Media Releases

Leading New Zealand Children’s Book Awards merge and Hell Pizza encourages reading addiction

– Prize money now totals $59,500

Media Release 9 November

The New Zealand Book Awards Trust and the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) have announced today that they are merging their respective children’s book awards, setting the stage for even more activity and visibility around books for New Zealand children. Complementing the Awards, Hell Pizza has partnered with the New Zealand Book Awards Trust to sponsor the Hell New Zealand Reading Challenge.

The awards have a combined legacy of more than 100 years; the Trust-governed awards began in 1975 and LIANZA’s were established in 1945. A shared passion for children’s literature has brought the two awards together in a desire to increase children’s engagement with reading.

“We are thrilled about this decision to amalgamate the awards,” says New Zealand Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat. “The LIANZA awards are highly regarded by authors and publishers and we acknowledge how difficult it has been for LIANZA’s board to take this historic decision. We feel privileged to have LIANZA’S trust, and their awards will be in very good and sustainable hands. They will be cherished within our organisation.

“The merged awards now have a prize money pool of $59,500. This amount is a significant contribution to the children’s literature economy in this country.”

LIANZA President, Kris Wehipeihana, is equally delighted. “Merging the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards with the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults is exactly the kind of collaboration that our sector endorses.” she says. “This is a win for both organisations, and for Aotearoa New Zealand children’s literature. We’re looking forward to working with the New Zealand Book Awards Trust.”

While the new awards will still be known as the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults they will incorporate important elements of the LIANZA awards. The awards will continue to bestow the Esther Glen title to the junior fiction category which maintains the tradition of New Zealand’s oldest children’s book award. In addition, the awards will continue to confer the Elsie Locke title to the non-fiction award and will also include LIANZA’s award for illustration, the Russell Clark award.

LIANZA’s Te Kura Pounamu award for the best book in Te Reo will replace the current Māori language award. This award will continue to be judged by Māori librarian and information association, Te Ropu Whakahau,

The awards will be administered and governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, and a LIANZA representative will have a permanent seat on its board of trustees.

Hell Pizza’s high-profile relationship with LIANZA’s awards via its Reading Challenge will continue within the new format. “The success of the Reading Challenge has been hugely satisfying. With the announcement of this exciting merger of the awards we can take it to the next level and encourage even more New Zealand kids to enjoy reading books,” says Hell Pizza’s general manager Ben Cumming. “The 150,000 free pizza vouchers we gave out earlier this year amounted to more than one million books read by Kiwi kids. We would love to build on that number in 2016. Hell has always challenged the norm, and with kids now becoming so engrossed with modern technology we are bucking that trend and making reading cool again. We want pizza to be the gateway drug to reading addiction!”

Nicola Legat concludes, “The New Zealand Book Awards Trust is grateful for the support of our major funder Creative New Zealand as well as our other key sponsors Copyright Licensing New Zealand, Book Tokens Ltd and now Hell Pizza. We very much appreciate their significant investment and we are very much looking forward to next year’s awards.”

The call for entries in the 2016 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults opens on Monday,         16 November 2015 and the awards ceremony will held be in Wellington in August 2016.

Ends

For more information please contact:

New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2016: Prizes

Margaret Mahy Medal for Book of the Year: $7,500

Best Picture Book Award: $7,500

Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction: $7,500

Best Young Adult Fiction Award: $7,500

Elsie Locke Award for Best Non-Fiction: $7,500

Russell Clark Award for Best Illustration: $7,500

Te Kura Pounamu Award for Best Book in Te Reo: $7,500

Best First Book: $2,000

Children’s Choice in the categories of Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction and Te Reo: $1,000 each.

Total prize money: $59,500

New Zealand Book Awards Trust

The awards are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust (a registered charity).  Members of the Trust are Nicola Legat (chair), Karen Ferns, Paula Morris, Kyle Mewburn, Stella Chrysostomou, David Bowles and Julia Marshall. The Trust also governs the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (held each May) and National Poetry Day (held each August).

Creative New Zealand media release

12 October 2015

New Zealand literature boosted by new contract for international and national development

The international profile and sales of New Zealand literature and the development of the national publishing sector will be boosted over the next three financial years by a new contract awarded by Creative New Zealand.

The Publishers’ Association of New Zealand (PANZ) has been contracted to deliver a range of initiatives to increase the international sales and profile of New Zealand literature and authors and to develop networks which will help to achieve these results.

It will administer translation and international travel funds, support New Zealand’s presence at major international book fairs, and host international publishers in New Zealand as part of Creative New Zealand’s international visitors’ programme, Te Manu Ka Tau.

“The development of international markets for New Zealand literature is crucial. We need to maximize and leverage the interest in our authors off-shore and PANZ is best placed to do this,” said Senior Manager for International Programmes Cath Cardiff.

