Finalists include a crowd funded book, while sci‐fi novel wins Māori Language prize

Three first time authors are among the finalists of the New Zealand Post Book Awards announced today, a feat described by judges as “an amazing achievement”. They are: The Intentions Book by Gigi Fenster, A Man Runs into a Woman by Sarah Jane Barnett, and Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand by Jarrod Gilbert.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Auckland on 28 August. Voting for the People’s Choice award starts today and closes on the 18 August.

Chief Judge John Campbell said: “It is a reflection of the extraordinary strength of the new and young writers we read, particularly in poetry, where New Zealand is blessed by so many fine writers (at all ages and stages) that we respectfully suggest poetry could stand beside rugby as our national sport.”

The judges noted that many of the finalists were also published by smaller publishers. They urged bigger publishers to take more risks. “Much of the best risk‐taking, much of the bravery, and much of the joy that comes from opening a book and finding a brilliant, original and fearless companion, came from smaller publishing houses. Thanks and congratulations to you all. But come on you bigger folk, some wilder courage please.”

Sarah Jane Barnett’s book, A Man Runs into a Woman, was not only published by a smaller publisher (Hue & Cry Press), it was also the first thing of any variety to be posted on the crowd‐funding website Pledge Me. The money to publish the book was raised in less than 24 hours.

Sci‐fi novel wins Māori Language award

The winner of the New Zealand Post Book Awards Māori Language prize has been announced today as the late Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira’s book Ngā Waituhi O Rēhua (The Chronicles of Rēhua).

The book follows the journey of four teenagers living on Rēhua, a planet settled after Earth is destroyed by ecological disasters and global war.

Judge Paora Tibble believes Dame Kāterina brings Science Fiction together with the values of the of the Ataarangi Māori language movement that she championed.

Dame Kāterina passed away in 2011 in Hamilton at the age of 78. She was a New Zealand Māori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer. Her efforts to revive and revitalize the te reo Māori, led to the growth of the Māori immersion schools (Kura Kaupapa Māori) in New Zealand.

New Zealand Post Book Awards Finalists for 2013

Poetry

A Man Runs into a Woman by Sarah Jane Barnett – Hue & Cry Press

Snow White's Coffin by Kate Camp – Victoria University Press

The Darling North by Anne Kennedy – Auckland University Press

The Lifeguard: Poems 2008 – 2013 by Ian Wedde – Auckland University Press

Fiction

The Big Music by Kirsty Gunn – Faber & Faber

In the Absence of Heroes by Anthony McCarten – Random House

The Forrests by Emily Perkins – Bloomsbury Publishing

The Intentions Book by Gigi Fenster – Victoria University Press

Illustrated Non‐fiction

His Own Steam: The Work of Barry Brickell by David Craig, Gregory O'Brien and Haruhiko Sameshima – Auckland University Press

Pat Hanly by Gregory O'Brien and Gil Hanly – Ron Sang Publications

Selling the Dream: The Art of Early New Zealand Tourism by Peter Alsop, Dave Bamford and Gary Stewart – Craig Potton Publishing

Stag Spooner: Wild Man from the Bush by Chris Maclean – Craig Potton Publishing

General Non‐fiction

Civilisation: Twenty Places on the Edge of the World by Steve Braunias – Awa Press

Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand by Jarrod Gilbert – Auckland University Press

The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākeha Encounters, 1642–1840 by Vincent O'Malley – Auckland University Press

The Search for Anne Perry by Joanne Drayton – HarperCollins

Nielsen Booksellers’ Choice

Big House, Small House: New Houses by New Zealand Architects by John Walsh and Patrick Reynolds – Random House

Buller's Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Work of JG Keulemans by Geoff Norman – Te Papa Press

Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand's Legendary Bird by Quinn Berentson – Craig Potton Publishing

Shelter from the Storm: The Story of New Zealand's Backcountry Huts by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint – Craig Potton Publishing

New Zealand Post Book Awards Māori Language Award Winner

Ngā Waituhi O Rēhua (The Chronicles of Rēhua) by Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira – Huia Publishers

ENDS

Important dates

“BOLD AND BRASH” WINS DESIGNER ALAN DEARE FOUR AWARDS

Four of the eight category awards at last night’s PANZ Book Design Awardsceremony were scooped by Alan Deare, of AREA Design.

The beautifully illustrated On Song: Stories Behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics won both the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book sponsored by Nielsen Book Services and the Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book. The awards judges applauded On Song for the way its design embraced the content and musicality of the book, capturing the subject and drawing the reader in with its reference to popular culture.

Convening judge Gideon Keith described it as “a book that truly celebrates New Zealand pop classics; bold, brash, colourful and entertaining.”

Alan Deare was also announced the winner of the Mary Egan Publishing Award for Best Typography and the 1010 Printing Award for Best Cookbook with another title, Hunter from the Heartland: Recipes & Stories from Masterchef Favourite Cameron Petley, a book in which the design elements “all fit perfectly with the apparent blokeishness of the author, handled with enviable grace and style.”

