The 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist, announced today, celebrates an impressive range of books by both established and emerging authors.

Forty titles have made the coveted and highly competitive longlist; ten in each of the four Awards categories – Fiction (The Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize), Illustrated Non-Fiction, General Non-Fiction (the Royal Society of New Zealand Award for General Non-Fiction) and Poetry. The books were selected by four panels of specialist judges and were drawn from 150 entries.

"The awards received a large number of entries again this year and the standard was very high across all categories,” says New Zealand Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat. “That shows that this country’s publishing, and indeed its literature, is in rude good health. If you are in any doubt about what you might read over summer, these 40 fine books are the place to start."

The Trust is also celebrating a partnership with a new funder, the Royal Society of New Zealand, which will fund the General Non-Fiction award. “The New Zealand Book Awards Trust values the funding support the awards have received from Ockham and the Acorn Foundation,” says Trust chair Nicola Legat. “These two funders, along with Creative New Zealand, absolutely understand the role of our national literature in sustaining and extending thinking about national issues, and in supporting the writing careers and creativity of our best writers.

“The Royal Society of New Zealand’s decision to fund the General Non-Fiction prize reflects its multi-disciplinary coverage of science, technology and the humanities. We now have four supporters of similar passion, commitment and gravitas. We are delighted and honoured to have the Society’s investment in great New Zealand writing.”

The 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlisted titles, in alphabetical order by author, are:

FICTION (The Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize)

• The Wish Child by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press)
• A Briefcase, Two Pies and a Penthouse by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson)
• My Mother and the Hungarians by Frankie McMillan (Canterbury University Press)
• Love as a Stranger by Owen Marshall (Penguin Random House)
• Tail of the Taniwha by Courtney Sina Meredith (Beatnik Publishing)
• Billy Bird by Emma Neale (Penguin Random House)
• Deleted Scenes for Lovers by Tracey Slaughter (Victoria University Press)
• The Name on the Door is Not Mine by C.K. Stead (Allen & Unwin)
• Dad Art by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press)
• Strip by Sue Wootton (Makaro Press)

ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION

• Islands: A New Zealand Journey by Bruce Ansley & Jane Ussher (Penguin Random House)
• A History of New Zealand Women by Barbara Brookes (Bridget Williams Books)
• A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngati Porou Carving 1830-1930 by Ngarino Ellis with Natalie Robertson (Auckland University Press)
• 101 Works of Art by Ken Hall, Jenny Harper, Felicity Milburn, Nathan Pohio, Lara Strongman, Peter Vangioni (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu)
• Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing (Victoria University Press)
• New Zealand Wine; The Land, the Vines, the People by Warren Moran (Auckland University Press)
• Futuna: Life of a Building by Gregory O’Brien (Victoria University Press)
• A Beautiful Hesitation by Fiona Pardington (Victoria University Press)
• Dark Matter by Ann Shelton (Auckland University Press)
• Bloomsbury South: The Arts in Christchurch 1933-1953 by Peter Simpson (Auckland University Press)

GENERAL NON- FICTION (Royal Society of New Zealand Award for General Non-Fiction)

• Goneville: A memoir by Nick Bollinger (Awa Press)
• This Model World: Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art by Anthony Byrt (Auckland University Press)
• My Father's Island by Adam Dudding (Victoria University Press)
• New Zealand’s Rivers: An environmental history by Catherine Knight (Canterbury University Press)
• The Broken Decade: Prosperity, depression and recovery in New Zealand, 1928-39 by Malcolm McKinnon (Otago University Press)
• The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 by Vincent O’Malley (Bridget Williams Books)
• The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840-1920 by Ben Schrader (Bridget Williams Books)
• The World, the Flesh and the Devil; The Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the Antipodes, 1765-1838 by Andrew Sharp (Auckland University Press)
• Being Chinese: A New Zealander's Story by Helene Wong (Bridget Williams Books)
• Can You Tolerate This? By Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press)

POETRY

• Back with the Human Condition by Nick Ascroft (Victoria University Press)
• Fale Aitu/Spirit House by Tusiata Avia (Victoria University Press)
• Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird (Victoria University Press)
• In the Supplementary Garden: New and Selected Poems by Diana Bridge (Cold Hub Press)
• Thought Horses by Rachel Bush (Victoria University Press)
• As the Verb Tenses by Lynley Edmeades (Otago University Press)
• Fits & Starts by Andrew Johnston (Victoria University Press)
• This Paper Boat by Gregory Kan (Auckland University Press)
• And So It Is by Vincent O’Sullivan (Victoria University Press)
• Beside Herself by Chris Price (Auckland University Press)

The judges will announce their shortlist on March 07, 2017. The winners will be announced on May 16 2017, at the opening night event of the Auckland Writers Festival.