“Our aim is to have one organisation developing and delivering an integrated programme so there is an overarching view and strategy for raising the profile and readership of our literature overseas.

“This was one of the recommendations of our review of Creative New Zealand’s support for literature which was approved by the Arts Council in February this year,” she said.

PANZ has also been contracted to deliver a national publishing internship initiative to support and develop emerging practitioners who are aiming for a career in publishing. The initiative will support three internships, at a minimum of eight weeks, annually from the beginning of 2016.

Creative New Zealand will invest $540,000 in the international initiatives and $90,000 in the publishing internships over the next three years up to 2017/18.

Creative New Zealand’s Review of Literature was published in March 2015.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Sarah Pomeroy
Senior Communications Adviser, Creative New Zealand
T +64 4 498 0725| M +64 27 677 8070
sarah.pomeroy@creativenz.govt.nz

CLNZ adds $50,000 per year to the Cultural Fund for the next three years

• $25,000 for new writers’ award to open in 2016
• contestable funding increased – application process now open 
The CLNZ Cultural Fund has a new three-year plan that will make significant investments in New Zealand writing and publishing. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Fund has been allocated an additional $50,000 per year. This additional money is not from domestic licensing revenue but from overseas revenue that is non-title specific.

The new investment plan adds to the existing programmes run through the Cultural Fund and responds to feedback from the New Zealand writing community and the publishing industry on the Cultural Fund programmes.

The objectives of the Cultural Fund are to:
• protect – writers and publishers’ ability to earn  revenue from their works
• support – the creation and production of new works and assist the commercial success of New Zealand works
• grow – the number of works created and skills in the industry

Cultural Fund programme overview 2016–18
Over the next three years, while the investment plan is place, the full Cultural Fund programme of activities to meet these objectives will comprise:
• CLNZ/NZSA Research Grants: more information
• Contestable fund: more information below
• PANZ Training Fund: more information
• Publishing industry economic impact reports
• Tertiary scholarships: these scholarships to tertiary students are under development
• Writers’ award: a new writers’ award will open in 2016, more information below
New writers’ award to open in 2016
As part of our Cultural Fund three-year investment plan, CLNZ is establishing a new award for writers. This will open in 2016 and one award of $25,000 will be made to a writer each year for the next three years. Feedback from the writing community has made it clear that awards that give writers the time to write are valued and necessary. The new award has been developed in recognition of this feedback.

The new award will feature broad and inclusive criteria to allow writers across a variety of genres, including those with an educational focus, to apply.

A full set of criteria and application dates for this award will be made available in early 2016.
Contestable funding application process open for 2015
Updates to the contestable funding process have also been made as part of the Cultural Fund’s new three year investment plan and we are now inviting applications for 2015 funding.

Inviting applications for 2015 contestable funding
• the application deadline is 5.00 p.m. on 20 November
• click here for an application form, and here for guidelines 

Project and applicant eligibility are set out in the contestable fund guidelines.
Please read the guidelines carefully before applying.

Funding available
The total annual level of funding available has increased to a minimum of $60,000. This will be made available through one application process per year.

The funding requested in your application should be appropriate for the scale and reach of the project and take into account contributions from any partners or other funders.

The number of successful projects will vary from year-to-year and will depend on the individual merits of the applications received.

MEDIA RELEASE: For immediate release

It has just been announced that Global Ed publisher Tracy Strudley is a Finalist in the Education category of the NEXT Woman of the Year Awards 2015, in association with Pandora.

Now in their sixth year, these awards celebrate the achievements of New Zealand women who are excelling in their respective fields. The 30 finalists for this year’s awards were shortlisted across six major categories: Arts & Culture; Sport; Business & Innovation; Health & Science; Education; and Community. Tracy Strudley is profiled along with the other finalists in the October issue of NEXT magazine.

Strudley said, “I am hugely honoured to be chosen as a Finalist in the Education category of these prestigious Awards. My philosophy is that all children around the world have the right to become lifelong readers, which is why I am passionate about delivering exceptional products that help switch them on to reading. Knowing that my nomination will help shine a light on literacy and reading makes me feel incredibly proud.”

The categories will be judged by NEXT editor Sarah Henry; Minister for Women Louise Upston; and Geoff Ross, Chairman of Trilogy International and CEO of Moa Brewing Company. The category winners and overall NEXT Woman of the Year will be announced at the awards event in Auckland on October 8, and will feature in the November issue of NEXT magazine.

Tracy Strudley has more than 18 years’ publishing experience in international sales and marketing and for the past nine years has been the Sales and Marketing Director of Global Ed, a leading educational resource publishing company. Strudley co-founded Global Ed with literacy educator and bestselling author, Jill Eggleton QSO.

