Latest news with #Allen&Unwin
Scoop
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust Announces Residencies For 2025–26
Twelve writers have been awarded residencies for late 2025 and early 2026 at the historic cottage in Ōtepoti Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature. The Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust is delighted to announce that residencies for 2025–26 have been awarded to Ella Borrie, Gina Butson, Casey Carsel, Chye-Ling Huang (with Geoff Bonning), Joshua Iosefo, Anna Jackson, Helen Varley Jamieson, Jack McGee, Hazel Phillips, Nick Tipa and Janine Williams. Ella Borrie is a landscape poet who grew up in Cromwell, Central Otago, and is currently living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. During her residency she will be working on a collection of poetry, exploring issues of grief, old age, parenthood and the briefness of seasons. North Shore-based writer Gina Butson will work on her second novel, an environmental thriller set in Antarctica. Her first book, The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds, will be published by Allen & Unwin in July 2025. Casey Carsel is an Aotearoa-born Jewish artist and writer. They will progress and revise their short story collection Her Big Responsibilities, an experimental series of texts loosely woven around a girl whose elderly grandfather has left New Zealand to return to his childhood home in Ukraine. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland writer and director Chye-Ling Huang makes theatre, film and podcasts, and co-founded Proudly Asian Theatre Company in 2013. With scientist and storyteller Geoff Bonning, she will be working on New Antarctica, a political climate play set in Dunedin and involving countries connected by the Southern Ocean. The Auckland Pride Praise the Lord playwright in residence for 2025 is Joshua Iosefo (Mush). The year-long residency, supported by Auckland Pride, Auckland Theatre Company and SameSame But Different, consists of a series of development and writing opportunities for a queer playwright. Joshua will be developing their musical, NUMB, across the year, and will spend two weeks at the Cottage this spring revising and redrafting the work. Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington-based poet and academic Anna Jackson will work on a new collection with the provisional title Tell Me About It, a series of poetry sequences looking at questions of identity, translation, time, gender and the relation between all these things. Munich-based, Dunedin-born digital media artist, writer and theatre maker Helen Varley Jamieson will work on her book Devising with Distance, drawing on her experience in creating cyberformance (live online performance) to provide ideas, inspiration and professional development for those interested in remote artistic collaboration. Jack McGee is a playwright and producer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He will be working on a full-length play about a middle-aged woman who gets off a cruise ship and stays in Ōtepoti Dunedin, inserting herself into the life of her estranged childhood best friend. Ruapehu-based author Hazel Phillips will work on Great Hearts, a narrative history of early women climbers and adventurers of Aoraki Mount Cook, bringing together the stories of groundbreaking mountaineering women in a compelling and creative way. The NZYWF 2025 Young Writer in Residence is Ōtepoti-based writer and performer Nick Tipa (Kāi Tahu). Nick's debut solo play Babyface was awarded the UNESCO City of Literature Beyond Words award at the 2025 Dunedin Fringe Festival. He will take up a two-week residency for this year's New Zealand Young Writers Festival. Whangarei-based author Janine Williams was the inaugural recipient of the Lynley Dodd Children's Writers Award in 2024. She will be working on Danger at Kohatu House, the third book in her series of middle-grade fantasy novels The Secret Staircase. Tāmaki Makaurau playwright Nuanzhi Zheng will be developing a multimedia theatre piece, Best Head Girl. A satirical dramedy investigating self-surveillance and voyeurism, it centres around a group of former Head Girls who stumble upon a secret society of Auckland's former Head Girls. Applications will open in August for the University Book Shop (Otago) 2026 Summer Writer in Residence. This six-week residency for an emerging writer runs from early January to mid-February. As well as a stipend, the University Book Shop provides administrative support – and staff discount on books too! Playwright Robert Lord (1945–1992) bought his cottage in Titan St, Dunedin, after taking up the 1987 Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Located near the university and the town centre, the worker's cottage has three furnished rooms and a courtyard garden. It has been run as a rent-free residency for writers since 2003.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
