’ Festival.

A sharp tongue has its uses,” says Peter Wells.

Dangerous Desires by Peter Wells was published in 1991 and won the Reed New Zealand Book Award. It became a bestseller and was published in New York and London. Niki Caro made her first feature film Memory & Desire from one of its stories.

Samesame but different LGBTIQ Writers’ Festival is enormously grateful to funding and support from Creative New Zealand, The Wallace Foundation, AUT and GABA.

ENDS

For interview enquiries or further information please contact: Penny Hartill, director hPR, 09 445 7525, 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz

www.samesamebutdifferent.co.nz

https://www.iticket.co.nz/go-to/same-same-but-different-lgbtqi-writers-festiva

Fiona Mackie, Kathy Aloniu and Melinda Szymanik have been appointed as judges of the 2016 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

The judging team will deliberate over an expected 150 entries in five categories: Picture Book, Illustration, Junior Fiction, Non-fiction and Young Adult Fiction. They will select five finalists, then a winner in each category.

Te Rangi Rangi Tangohau, Lawren Matrix, and Mereana Taungapeau have been appointed as judges for Te Kura Pounamu – the award that recognises and celebrates books written or translated into te reo Māori.

The supreme winner, drawn from the winners of the six categories, will be declared the 2016 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year.

Between them the judges have huge experience of reading, enjoying and working with books for children and young adults.

“The New Zealand Book Awards Trust is delighted to have such excellent judges for the 2016 awards,” says its chair Nicola Legat. “These judges stand out as having remarkable experience and expertise across many aspects of children’s literature.”

The finalist authors in the awards will embark upon a nationwide author tour, in the week prior to the awards being announced at a ceremony to be held in Wellington in August.

The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is sponsored by Creative New Zealand, Hell Pizza, Book Tokens Ltd and Copyright Licensing Limited New Zealand (CLLNZ). They are also supported by the Fernyhough Education Foundation and Nielsen Bookdata. The awards are administered for the New Zealand Book Awards Trust by the New Zealand Book Council.

To find out more about the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, please visit http://bit.ly/1N779df.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Nicola Legat
Chair
New Zealand Book Awards Trust
nmlegat@gmail.com
ph: 021 958 887

 

Judges Background Information – Additional information

Convenor of judges Fiona Mackie has 30 years’ experience across the education and libraries sectors, having worked as a teacher, a reference librarian, the Social Sciences Selector and the New Schools Advisor while at the National Library. She is a Past President of SLANZA — the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa — and is currently the teacher-librarian at Pinehurst College in Auckland.

Riki-Lee Saua (Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Tainui) is the Te Kura Pounamu Award Coordinator. Riki-Lee has worked in a number of Māori-specific roles at Auckland Libraries and Massey University Library. Currently she is a Subject Librarian at Manukau Institute of Technology in Otara, Auckland and is also a member of Te Rōpū Whakahau, the professional association for Māori who work in libraries, archives and information services.

Kathy Aloniu’s love of children’s literature comes from a rewarding 14 years spent as Manager of Children’s Services at the Invercargill Public Library. Kathy is currently City Team Leader at Dunedin Public Libraries and is an associate of the Libraries and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA). In 2012 Kathy was part of the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards judging panel.

Melinda Szymanik is a highly regarded writer of children’s fiction. Her books include Jack the Viking, The Were-Nana and A Winter’s Day in 1939. Recipient of the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer’s Residency in 2014, Melinda recently completed a Diploma in Children’s Literature from the University of Canterbury.

Te Rangi Rangi Tangohau (Te Aitanga ā Hauiti, Te Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi Tuhoe) is Principal Librarian Children’s Services at HB Williams Memorial Library, Gisborne. Te Rangi Rangi continues to ‘raise reading levels’ for kura kaupapa Māori children participating in the Kiki Taumata programme. The programme is conducted in te reo Māori and supported by senior students.

Lawren Matrix (Ngāi Tuhoe, Ngāti Koura) is the Children’s Librarian at Te Matariki Clendon library in Auckland. Lawren is responsible for the provision of Māori-specific programming, story-time visits and other programmes designed for children and youth on behalf of Auckland Libraries. Lawren has strong connections with Māori and Pasifika community groups in the Clendon and the wider Auckland area.

Mereana Taungapeau (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai) is Heritage Programme Adviser, Māori, at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Mereana is involved in a number of outreach programmes responsible for connecting Māori children, youth and adults to library collections. Mereana has wide experience of delivering library outreach programmes for local kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori.