Prior to 2006, Studley was Sales and Marketing Manager for Reed Publishing, which included the Heinemann Education list. In this role she was responsible for the domestic market and exporting resources internationally. In her role at Global Ed, Strudley exports children’s literacy material to more than 30 countries worldwide. Key Links literacy is a major brand for Global Ed and in 2013 it was a finalist in the Best Product or Resource in Primary Education category, as well as a finalist in the export category. Global Ed’s Connectors series, distributed by Scholastic UK, has just become their most successful reading programme.

In April 2015, Strudley and Eggleton launched Bud-e Digital Ltd in conjunction with edtech studio Custard Square.  This partnership heralds the arrival of a range of pioneering digital and print products into the local and international markets, including North America, Asia and Australia. Having made their foray into trade publishing with Bud-e Digital, Strudley and Eggleton recently launched new imprint JillE Books, and are now in the throes of launching educational publishing company Code-Ed.

Tracy Strudley lives in Auckland with her family and volunteers her time to a number of non-profit organisations, including PANZ.

TRACY STRUDLEY IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Media contact: Sarah Thornton / 021 753744 / sarah.thornton@prcomms.com / www.globaled.co.nz

The Publishers Association of New Zealand condemns the ban on the sale and distribution of Ted Dawe’s Into the River.

As an Association we stand behind the right of Ted Dawe to assert his freedom of expression through his prize-winning words, the right of his publisher Penguin Random House to sell and distribute them, and especially the right of readers to access and enjoy his much-lauded novel.

PANZ President, Melanie Laville-Moore stated, “Into the River is a highly regarded piece of literature, charged with influencing and changing the lives of many of its teenage male readers. This is an unprecedented and extreme action by the Film and Literature Board of Review. Banning books is not the New Zealand way.”

The Association applauds the New Zealand writing, library and bookseller communities for standing firm on this most important of issues. PANZ calls for a review of current legislation and encourages others to request the same.

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For media enquiries please contact PANZ Association Director Anne de Lautour

Email: anne@publishers.org.nz

Ph: +64 9 280 3212

Mob: +64 21 646 311

MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards will be judged by 12 eminent academics, writers, journalist, commentators, former publishers and booksellers from around New Zealand; a three-fold increase on the number of judges in previous years which reflects the Awards’ new judging structure.

Each of the Awards’ four categories – Fiction, Poetry, General Non-Fiction and Illustrated Non-Fiction – and the awards for Best First Book  in those categories, will be judged by a panel of three judges, all specialists in their fields. A Maori language adviser will judge the Maori Language Award.

The judges will announce their longlist finalists on November 25, 2015, and their shortlist on March 8, 2016.

New Zealand Book Awards Trust chairwoman, Nicola Legat, says the judges selected for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are second-to-none.

“Authors and publishers can expect to receive the rigour and respect from this year’s line-up that their books deserve. Rather than four judges reading 150 or more books, as has been the case previously, these specialists will read only the books in their category, allowing for a more detailed examination of the works,” she says.

The Fiction category, whose $50,000 prize is now known as The Acorn Foundation Literary Award, will be judged by distinguished writer Owen Marshall CNZM; Wellington bookseller and reviewer Tilly Lloyd, and former Director of the Auckland Writers Festival and Creative New Zealand senior literature adviser Jill Rawnsley.

The Poetry Prize will be 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 will be 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 will be 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.

“It’s always an honour to be invited to judge these prestigious and important awards but also a major commitment of time.” says Ms Legat. “So we are enormously grateful that these very busy and skilled people are happy to demonstrate their support for the awards by diving in to months of reading and debate. We very much look forward to their final longlist, shortlist and winner selections.”

The winners will be announced on May 10, 2016, at an event at the Auckland Writers Festival.

Entries to the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards can be made via http://booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-book-awards/submissions . Books published between June 1, 2014 and December 21, 2015 are eligible for entry.

The New Zealand Book Awards is enormously grateful to the generosity of its partners: Ockham Residential, The Acorn Foundation and enduring funder Creative New Zealand.

ENDS

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

Editor’s Notes:

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for works written by New Zealanders. After a one year hiatus, the awards will return in 2016 thanks to sponsorship from Auckland property development company, Ockham Residential. The partnership, along with news of the awards’ new structure was announced last month. In July this year, the awards received a $50,000 windfall, earmarked for the top fiction work, from Tauranga community organisation, The Acorn Foundation, on behalf of one of its donors.

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).  Members of the Trust are Nicola Legat, Karen Ferns, Paula Morris, Kyle Mewburn, Stella Chrysostomou, David Bowles and Julia Marshall. Creative New Zealand is a significant annual funder of the awards.

The Trust also administers the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and National Poetry Day.