Friday, 14 May 2021, 12:56 pm
It wasn’t your ordinary Wednesday, at least not for
UCOL lecturer Airini Beautrais. At the New Zealand Ockham
Book Awards it was announced that Beautrais has won the Jann
Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction – the country’s most
prestigious literary fiction award, coming with a $57,000
prize.
Beautrais won for her collection of short
stories ‘
Bug Week’, which judges described as
“a tightly-wound and remarkably assured
collection”.
The win has been viewed as something of
an industry upset, especially given that Beautrais was a
first time nominee, and is only the second person in 53
years to win for a collection of short stories.
Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais a finalist in Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
3 Mar, 2021 12:00 AM
2 minutes to read
Airini Beautrais reading her poem at Pakaitore in a video from 2018.
Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais is a finalist in New Zealand s most prestigious book awards.
Beautrais first short story collection Bug Week and Other Stories was published in 2020 and made the longlist for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards last month.
Her book is now shortlisted to win the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
She is up against two past winners of the fiction award, Catherine Chidgey and Pip Adam, along with previous nominee Brannavan Gnanalingam.
Ockham NZ Book Awards longlist features authors with Whanganui links
29 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
3 minutes to read
After being longlisted three times in the past for her poetry, this year Airini Beautrais has made the fiction longlist. Photo / File
Whanganui Chronicle
By: Mike Tweed and Liz Wylie
Authors Airini Beautrais and Sara McIntyre have been named on the longlist for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The works were selected from 179 entries and include 13 first-time authors, one of whom is McIntyre, whose book Observations of a Rural Nurse was nominated for the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.
The photographic book is a personal account of her connection with Kākahi, a settlement about 10km up the Whanganui River from Taumarunui.