Media release –  STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 12.01AM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2015

New Zealand’s Book Awards Announce First-Ever Longlist

The 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards’ inaugural longlist reveals a rich collection of works reflecting cultural and historical diversity and deeply rewarding poetry and prose from authors and illustrators all over the country.

There are 40 long-listed works; ten each from the four award’s categories – illustrated non-fiction, general non-fiction, poetry and fiction.

New Zealand Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat says the increasing number and calibre of locally published works is behind the introduction of a longlist.

“Authors have asked for a longlist for many years and it emerged as a clear preference after consultation with the wider literary community.

“A longlist more equitably showcases a wider number of books in a strong publishing environment where there is very close competition. It is a demonstration of how vital New Zealand literature is and how talented our writers are.”

The books were selected by four panels of specialist judges and are drawn from a record number of 240 entries.

“We thank our judges for their sterling work in creating this longlist. Their job has been especially challenging this year given the entry period represents a bumper crop of absolutely outstanding New Zealand books, published across all categories. There will be especial interest in the fiction prize given that the eventual winner will be awarded the Acorn Foundation Literary Award, worth $50,000,”says Ms Legat.

The 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlisted titles are:

Fiction:

The Antipodeans by Greg McGee (Upstart Press)

Astonished Dice: Collected Short Stories by Geoff Cochrane (Victoria University Press)

The Back of His Head by Patrick Evans (Victoria University Press)

Chappy by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House)

The Chimes by Anna Smaill (Hodder & Stoughton)

Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)

The Invisible Mile by David Coventry (Victoria University Press)

The Legend of Winstone Blackhat by Tanya Moir (Penguin Random House)

The Pale North by Hamish Clayton (Penguin Random House)

Reach by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin Random House)

Illustrated Non Fiction:

Zealandia: Our Continent Revealed by Nick Mortimer and Hamish Campbell (Penguin Random House)

My Family Table: Simple Wholefood Recipes from ‘Petite Kitchen’ by Eleanor Ozich (Allen & Unwin)

Hello Girls and Boys! A New Zealand Toy Story by David Veart (Auckland University Press)

Tuatara: Biology and Conservation of a Venerable Survivor by Alison Cree (Canterbury University Press)

Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s by Bronwyn Labrum (Te Papa Press)

Coast. Country.Neighbourhood.City edited by Michael Barrett (Six Point Press)

Te Ara Puoro: A Journey into the World of Māori Music by Richard Nunns (Potton and Burton)

New Zealand Photography Collected by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)

Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History by Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris (Bridget Williams Books)

Tramping: a New Zealand History by Shaun Barnett and Chris MacLean (Potton and Burton)

General Non Fiction:

Maurice Gee: Life and Work by Rachel Barrowman (Victoria University Press)

Terrain: Travels through a deep landscape by Geoff Chapple (Penguin Random House)

The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City by Fiona Farrell (Penguin Random House)

Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House)

Lost and Gone Away by Lynn Jenner (Auckland University Press)

Kitchens: The New Zealand Kitchen in the 20th Century by Helen Leach (Otago University Press)

Panguru and the City, Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: An Urban Migration History by Melissa Matutina Williams (Bridget Williams Books)

Outcasts of the Gods? The Struggle over Slavery in Māori New Zealand by Hazel Petrie (Auckland University Press)

Journey to a Hanging by Peter Wells (Penguin Random House)

The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand by Alistair Woodward and Tony Blakley (Auckland University Press)

Poetry:

The Art of Excavation by Leilani Tamu (Anahera Press)

Shaggy Magpie Songs by Murray Edmond (Auckland University Press)

How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes by Chris Tse (Auckland University Press)

The Night We Ate the Baby by Tim Upperton (Haunui Press)

Otherwise by John Dennison (Auckland University Press)

Mr Clean & The Junkie by Jennifer Compton (Mākaro Press)

Song of the Ghost in the Machine by Roger Horrocks (Victoria University Press)

Tender Machines by Emma Neale (Otago University Press)

The Conch Trumpet by David Eggleton (Otago University Press)

Dear Neil Roberts by Airini Beautrais (Victoria University Press)

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlist will be announced on 8 March 2016, and the winners (including the four Best First Book Awards and a Māori Language award) will be announced at a ceremony on May 10 2016, held as the opening night event of the Auckland Writers Festival.

