Montana Book Awards 2003 Longlist Announced

Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2003 Longlist Announced

The much anticipated Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2003 longlist has been announced. It comprises a longlist of five books for the Deutz Medal for Fiction, and a longlist of 24 books, judged in seven separate categories, for the Montana Medal for Non Fiction. This year’s judging panel comprises publisher and author, Brian Phillips (convenor), along with multi-published authors Marilyn Waring and Tony Simpson.

Brian Phillips, who was convenor of the 1991 Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards’ judging panel, a forerunner to the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, commented that the overall quality of book production in New Zealand had improved considerably in the last 10 years. He said “it would be a tough task for the judges to single out an individual book for the Montana Medal as in some non fiction categories the quality of the entries was outstanding.”

Regional histories proved popular this year, indicating as Phillips says, “that regional publishing is, happily, alive and flourishing in New Zealand.” He said that the regional history books selected for this longlist tended to be a microcosm of this country’s national history.

The Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2003 longlist is:

DEUTZ MEDAL FOR FICTION LONGLIST The Hopeful Traveller by Fiona Farrell (Vintage) Eight Stages of Grace by Diane Brown (Vintage) The Shag Incident by Stephanie Johnson (Vintage) When Gravity Snaps by Owen Marshall (Vintage) The Book of the Film of the Story of My Life by William Brandt (Victoria University Press)

MONTANA MEDAL FOR NON FICTION LONGLIST

Biography Category: The Book of Iris: A Life of Robin Hyde by Derek Challis (Auckland University Press) Looking for the Phoenix: A Memoir by W H Oliver (Bridget Williams Books) A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields by Philip Temple (Auckland University Press) Somebodies and Nobodies: Growing Up in an Extraordinary Sporting Family by Brian Turner (Vintage)

Environment Category: Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail by Geoff Chapple (Random House NZ) Whenua: Managing Our Resources edited by Merata Kawharu (Reed Publishing) Which New Zealand Insect? by Andrew Crowe (Penguin Books NZ)

History Category: The Fjords of Fiordland by Dr John Hall-Jones (Craig Printing) The Canoes of Kupe: A History of Martinborough District by Roberta McIntyre (Victoria University Press) No Idle Rich: The Wealthy in Canterbury & Otago 1840–1914 by Jim McAloon (University of Otago Press) Songs of a Kaumatua by Mervyn McLean and Margaret Orbell (Auckland University Press)

Illustrative Category: Tony Lane by Lara Strongman (Ouroborus Publishing) Len Castle: Potter by Nancy Pel and Len Castle (Ron Sang Publications) Barefoot Kings: New Zealand Photographs by John McDermott (Craig Potton Publishing)

Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture Category: Wine Atlas of New Zealand by Michael Cooper (Hodder Moa Beckett) Samoan Art & Artists: O Measina a Samoa by Sean Mallon (Craig Potton Publishing) The Last True Explorer: Into Darkest New Guinea by Philip Temple (Godwit) New Zealand Abroad: The Story of VSA’s Work in Africa, Asia and the Pacific by VSA (Bridget Williams Books and VSA)

Poetry Category: Playing God by Glenn Colquhoun (Steele Roberts) As Big as a Father by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman (Steele Roberts) Captain Cook in the Underworld by Robert Sullivan (Auckland University Press)

Reference and Anthology Category: Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific Dimension of Contemporary New Zealand Arts edited by Sean Mallon & Pandora Fulimalo Pereira (Te Papa Press) Spirit in a Strange Land: A Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse edited by Paul Morris, Harry Ricketts & Mike Grimshaw (Godwit) A Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language edited by Graeme Kennedy, Rachel McKee, David McKee, Pat Dugdale, Shaun Fahey, Richard Arnold and David Moskovitz, (Bridget Williams Books)

The Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2003 shortlist will be announced in Auckland on Friday 20 June. The shortlist will consist of three books for the Deutz Medal for Fiction, while the winners of the seven non fiction categories will make up the shortlist for the Montana Medal for Non Fiction. The winners of the Deutz Medal and the Montana Medal will be announced at a gala dinner in Christchurch on the evening of 22 July.

This year books submitted for the Awards will have been published between 1 April 2002 and 31 December 2002. This one-off nine-month period is to bring the awards process in line with the calendar year. In previous years the eligibility period covered 1 April to 31 March of the year of the Awards.

The principal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are Montana Wines Ltd and Creative New Zealand. The Awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by the Book Publishers Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.

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