One doctor's diagnosis after a decade in the health service
Photo: Supplied Ivor Popovich has spent a decade working his way through the health system on a mission to become an ICU specialist. During that time he has rotated through a whole range of departments getting an insight into many parts of health care, and some almost impossible working conditions. In his book "A Dim Prognosis" he celebrates colleagues and phlegmatic patients, but rails against staff shortages, lack of training opportunities to create more specialists, underfunding of primary health and the concentration of high-quality care in the private sector. Ivor Popovich will qualify as a specialist himself later this year. He talks to Kathryn about his experiences and what change is needed A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich is published by Allen & Unwin NZ $37.99
The Advertiser
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
'If I wanted to murder someone, this is what I'd do'
Novels, so I'm told, don't arrive to their authors fully formed, with plots or stories presenting themselves, ready to be jotted down on a whiteboard. A novel arrives to a novelist as an idea, often very simple, but at the same time distinct: the idea will have a certain heft and feel to it. Nabokov described it as a throb. I didn't know any of this, until I read the late novelist Martin Amis writing about how to write fiction. I read this soon after I'd left my job as a journalist after 20 years, and Amis describing Nabokov's throb gave me an idea: I could write my own novel - because I had an idea at least. My idea was simple. A crime had been committed at a big, old boy's boarding school, and a journalist who had grown up at the school 30 years ago, the son of teachers who had lived on the grounds, was sent out to report on the police investigation. That was it. I didn't even know what the crime was. But the idea became my debut novel Black River, published in 2022 by Allen & Unwin. Following Black River, I planned to write another novel, with the same main characters. So a police procedural, based around a NSW Homicide Detective Sergeant and a newspaper journalist. No sweat. Fine. The two characters, who first met in Black River, have now known each other for two years, have formed a bond, and, well, off we go. Except, what I had given myself was running orders - write a police procedural with your cop and your journo - rather than an idea. What to do? I wasn't sure. I rang a forensic pathologist who had been very kind, and very helpful, and very generous with his time and knowledge when I was writing Black River. "I'm writing another book," I said to the pathologist. "What are we going to do?" "I dunno. You're the f---ing novelist," he said. Mmmm. This was unhelpfully true. Then, immediately, he said, and I paraphrase, "Oh, if I wanted to murder someone, and have someone like me not know that I'd done it, this is what I'd do." On the phone, I think I probably sat up a little straighter. Talk about all ears. And he told me what he'd do, to commit a murder, that would stymie a forensic pathologist examining the corpse post-mortem. And that became "my" idea, the bedrock for my second novel Broke Road. (No spoilers, but it involves binding, gagging, the way certain materials might interact with skin.) And it's strange how it worked. How having a bare-bones idea gave me the confidence to start writing the novel, and how everything fanned out from it: place, character, plot, the burgeoning relationship between the cop and the journo. MORE GREAT READS: Because the basic idea of how to kill someone didn't tell me anything else: it didn't tell me who died, or who killed them, or where, or why, or whether anyone else may have been killed in the same manner. That all came later, flowing out from the first throb. Broke Road skits around, geographically, from Canberra to Murrumbateman to Adelaide to Sydney. But its heart lies north of Cessnock, in the lower Hunter Valley, at a fictional flyspeck called Red Creek, in the wine country around Pokolbin. The Hunter had always interested me, starting with its geology: the Triassic cliffs of the ranges, the coal measures laid down, the patches of weathered, volcanic soil that attracted our nation's first vignerons. Coal and wine, both industries the result of what lies beneath - in this case - a Permian swamp. All of which led to the mining town of Cessnock, and the wine district just to its north. What interested me here, was how these two worlds remain so distinct, how Cessnock has stood aloof and refused to re-fashion itself as a centre for the wine tourists. That's where Broke Road is set, between these two