To read about the longlisted titles go to http://booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-post-book-awards/about-the-awards

The Fiction category is judged by distinguished writer Owen Marshall CNZM; Wellington bookseller and reviewer Tilly Lloyd, and former Director of the Auckland Writers Festival and former Creative New Zealand senior literature adviser Jill Rawnsley.

The Poetry Prize is judged by former Auckland University Press publisher Elizabeth Caffin MNZM; James K Baxter expert Dr Paul Millar, of the University of Canterbury, and poet and University of Auckland academic Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh.

The General Non-Fiction Prize is judged by Metro Editor-At-Large Simon Wilson; Professor Lydia Wevers, literary historian, critic and director of the Stout Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington, and Dr Jarrod Gilbert, a former Book Awards winner for Patched: A History of Gangs in New Zealand, of the University of Canterbury.

The Illustrated Non-Fiction Prize is judged by former publisher Jane Connor, publisher of the magisterial The Trees of New Zealand, which won the Book of the Year award in 2012; Associate Professor Linda Tyler, Director of the Centre for Art Studies at The University of Auckland, and Leonie Hayden, the editor of Mana magazine.

ENDS

For interview opportunities, author images, book cover images and further information please contact: Penny Hartill, director, hPR 09 445 7525, 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz

Editor’s Notes:

The New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for works written by New Zealanders. First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Post Book Awards. The honours, now given for Fiction, Illustrated Non-fiction, General Non-Fiction and Poetry, as well as for Best First Book and Māori language, are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust (a registered charity). Creative New Zealand is a significant annual funder of the awards.

Ockham Residential Limited is Auckland’s most progressive developer, founded in 2009 by Mark Todd and Ben Preston. They describe themselves as urban regenerators, who love Auckland, and who want to see Auckland’s urban built environment become as beautiful and as world class as its natural landscape. Their Ockham Foundation is a generous donor to schools and universities.

The Auckland Writers Festival is the largest literary event in New Zealand and the largest presenter of New Zealand literature in the world. Now in its 15^th year, it hosts more than 150 writers from New Zealand and abroad over six days. Festival attendance increased 17 percent in 2015, to more than 62,000, following a 55 percent increase in 2014.

The Acorn Foundation is a community organisation based in the Western Bay of Plenty, which encourages people to leave a gift in their wills and/or their lifetimes, supporting their local community forever. Donations are pooled and invested, and the investment income is used to make donations to local charities, in accordance with the donors’ wishes. The capital remains intact. Since it was established in 2003, Acorn has distributed over $2.4million, and this year expects to distribute a further $500,000. It currently has invested funds of $13million. www.acornfoundation.org.nz, or www.nzcommunityfoundations.org.nz

 

Media Release – Monday November 23, 2015      

The Michael King Writers’ Studio trust is very happy to announce the appointment of Ka Meechan as the new Executive Director of the Writers’ Centre.

Ka has comprehensive knowledge of the international book trade from over 30 years of experience working in New Zealand, the UK and Australia. She has travelled extensively during her career working with clients and partners across the globe.

In August 2013 Ka left her role as Managing Director, Asia Pacific with Nielsen Book Services where she was responsible for revenue and client management across the range of  bibliographic information and retail sales monitoring services  in the Asia Pacific region encompassing Australia, New Zealand and the Asian countries bordering the Pacific.

For the past two years Ka has worked with the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ). Most recently she organized the PANZ International Summit in May and the PANZ Book Design Awards in July. She also project managed the Visiting Author component of New Zealand’s Guest of Honour programme at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) in February 2015.

Ka says:  I am very much looking forward to working with the Michael King Writers’ Studio Trust to build on the successes achieved over the last ten years.

Catriona Ferguson, Chair of the Trust says “Ka will bring energy and enthusiasm along with vast experience of the literature sector to the Trust. We are thrilled that she has accepted the role of Executive Director”.

As the first national writers’ centre in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Trust’s mission is to support quality New Zealand writing and the development of New Zealand writers. The centre is based in the old Signalman’s House on Takarunga Mt Victoria, Devonport, Auckland.

Ka will take up her appointment on Tuesday 01 December 2015.

For further information, please call                     Ph/fax:        445 8451

Tania Stewart, Administrator                              Mobile:         021 106 3837

Email:          assistant@writerscentre.org.nz

Congratulations to all winners!

