2026 Awards
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
All Her Lives
Published by: Te Herenga Waka University Press
Ingrid Horrocks
Connections abound in this intelligent, skilfully observed story collection. Characters reappear, their past acts echoing through generations. From the life of Mary Wollstonecraft and the troubled legacy of Truby King to the complexities of queer life, the struggles of a single mother and the consequences of political and climate activism, in All Her Lives Ingrid Horrocks subtly depicts the challenges and transformations of women from 1795 to the present day.
Hoods Landing
Published by: Āporo Press
Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi)
Four generations of the Gordon whānau gather to celebrate Bufty’s birthday in the shrinking settlement of Hoods Landing. Bufty’s youngest daughter, Rita, has yet to announce her cancer diagnosis, and more revelations are in store. Laura Vincent’s novel engulfs the reader in a memorable matriarchal whānau: the decades long tensions and in-jokes, the closely guarded recipes, the tarot readings and the singalongs. Instantly recognisable but utterly unique, epic yet contained, expertly woven and delightfully funny, Hoods Landing contains multitudes.
How to Paint a Nude
Published by: Ugly Hill Press
Sam Mahon
A Belarusian refugee and a local artist meet for coffee every Tuesday in pre-quake Ōtautahi to discuss art, romance, political oppression, the degradation of our natural environment and much more. This sly and wry reflection from artist and provocateur Sam Mahon abounds with meta-fictional games and killer one-liners. Mahon may have changed some names but he doesn’t pull punches: ‘Sometimes it is an author’s duty to protect the guilty.'
The Book of Guilt
Published by: Te Herenga Waka University Press
Catherine Chidgey
Can good come from evil or must the rot return? Thirteen-year-old triplets are the last remaining residents of a boys’ home, part of a wider scheme on which the UK government is turning its back. Elsewhere, Nancy is never allowed outside by her parents. The connection between these children, the nature of the scheme and the alternate timeline in which events take place are masterfully revealed in Catherine Chidgey’s menacing yet thrilling novel of big ideas.
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
Black Sugarcane
Published by: Te Herenga Waka University Press
Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu)
Traditionally black sugarcane was well known for its medicinal properties, and Nafanua Purcell Kersel’s debut collection serves as good medicine for the soul, its vivid imagery and seamless flow bringing the reader’s attention to the language and traditions of Fa‘a Sāmoa. A powerful new voice who sits confidently alongside well-known Pasifika female poets, she uses storytelling to reveal the people, customs, spirituality and village life of her Pacific homeland.
No Good
Published by: Auckland University Press
Sophie van Waardenberg
Rather than make an index of all slights and offences, in No Good Sophie Van Waardenberg takes all the bad stuff and crafts it into something wonderful and refined. Her poems possess the angelic tranquillity of a favourite child on their death bed, cut and pasted into the florid atmosphere of a Bosch painting where love and bereavement come and go. This is a debut poet who continues to blush at the beauty of her world.
Sick Power Trip
Published by: Te Herenga Waka University Press
Erik Kennedy
Persuasive, subversive, cohesive, immersive ... these and many other rhyming words describe Erik Kennedy’s latest collection Sick Power Trip. In addition to his trademark wit, play and societal awareness, Kennedy’s range and muscularity announce him as a master craftsman; a poet who can bend and mould the shaping of modern life and, in that shaping, reveal something new, something hidden, something human.
Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
Published by: Auckland University Press
Anna Jackson
Weaving essays through five seasons, beginning and ending in summer, Terrier, Worrier is poetic prose flow at its most extraordinary. Partly autobiographical, the five prose-poems connect with readers through individual thought, expressed with words and feelings that compare to animal thoughts and emotions. Anna Jackson masterfully paints these into images that relate on a personal level, while entwining the quotes and references of various writers with her own take on the seasons.
BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and Across the British Empire
Published by: Bridget Williams Books
Charlotte Macdonald
Extensively researched, impeccably written and richly illustrated, Charlotte MacDonald’s compelling narratives reconstruct the stories of people shipped to Aotearoa to carry out the imperial orders of the British Empire in the mid-nineteenth century and their impacts on Māori communities. Revealing political power shifts, Garrison World illuminates the lived experiences of ordinary people caught up in the global machinations of the colonial project — histories often hidden in plain sight in the land, monuments and street names.
He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers
Published by: Auckland University Press
Philip Garnock-Jones
As both author and photographer, Philip Garnock-Jones presents a new take on the sex life of Aotearoa’s native flora. Offering a sense of wonder through meticulously detailed stereoscopic photography (complete with 3D glasses) which documents the intricate parts of each flower, He Puāwai delivers from cover to cover. Notable for its encyclopaedic manner and seamless design, its exquisite photographs and informative text offer both universal and scientific appeal, rewarding amateur, dilettante and expert readers alike.
Mark Adams: A Survey – He Kohinga Whakaahua
Published by: Massey University Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Sarah Farrar
Long overdue, He Kohinga Whakaahua surveys five decades of work by the renowned photographer Mark Adams, who through his large format camera regards cross-cultural sites of colonial and Pacific histories. This book celebrates Adams’ extensive research processes and how, through intersecting narratives, his work consistently draws attention to locations, people and historic events. The photographs are met with texts by Sarah Farrar, Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku and Nicholas Thomas, who furnish valuable context to Adams’ practice.
Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street
Published by: Massey University Press
Elizabeth Cox
Based on a map of Victorian Wellington, still in use today, this book traces the 1890s — a period of rapid growth and social change. Elizabeth Cox reveals stories located throughout the cityscape: in the gutters and sewers, boarding houses, tearooms and mansions on the hill. From the dust jacket and typography to the pairing of historic photographs with relevant map excerpts, this book has been artfully designed — bringing navigational clarity to the complexities of the map.