communities, neighbours standing apart. With my first novel, I was in my comfort zone, geographically. I was writing about my childhood home - the big old boarding school in the book is a real place, The King's School at North Parramatta, and it's where I grew up, the son of teachers. With Broke Road and the Hunter, I was well out of my depth, and certainly stretching myself. Which is good as a writer, I think (I hope). I fell back on my journalism, and did some research. I twice travelled the Hunter with a journalist friend who knows the region well. We sampled some wares, and he introduced me around. I went back several times on my own. I spoke to locals in Cessnock, winemakers in Pokolbin (and another in Murrumbateman), a forensic investigator and a forensic pathologist in Newcastle, a former homicide detective, a geologist in Maitland, a property developer, a local council manager, a politician, a builder, a ceramics teacher, a urologist, a pilot. The pilot character got cut, but the rest is all in there, threaded through Broke Road's plots and people and sense of place. I hope I've done it all justice, so that, most important of all, readers can enjoy. Novels, so I'm told, don't arrive to their authors fully formed, with plots or stories presenting themselves, ready to be jotted down on a whiteboard. A novel arrives to a novelist as an idea, often very simple, but at the same time distinct: the idea will have a certain heft and feel to it. Nabokov described it as a throb. I didn't know any of this, until I read the late novelist Martin Amis writing about how to write fiction. I read this soon after I'd left my job as a journalist after 20 years, and Amis describing Nabokov's throb gave me an idea: I could write my own novel - because I had an idea at least. My idea was simple. A crime had been committed at a big, old boy's boarding school, and a journalist who had grown up at the school 30 years ago, the son of teachers who had lived on the grounds, was sent out to report on the police investigation. That was it. I didn't even know what the crime was. But the idea became my debut novel Black River, published in 2022 by Allen & Unwin. Following Black River, I planned to write another novel, with the same main characters. So a police procedural, based around a NSW Homicide Detective Sergeant and a newspaper journalist. No sweat. Fine. The two characters, who first met in Black River, have now known each other for two years, have formed a bond, and, well, off we go. Except, what I had given myself was running orders - write a police procedural with your cop and your journo - rather than an idea. What to do? I wasn't sure. I rang a forensic pathologist who had been very kind, and very helpful, and very generous with his time and knowledge when I was writing Black River. "I'm writing another book," I said to the pathologist. "What are we going to do?" "I dunno. You're the f---ing novelist," he said. Mmmm. This was unhelpfully true. Then, immediately, he said, and I paraphrase, "Oh, if I wanted to murder someone, and have someone like me not know that I'd done it, this is what I'd do." On the phone, I think I probably sat up a little straighter. Talk about all ears. And he told me what he'd do, to commit a murder, that would stymie a forensic pathologist examining the corpse post-mortem. And that became "my" idea, the bedrock for my second novel Broke Road. (No spoilers, but it involves binding, gagging, the way certain materials might interact with skin.) And it's strange how it worked. How having a bare-bones idea gave me the confidence to start writing the novel, and how everything fanned out from it: place, character, plot, the burgeoning relationship between the cop and the journo. MORE GREAT READS: Because the basic idea of how to kill someone didn't tell me anything else: it didn't tell me who died, or who killed them, or where, or why, or whether anyone else may have been killed in the same manner. That all came later, flowing out from the first throb. Broke Road skits around, geographically, from Canberra to Murrumbateman to Adelaide to Sydney. But its heart lies north of Cessnock, in the lower Hunter Valley, at a fictional flyspeck called Red Creek, in the wine country around Pokolbin. The Hunter had always interested me, starting with its geology: the Triassic cliffs of the ranges, the coal measures laid down, the patches of weathered, volcanic soil that attracted our nation's first vignerons. Coal and wine, both industries the result of what lies beneath - in this case - a Permian swamp. All of which led to the mining town of Cessnock, and the wine district just to its north. What interested me here, was how these two worlds remain so distinct, how Cessnock has stood aloof and refused to re-fashion itself as a centre for the wine