 Media release: 20 November 2015

 

 

 NZ teachers help select best educational resources for 2015

2015 CLNZ Education Award winners named

Locally relevant, New Zealand content has won the vote of teachers around the country as well as awards from a panel of education experts. The recipients of the 2015 CLNZ Education Awards were announced at a ceremony in Auckland last night.

The CLNZ Education Awards are a celebration of the excellent resources New Zealand companies have recently released in the New Zealand education market. In 2015, classroom teachers from across New Zealand joined forces with a judging panel of education experts to add their choice of the best resources to the judge’s selection of award winning educational resources.

The CONNNECTORS Fiction Series (Global Ed), which uses a reciprocal reading approach to encourage reading development, was named Best Resource in Primary for 2015 by the judging panel. The judges commended the series for its use of stories and contexts that engage a diverse range of students and challenge their thinking.  These attributes and the commercial success of the series developed for the UK market also saw CONNECTORS Fiction named as the 2015 Best Resource for Export – demonstrating that excellent NZ content also performs very well in overseas education markets.

Winner of Best Resource in Secondary and, according to the judging panel, in a league of its own as a resource that can be used by teachers across a variety of disciplines, was Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History (Bridget Williams Books). Visually rich, Tangata Whenua charts Māori history from ancient origins to present day.

Working with Māori children with special education needs: He mahi whakahirahira (NZCER Press) won the award for Best Resource in Higher Education. The book explores physical disability, intellectual disability, vision and hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, and giftedness from a Māori perspective as well as the key components of culturally responsive, evidence-based, special education practice.

The Te Reo Singalong Books (The Writing Bug) were named the Best Resource in Te Reo Māori. This series impressed the judges as well as the Te Reo Tuatahi teaching  network who were consulting judges in this category. Matariki, a title in this series was also the favourite of teachers across New Zealand who voted in the Teachers’ Choice element of the awards. Matariki was voted Teachers’ Choice: Best Resource in Te Reo Māori for 2015. ‘Great and user-friendly’ commented one voting teacher.

The Teachers’ Choice award for Best Resource in Primary was presented to NZ Curriculum Mathematics: Connecting all Strands (Caxton Educational). Voting teachers commented that the resource ‘adds an extra dimension to my numeracy programme’ and ‘is awesome for allowing students to self-direct their own learning and connect numeracy with other strands.’

The Teachers’ Choice award for Best Resource in Secondary was awarded to ESA Publications’ custom workbooks. Secondary school teachers who voted in the Teachers’ Choice survey were impressed by these resources and some suggested areas they would like to see further study guides and workbooks created for, including transitioning ESOL students to mainstream environments.

Best Resource in Primary
CONNECTORS Fiction Series, Jill Eggleton and Tracy Strudley, Global Ed

Best Resource in Secondary

Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney and Aroha Harris, Bridget Williams Books

Te Reo Māori

Te Reo Singalong Books, Sharon Holt, The Writing Bug

Higher Education

Working with Māori children with special education needs: He mahi whakahirahira, Jill Bevan-Brown, NZCER Press

Best Resource for Export

CONNECTORS Fiction Series, Jill Eggleton and Tracy Strudley, Global Ed
Teachers’ Choice: Best Resource in Primary
NZ Curriculum Mathematics: Connecting All Strands, M.J. Tipler and S.C. Timperley, Caxton Educational

Teachers’ Choice: Best Resource in Secondary

ESA Custom Learning Workbooks, ESA Publications

Teachers’ Choice: Best Resource in Te Reo Māori

Te Reo Singalong Books: Matariki, Sharon Holt, The Writing Bug

The 2015 judging panel – click here to read full biographies for each judge

Andrew Cowie

Angela Fitchett

Dr Jenny Robertson

David Glover – consulting judge, export

Brenda McPherson and the Te Reo Tuatahi teaching network – consulting judges, Te Reo Māori

For more information please contact:
Ann Sprosen, CLNZ, phone 64 9 486 6250; email ann@copyright.co.nz

 

Auckland, 5 November 2015:

Applications for the 2016 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship are now open.

In its 28th  year, the fellowship is a national literary award offering published New Zealand writers, both here and overseas, the opportunity to focus on their craft full-time, providing an annual stipend of $20,000 and tenure at the Sargeson Centre in Auckland.

New Zealand author Bianca Zander says being awarded the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship in 2014 was invaluable to completing her second novel, The Predictions, published earlier this year.

