TUPAIA A FINALIST IN NEW ZEALAND POST BOOK AWARDS

Finalists for the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards announced

And the non-fiction list includes Tupaia, The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator.

“The non-fiction categories feature writers who are working at the peak of their craft, finding new, original ways in which to portray New Zealand in print,” said the convenor of the New Zealand Post Book Awards judging panel, Chris Bourke.

The 2012 judging panel comprises multi-award winning poet, writer, critic and journalist David Eggleton, writer, publisher, book designer and typesetter Mary Egan, poet, reviewer, writer and anthologist Paula Green, writer and Maori and Pacific literature specialist Reina Whaitiri (Kai Tahu) together with Mr Bourke, a journalist, producer and writer who won last year’s New Zealand Post Book of the Year prize.

The full list of 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards finalists by category:

General Non-fiction:

Tupaia: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Polynesian Navigator by Joan Druett (Random House NZ)

So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme and the Murder that Shocked the World by Peter Graham (Awa Press)

The Broken Book by Fiona Farrell (Auckland University Press)

Bligh: William Bligh in the South Seas by Anne Salmond (Viking, Penguin Group, NZ)

The Hungry Heart: Journeys with William Colenso by Peter Wells (Vintage, Random House NZ)

 

Illustrated Non-fiction:

New Zealand’s Native Trees by John Dawson & Rob Lucas (Craig Potton Publishing)

Playing with Fire: Auckland Studio Potters Society Turns 50 by Peter Lange and Stuart Newby (Auckland Studio Potters Society– in conjunction with the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery (CNZARD))

A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy by Gregory O’Brien (Auckland University Press)

New Zealand Film - An Illustrated History by Diane Pivac with Frank Stark and Lawrence McDonald (Te Papa Press)

Whatu Kākahu/Māori Cloaks by Awhina Tamarapa (Te Papa Press)

Fiction:

The Trouble With Fire by Fiona Kidman (Vintage, Random House NZ)

Rangatira by Paula Morris (Penguin Group, NZ)

From Under the Overcoat by Sue Orr (Vintage, Random House NZ)

Poetry:

Shift by Rhian Gallagher (Auckland University Press)

The leaf-ride by Dinah Hawken (Victoria University Press)

Thicket by Anna Jackson (Auckland University Press)

People’s Choice Award

Voting opens today for the nation’s favourite book. Nominations can be made from this year’s finalist books on-line at THIS SITE. The 2012 finalist book with the most votes will be honoured with the much-coveted People’s Choice Award.

In addition to individual category winners, and a People’s Choice Award, there will be a Māori Language Award winner and the overall New Zealand Post Book of the Year winner announced at a gala dinner in Auckland on 1 August 2012.

The overall New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award winner will receive $15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive $10,000. The Māori Language Award winner will receive $10,000 and the People’s Choice Award winner $5,000.

New Zealand Post’s sponsorship of the national book awards reflects their long-standing support for literacy and education. They maintain that focus throughout the year with initiatives such as www.ReadWriteGrow.co.nz, creative writing contests for school students, and the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards which they have sponsored for the past 16 years. That commitment to promoting literacy, excellence in writing and the joy of reading sees New Zealand Post play a key role in supporting other champions of literature, such as Booksellers NZ, to promote and reward local literary talent.

The New Zealand Post Book Awards 2012 are also funded by Creative New Zealand. The Awards are managed by Book Awards Governance Group, administered by Booksellers NZ and supported by the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.