tourists. That's where Broke Road is set, between these two communities, neighbours standing apart. With my first novel, I was in my comfort zone, geographically. I was writing about my childhood home - the big old boarding school in the book is a real place, The King's School at North Parramatta, and it's where I grew up, the son of teachers. With Broke Road and the Hunter, I was well out of my depth, and certainly stretching myself. Which is good as a writer, I think (I hope). I fell back on my journalism, and did some research. I twice travelled the Hunter with a journalist friend who knows the region well. We sampled some wares, and he introduced me around. I went back several times on my own. I spoke to locals in Cessnock, winemakers in Pokolbin (and another in Murrumbateman), a forensic investigator and a forensic pathologist in Newcastle, a former homicide detective, a geologist in Maitland, a property developer, a local council manager, a politician, a builder, a ceramics teacher, a urologist, a pilot. The pilot character got cut, but the rest is all in there, threaded through Broke Road's plots and people and sense of place. I hope I've done it all justice, so that, most important of all, readers can enjoy. Novels, so I'm told, don't arrive to their authors fully formed, with plots or stories presenting themselves, ready to be jotted down on a whiteboard. A novel arrives to a novelist as an idea, often very simple, but at the same time distinct: the idea will have a certain heft and feel to it. Nabokov described it as a throb. I didn't know any of this, until I read the late novelist Martin Amis writing about how to write fiction. I read this soon after I'd left my job as a journalist after 20 years, and Amis describing Nabokov's throb gave me an idea: I could write my own novel - because I had an idea at least. My idea was simple. A crime had been committed at a big, old boy's boarding school, and a journalist who had grown up at the school 30 years ago, the son of teachers who had lived on the grounds, was sent out to report on the police investigation. That was it. I didn't even know what the crime was. But the idea became my debut novel Black River, published in 2022 by Allen & Unwin. Following Black River, I planned to write another novel, with the same main characters. So a police procedural, based around a NSW Homicide Detective Sergeant and a newspaper journalist. No sweat. Fine. The two characters, who first met in Black River, have now known each other for two years, have formed a bond, and, well, off we go. Except, what I had given myself was running orders - write a police procedural with your cop and your journo - rather than an idea. What to do? I wasn't sure. I rang a forensic pathologist who had been very kind, and very helpful, and very generous with his time and knowledge when I was writing Black River. "I'm writing another book," I said to the pathologist. "What are we going to do?" "I dunno. You're the f---ing novelist," he said. Mmmm. This was unhelpfully true. Then, immediately, he said, and I paraphrase, "Oh, if I wanted to murder someone, and have someone like me not know that I'd done it, this is what I'd do." On the phone, I think I probably sat up a little straighter. Talk about all ears. And he told me what he'd do, to commit a murder, that would stymie a forensic pathologist examining the corpse post-mortem. And that became "my" idea, the bedrock for my second novel Broke Road. (No spoilers, but it involves binding, gagging, the way certain materials might interact with skin.) And it's strange how it worked. How having a bare-bones idea gave me the confidence to start writing the novel, and how everything fanned out from it: place, character, plot, the burgeoning relationship between the cop and the journo. MORE GREAT READS: Because the basic idea of how to kill someone didn't tell me anything else: it didn't tell me who died, or who killed them, or where, or why, or whether anyone else may have been killed in the same manner. That all came later, flowing out from the first throb. Broke Road skits around, geographically, from Canberra to Murrumbateman to Adelaide to Sydney. But its heart lies north of Cessnock, in the lower Hunter Valley, at a fictional flyspeck called Red Creek, in the wine country around Pokolbin. The Hunter had always interested me, starting with its geology: the Triassic cliffs of the ranges, the coal measures laid down, the patches of weathered, volcanic soil that attracted our nation's first vignerons. Coal and wine, both industries the result of what lies beneath - in this case - a Permian swamp. All of which led to the mining town of Cessnock, and the wine district just to its north. What interested me here, was how these two worlds remain so distinct, how Cessnock has stood aloof and