Other winners announced at the ceremony were designers Ali Teo and John O’Reilly who took away the Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book for their title Melu, described by the judges as exuding “quiet confidence indicative of designers in full command of their craft.”

The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literaturealso delivered on the night, winning both the HarperCollins Publishers Award for Best Cover (designer Scott Crickett) and the Hachette New Zealand Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book (Scott Crickett and Katrina Duncan).

The judges felt that this was an understated but self-assured piece of design work and that they could “spend a long time exploring the subtleties of Scott Crickett’s design.”

The Pearson Award for Best Educational Book was given to designers Cameron Gibb (Neu Design) and Cheryl Rowe for their simple and elegant design of Essential Maths and Stats for Higher Education, a title that was also shortlisted in the best cover category.

PANZ Young Designer of the Year

The additional highlight of the awards is the PANZ Young Designer of the Year, announced at last night’s ceremony as Auckland freelance designer Kate Barraclough.

The award is presented each year to a designer under the age of 35 for a portfolio of between three and five books, and is judged on artistic merit, innovation of form and appropriateness to the intended market.

Kate Barraclough blew the judges away with the versatile style and palette of fonts used in her five designs for Random House NZ. Convener for the category Megan van Staden said that the judges “felt all her books were strong and diverse” and loved how she “designs appropriately for the subject, in an accessible way that attracts readers.”

2013 PANZ Book Design Awards judges

Convening judge of the PANZ Book Design Awards this year was Gideon Keith, who has worked as a graphic designer for over twenty-five years and is now Creative Partner at Strategy Design & Advertising, Auckland. Judging alongside him were Iain Sharp, Sarah Maxey and Megan van Staden. The convening judge of the PANZ Young Designer of the Year award was Megan van Staden, an in-house designer at Random House and the 2012 Young Designer of the Year.

www.bookdesignawards.co.nz

View press release as a pdf

ENDS

For more info and book images please visit:

For further details and high-res images of all winning books please contact:

Applications are now open for the 2013 CLNZ Educational Publishing Awards. This annual event in association with PANZ was first established in 2010 to recognise and reward authors and publishers for excellence in this market.

Award Details

Six awards are given to:

• Best Book/Series in Primary Publishing
• Best Book/Series in Secondary Publishing
• Best Book in Higher Education Publishing
• Best Book/Series in Te Reo Māori
• Best Digital Media Solution
• Best Educational Resource or Programme for Export

These Awards are an annual event in the publishing industry calendar. Applications are judged by a selection panel of three qualified judges to be appointed by members of the PANZ Council. Applications are not returned.

For more info please visit:

www.copyright.co.nz/Writers-Awards

A book about a Moa – described by judges as illuminating, entertaining and utterly original – has won the New Zealand Society of Authors’ Best First Book non-fiction prize in the New Zealand Post Book Awards.

Quinn Berentson’s book Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird published by Craig Potton was singled out by the judges as one of the “best surprises of all the books we read.”
 
The other winners were the poetry book Graft by Helen Heath and the fiction title, I Got His Blood on Me by Lawrence Patchett.
 
What the judges said about the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Best First Book award winners

Graft by Helen Heath (winner of the NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book for Poetry award) published by Victoria University Press: “Helen Heath is a candid poet, unflinching, both with what she sees close to her and in the mirror, but capable of great generosity too. Her mother is so beautifully evoked that we feel we know her. Some of the poems are so sad they ache. This is a brave, moving, revealing and assured collection.”
 
I Got His Blood on Me by Lawrence Patchett (winner of the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book for Fiction award) is also from Victoria University Press. “We congratulate Lawrence on his originality, his skills as a story teller, and the welcome audacity of a short story collection which ranges from playing with history, to magic realism, to a tougher kind of realism entirely: all of it somehow plausible.”
 
Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird by Quinn Berentson (winner of the NZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book for Non-Fiction award): “Moa tells the extinct bird’s story in an exhaustive, scholarly and utterly engaging way. Think of Moa as a really great historical biography, in which almost everyone (including the bird itself) is varying degrees of mad.”
 
The category finalists in the New Zealand Post Book Awards will be announced next week, and the winners will be revealed during a star-studded literary awards ceremony in Auckland on 28 August.

ENDS

For more information on the New Zealand Post Book Awards contact: 

Background information

The New Zealand Post Book Awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and sponsored by New Zealand Post. The awards are also supported by Creative New Zealand and Book Tokens New Zealand.

Important dates

www.booksellers.co.nz/awards

1 July 2013

“This is such sad news, my brain and heart are all scrambled by it,” Witi Ihimaera said today of news that Ray Richards died early this morning in Auckland at the age of 92.

