Nationwide search now on for the best books of ’09

Media Release: Friday 9 October, 2009

Nationwide search now on for the best books of ’09.

Entries are now open for the inaugural New Zealand Post Book Awards 2010. These Awards celebrate excellence, identifying the very best books written by New Zealanders, published in 2009.

“This is a very exciting time in our office, as a wonderful array of books entered for the Awards will soon begin to arrive daily.” said Booksellers CE, Lincoln Gould. “From novels to cook books, cutting-edge poetry to biographies, significant works of history and stunning art books – it is always a fascinating snapshot of a year of New Zealand writing and publishing.” 

New Zealand Post Group Chief Executive Sam Knowles said he looked forward to the company’s first association with the Awards.  “New Zealand has a wealth of writing talent and I’m sure we’ll see a rich selection of high quality
entries for the Awards in their streamlined and simplified categories.”  

Books will be judged in four main categories: Poetry, Fiction, Illustrated Non-fiction and General Non-fiction. A finalist list of 16 will be comprised of: 3 Poetry finalists, 3 Fiction finalists and 5 finalists in both the Illustrated Non-fiction and General Non-fiction categories. One Book of the Year will be chosen from these 16 finalists.Books submitted in the four main categories, written by first-time authors, will also be eligible to win the New Zealand Society of Authors Best First Book Awards for Poetry, Fiction and Non-fiction.

Books written entirely in Te Reo, will be judged for the Māori Language Award.

The extremely popular Readers’ Choice Award is the public’s opportunity to vote for their favourite book of the 16 finalist titles, as selected by the judges.

The significant prize pool will see the overall winner of the Book of the Year Award receiving $15,000.

Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive $10,000, the Māori Language Award $10,000, Readers’ Choice Award $5,000, and each of the winners of the three NZSA Best First Book Awards, $2,500.

The finalists will be announced on Tuesday 22 June 2010. On that day, winners of the Māori Language Award, and of the three NZSA Best First Book Awards for Poetry, Fiction and Non-fiction, will be announced.

The winners of the four Category Awards, Readers’ Choice Award and Book of the Year will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Auckland at the end of August 2010.

Submissions are welcome from today. Books can either be submitted by publishers on behalf of authors, or self-published works entered by the author directly. All titles are then checked to ensure they meet the eligibility criteria, and put before the panel of five judges for careful consideration.

The judging panel will be announced in late January, the members of which are selected for their broad range of literary skills and expertise. The panel has in the past included some of this country’s most highly respected authors, academics, reviewers, publishers and booksellers.

“It is a big job for the judging panel with approximately 250 books entered for the Awards each year.

They certainly won’t be short of a good read this summer,” reflected Gould.

How to Enter the Awards Those wishing to enter a book in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2010, can download the Entry Form and information from:  www.booksellers.co.nz

Closing Dates
Titles published between 1 January 2009 and 31 August 2009 must be submitted by 30 October 2009.

Titles published between 1 September 2009 and 31 December 2009 must be submitted by 27 November 2009.

(For titles scheduled to be released after 27 November, the entry forms must be submitted before deadline, with copies of the book to be supplied no later than 8 January 2010).
Submissions received after 27 November 2009, will not be considered.

ends

© Scoop Media