Six Victoria University Press (VUP) books have made the shortlist of the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, announced this morning.
Three out of the four fiction finalists for the prestigious Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, worth $57,000, are by VUP writers.
These are Bug Week, short stories by Airini Beautrais, and two novels, Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey and Nothing to See by Pip Adam.
Both Adam and Chidgey are previous winners of the Acorn Prize. Adam is also this year’s writer in residence at Te Herenga—Victoria University of Wellington’s International Insitute of Modern Letters (IIML).
The Savage Coloniser Book by Tusiata Avia and Funkhaus by Hinemoana Baker are finalists in the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry.
And a debut collection of personal essays, Specimen by Madison Hamill, is up for the General Non-Fiction Award.
VUP publisher Fergus Barrowman says, “The VUP team are all delighted by the strong showing and congratulate the shortlisted authors.”
The six writers are all IIML graduates, as is Nina Mingya Powles, another poetry finalist for her book Magnolia 木蘭 (Seraph Press).
The University’s Emeritus Professor Vincent O’Sullivan is a General Non-Fiction Award finalist for The Dark is Light Enough: Ralph Hotere—A Biographical Portrait (Penguin).
The prize winners will be announced on Wednesday 12 May in Auckland.