“Ray Richards was a true rangatira, and I have been proud to be one of his tribe of writers, literary colleagues and friends. He was one of the poutokomanawa, central posts, supporting New Zealand writing and publishing and enabling it to flourish.

“Personally speaking, I always felt that I could have no better and finer mentor than Ray, who flew Corsair ground attack fighter aircraft from Fleet Air Arm aircraft carriers in World War II. It’s going to be difficult flying solo and looking out to my left and not to see him there. Haere ra Ray.”

Tessa Duder is another writer who has had a long relationship with the publisher and literary agent emeritus. “Ray Richards got in touch with me on the publication of my first book in 1982 and remained my agent for 31 years.

“It was a relationship based on trust, respect and love of books. He treated every one of his large stable of writers with equal skill, wisdom and shrewdness, and I believe publishers and, in recent years, screen producers, saw him as tough but pragmatic, always seeking the best outcomes for his clients.

“As the person ‘who invented New Zealand publishing’ (Geoff Walker’s description) his knowledge of local publishing was unrivalled. He will be much missed.”

On behalf of the Publishers Association of New Zealand, Kevin Chapman says, “The publishing industry has lost a legend with the death of Ray Richards. Ray has been an active agent for longer than most of the industry have been alive, but before that he was an innovative and creative publisher, responsible for discovering Barry Crump among many other writers.

“PANZ was proud to make Ray an Honorary Life Member in recognition of his sterling service to the organisation and industry. Among his many roles, Ray was involved on the executive when BPANZ was initially set up in a merger of the two previous organisations.

“Many publishers have worked with Ray and Barbara over the years and have valued his knowledge and commitment to books and writers. He will most certainly be missed, and we send our condolences to Barbara and the family.”

From a 2011 article on the PANZ website:

Ray was tough stuff from an early age. At 14 years 11 months and 12 years old respectively, Ray and his brother Sim took the train to Auckland and rode their bikes back to home in Wellington.

“They were different days then – molestation hadn’t been invented, roads were gravel not bitumen and bikes didn’t have gears!”

At Cambridge Ray got mail asking him to accept an offer of employment at AH & AW Reed Publishing. AH Reed knew of Ray and recommended him to AW for the position. “So it was helter skelter back to Wellington.”

Getting the job meant Ray didn’t have to go back to school, and we’re talking depression years here.

Ray did his bit in the Fleet Air Arm to win the war and came back to Reeds’ to find AW wanted to follow his uncle’s example and become an author. So Ray’s progression from production and magazine manager to becoming an editor, then taking over the company’s book division was warp speed (though that probably hadn’t been invented then).

That was only the beginning of a lifetime in books with some amazing milestones on the way – less than five years after fighting Japanese forces he was forging business deals with Kyoto in Japan to print New Zealand books in full colour.

Ray became New Zealand’s first literary agent in 1976, a second career that lasted for thirty plus years. He was hugely influential in our publishing industry. Personally, he was someone who was unfailingly helpful and courteous, and was generous with his time and his advice. He was active and working until his recent retirement.

Ka Meechan will be retiring from Nielsen at the end of August. Ka began her 25 years with the company when she joined Book Data Limited in Twickenham in 1988. She returned to New Zealand in 1997 to open the Asia Pacific branch and has subsequently expanded her role across the BookData and BookScan product groups throughout the region.

Jonathan Nowell, President of Nielsen’s book information businesses says: “Ka has been both a worthy competitor and (for the last eleven years) a  wonderful colleague. I cannot praise enough her professionalism, her integrity and her commitment to both the business and the wider book industry. She leaves Nielsen stronger, and she leaves with our very best wishes for the future.”

Nielsen will be announcing the new management structure for New Zealand and Australia in the near future.

Albert Wendt, Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland and author of fiction and poetry, received a top honour being named a member of the elite Order of New Zealand in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announced on 3 June. His acclaimed first novel Sons for the Return Home was published in 1973 and many other books have followed over the decades including Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree, Leaves of the Banyan Tree, to the more recent titles Adventures of Vela and the short story collection Ancestry.

New Zealand Book Council chair, Peter Biggs, was made a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit for services to arts governance and philanthropy. Biggs divides his time between Melbourne where he heads advertising agency Clemenger BBDO, and New Zealand. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Growth and Innovation Advisory Board, is a former chair of Creative NZ, and on a number of other boards. He is a sought-after speaker on branding, marketing, creativity and leadership.

Craig Potton, the Nelson-based photographer and publisher, becomes a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and conservation. Craig founded the eponymous Nelson-based publishing company which is renowned for its books of photography among other things.

PANZ President Kevin Chapman said that it is very important that our cultural icons be recognised. “Albert Wendt is a towering figure in our literature, Peter Biggs’ many voluntary efforts in the arts included being an important part of our GOH planning, and although Craig Potton is honoured for his photography and conservation work, his publishing is an important part of that. Our industry should be proud of all of them.”

Above image: Albert Wendt