Zander says the fellowship was a wonderful boost at the end of a long project. “I was in the final stages of The Predictions, so to have uninterrupted writing time without financial concerns was invaluable.”

“But it was also so much more than that – after spending so much time working on something on your own, in isolation, it can be hard to keep the faith that what you’re working on is actually something worthwhile. The fellowship was the encouragement I needed to keep on going through to the end.”

The advice Zander would offer to any writers considering the fellowship would be to go for it.

“The Sargeson Centre is a wonderful space to work in. Never underestimate the power of working somewhere where so many amazing writers have been before you.”

Previous winners include Alan Duff, Michael King, Marilyn Duckworth, and Janet Frame. In 2015 the fellowship was awarded to Robert Glancy and Duncan Sarkies.

The fellowship has been recognising and supporting some of our greatest talents for more than 30 years, says Paul Grimshaw, partner, Grimshaw & Co.

It offers vital support to New Zealand writers to focus, uninterrupted, on their work, Grimshaw says. “They are contributing to New Zealand’s literary landscape and we are very proud to support them.”

Applications close Friday 27, November, with tenure due to start 1 April 2016. Download the application form here.

 

Further information on the Fellowship is available here. Any queries can be directed to Elizabeth Bennie at elizabeth.bennie@grimshaw.co.nz or on +64 9 375 2393.

– ENDS –

 

About Grimshaw & Co

Grimshaw & Co are leaders in dispute resolution, with experience across all areas of civil and commercial litigation. Established in 2005, Grimshaw & Co have offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

About Frank Sargeson Trust

The Frank Sargeson Trust was formed in 1983 by Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson’s heir and executor.  The Trust aims to continue Sargeson’s lifelong generosity to writers through providing residential fellowships while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New Zealand’s first literary museum.  The first fellowship was awarded to Janet Frame in 1987. Learn more about Frank Sargeson and the Fellowship here.

For Media Enquiries contact:

Caroline Brown

E: cbrown@acumenrepublic.com P: +64 4 494 5152

 

 

 

3 November 2015

For immediate release

New Zealand Book Council contracted to administer New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

The New Zealand Book Awards Trust has today signed a contract with the New Zealand Book Council to administer the prestigious New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2016.

The New Zealand Book Council will take over administration from Booksellers NZ, although the latter will remain involved through membership of the Book Awards Trust and by providing financial support.

For more than 40 years The New Zealand Book Council has delivered programmes which highlight the breadth and quality of New Zealand writing. It has also supported a future generation of readers and writers through its flagship Writers in Schools programme. This new partnership will combine its expertise and knowledge with the country’s prestigious awards for books for young people.

Nicola Legat, Chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, said that the Trust was sorry to be ending the longtime and highly valued administrative relationship with Booksellers New Zealand. “But we have also worked with the Book Council for many years and know they will do an excellent job for us. We put several new initiatives in place in 2015, and look forward to enhancing the awards even further next year.”

Peter Biggs, Chair of the New Zealand Book Council said “The New Zealand Book Council is delighted to be working with the New Zealand Book Awards Trust to help deliver the 2016 Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. We know that reading changes lives, and we are looking forward to being a part of this unique showcase, celebrating the books that really matter to Kiwi children.”

Calls for expressions of interest in being a judge of the 2016 awards have just closed, and the call for entries opens on November 16.

The New Zealand Book Council will also administer 2016 National Poetry Day. The Auckland Writers Festival administers the New Zealand Book Awards on behalf of the Book Awards Trust.

For more information please contact Catriona Ferguson on 021 0248 2637 or Nicola Legat on 021 958 887.

ENDS*

 

Media release: 21 October 2015

Finalists showcase strength of NZ content in educational publishing

New Zealand students need strong local content to help them think critically, engage in their own environment and learn. The finalists in this year’s CLNZ Education Awards showcase the very real strength and breadth of our home-grown educational resources.

The 2015 finalists demonstrate that a need for local content on a subject area is most often identified and invested in by our own local publishers. The four resources named as finalists in the Te Reo Māori category – as well as the higher education finalists The New Zealand Dyslexia Handbook and Working with Māori children with special education needs highlight this.

New Zealand topics also feature prominently in the ranks of this year’s primary and secondary category finalists. Finalists in these categories include Huia Publishers’ Meariki, a graphic novel originally published in Maori; and Bridget Williams Books’ Tangata Whenua, which charts Maori history from ancient origins through to today.

