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Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2021 longlist announced
27 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
5 minutes to read
NZ Herald
The longlist for New Zealand s most prestigious book awards has now been released - with more than a dozen first-time authors making the cut.
Books exploring issues of identity, domestic life, war, food, our natural world and our people are among the 40 works of poetry, prose and non-fiction longlisted for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, announced today.
The works were selected from 179 entries, and include 13 first-time authors - which book awards trustee Jenna Todd said was extraordinary .
It was a testament to the vibrancy of the country s literature, she said.
A tunnel is the escape route north, steep hills to the south. Everything feels a long way away. We need a reason to leave town. My father thought anything south of the Bombay Hills was the South Island. His kāinga was Pakiri, north of Auckland, with its loose-metal roads and indolent river, its cowsheds and scorching beach. Now there are better roads but many more cars. I visit the cemetery at our marae just beyond Leigh: this is our ‘meeting-place past the end of the world’ where my father waits for me. I rarely make the drive over Pakiri Hill to the valley of ghosts and fragmented memories, of disappeared buildings, of unanswered questions. The beach and the steep island in the distance – Hauturu, or Little Barrier – are contested land.