This year, resources with strong local content also feature in the export category. Primary category finalist the Connectors Fiction Series, which takes a peer-to-peer approach to reading development and links in to the New Zealand curriculum, was also selected by the judging panel as an export finalist – demonstrating that resources for export markets are often adapted from those that perform well locally.

Paula Browning, CEO, CLNZ says: “This year’s finalists highlight the important work New Zealand’s educational publishers are doing to source, create and invest in local content. The educational publishing industry not only contributes significantly to learning in this country but is also an important contributor to employment and GDP.”

A recent PwC report* values the New Zealand publishing industry’s total impact on gross domestic product at $308 million – and attributes $69 million of this to educational publishing.

The CLNZ Education Awards judging panel named the following resources as finalists for 2015:

Best Resource in Primary

Connectors Fiction Series, Jill Eggleton, Global Education Systems

Living Things: Sorting Animals Series, Kathleen Ferrier, Lanky Hippo

There was an Old Woman, Kaitrin McMullan and Liz Weir, Clean Slate Press

Best Resource in Secondary

Meariki: the Quest for Truth, Helen Pearse-Otene, Huia Publishers

Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney and Aroha Harris, Bridget Williams Books

Unravelling Scholarship English, Jenny May, Ryan Publications

Best Resource in Te Reo Māori

Hui E! Term 2 2014, Huia Publishers

Ka hoki tāua ki te whare huri ai ē!, Agnes McFarland, NZCER Press

Rona, Chris Szkely, Te Kauru Nohotima, Huia Publishers

Te Reo Singalong Books, Sharon Holt, The Writing Bug

Best Resource in Higher Education

The New Zealand Dyslexia Handbook, Susan Dymock and Tom Nicholson, NZCER Press

Working with Māori children with special education needs: He mahi whakahirahira, Jill Bevan-Brown, NZCER Press

Best Resource for Export

Connectors Fiction Series, Jill Eggleton, Global Education Systems

CSI Literacy Kit 7, Neale Pitches, South Pacific Press and Pacific Learning

Keylinks Shared South African Afrikaans, Jill Eggleton, Global Education Systems

About the 2015 judging panel:

Andrew Cowie: currently a future focussed and e-learning facilitator with CORE Education, Andrew works with a variety of schools’ leadership teams, teachers, students, parents, and board members. He has 15 years of teaching experience across primary, intermediate and secondary as well as in a variety of learning environments throughout New Zealand, Canada, and the UK. His areas of expertise include: digital citizenship, psychology, e-Learning, leadership, innovation and parenting in the 21st century.

Angela Fitchett: Angela has a wealth of in-classroom experience as well as experience of the publishing process. Her previous teaching roles include Curriculum Manager, Dean and Head of English for Nelson College and she currently teaches English to senior and junior classes. She is the author or co-author of six text books on English for ESA Publications and is a columnist for the Nelson Mail.

 Dr Jenny Robertson: Jenny has a PhD in education. She has been a secondary school teacher and now works as monitor and evaluator for in-service professional learning and development contracts at The University of Auckland, Faculty of Education. Jenny has worked on a variety of curriculum related projects for the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. She also has experience of the publishing process as an author and has published educational texts with ESA Publications and health sector non-governmental organisations.

David Glover – consulting judge, export: Founder of Creative Strategies, David regularly advises New Zealand businesses as they explore new markets. He is the former CEO of Learning Media, which exported to over 30 countries, a past member of the PANZ Council, and the first non-American appointed to the board of the U.S. Association of Educational Publishers. He has over 25 years’ experience as a CEO and Board Director in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Indonesia.

Brenda McPherson and the Te Reo Tuatahi teaching network – consulting judges, Te Reo Māori:

Brenda is Principal of Windy Ridge School, one of the first schools to participate in the Te Reo Tuatahi programme. Te Reo Tuatahi supports the teaching of Te Reo Māori in schools through language assistants (kaiawhina reo) who deliver lessons in Māori – a model of language learning that is also used to teach other languages in New Zealand schools.

The 2015 judges’ selection winners and the results of the Teachers’ Choice voting will be announced at a ceremony in Auckland on Thursday 19 November.

*Employment and National GDP impacts of music, publishing, games and film and television in New Zealand, PwC, 2015.

For more information please contact:
Kirsteen Ure, CLNZ, phone 64 9 486 6250; email kirsteen@copyright.co.nz