refused to re-fashion itself as a centre for the wine tourists. That's where Broke Road is set, between these two communities, neighbours standing apart. With my first novel, I was in my comfort zone, geographically. I was writing about my childhood home - the big old boarding school in the book is a real place, The King's School at North Parramatta, and it's where I grew up, the son of teachers. With Broke Road and the Hunter, I was well out of my depth, and certainly stretching myself. Which is good as a writer, I think (I hope). I fell back on my journalism, and did some research. I twice travelled the Hunter with a journalist friend who knows the region well. We sampled some wares, and he introduced me around. I went back several times on my own. I spoke to locals in Cessnock, winemakers in Pokolbin (and another in Murrumbateman), a forensic investigator and a forensic pathologist in Newcastle, a former homicide detective, a geologist in Maitland, a property developer, a local council manager, a politician, a builder, a ceramics teacher, a urologist, a pilot. The pilot character got cut, but the rest is all in there, threaded through Broke Road's plots and people and sense of place. I hope I've done it all justice, so that, most important of all, readers can enjoy. Novels, so I'm told, don't arrive to their authors fully formed, with plots or stories presenting themselves, ready to be jotted down on a whiteboard. A novel arrives to a novelist as an idea, often very simple, but at the same time distinct: the idea will have a certain heft and feel to it. Nabokov described it as a throb. I didn't know any of this, until I read the late novelist Martin Amis writing about how to write fiction. I read this soon after I'd left my job as a journalist after 20 years, and Amis describing Nabokov's throb gave me an idea: I could write my own novel - because I had an idea at least. My idea was simple. A crime had been committed at a big, old boy's boarding school, and a journalist who had grown up at the school 30 years ago, the son of teachers who had lived on the grounds, was sent out to report on the police investigation. That was it. I didn't even know what the crime was. But the idea became my debut novel Black River, published in 2022 by Allen & Unwin. Following Black River, I planned to write another novel, with the same main characters. So a police procedural, based around a NSW Homicide Detective Sergeant and a newspaper journalist. No sweat. Fine. The two characters, who first met in Black River, have now known each other for two years, have formed a bond, and, well, off we go. Except, what I had given myself was running orders - write a police procedural with your cop and your journo - rather than an idea. What to do? I wasn't sure. I rang a forensic pathologist who had been very kind, and very helpful, and very generous with his time and knowledge when I was writing Black River. "I'm writing another book," I said to the pathologist. "What are we going to do?" "I dunno. You're the f---ing novelist," he said. Mmmm. This was unhelpfully true. Then, immediately, he said, and I paraphrase, "Oh, if I wanted to murder someone, and have someone like me not know that I'd done it, this is what I'd do." On the phone, I think I probably sat up a little straighter. Talk about all ears. And he told me what he'd do, to commit a murder, that would stymie a forensic pathologist examining the corpse post-mortem. And that became "my" idea, the bedrock for my second novel Broke Road. (No spoilers, but it involves binding, gagging, the way certain materials might interact with skin.) And it's strange how it worked. How having a bare-bones idea gave me the confidence to start writing the novel, and how everything fanned out from it: place, character, plot, the burgeoning relationship between the cop and the journo. MORE GREAT READS: Because the basic idea of how to kill someone didn't tell me anything else: it didn't tell me who died, or who killed them, or where, or why, or whether anyone else may have been killed in the same manner. That all came later, flowing out from the first throb. Broke Road skits around, geographically, from Canberra to Murrumbateman to Adelaide to Sydney. But its heart lies north of Cessnock, in the lower Hunter Valley, at a fictional flyspeck called Red Creek, in the wine country around Pokolbin. The Hunter had always interested me, starting with its geology: the Triassic cliffs of the ranges, the coal measures laid down, the patches of weathered, volcanic soil that attracted our nation's first vignerons. Coal and wine, both industries the result of what lies beneath - in this case - a Permian swamp. All of which led to the mining town of Cessnock, and the wine district just to its north. What interested me here, was how these two worlds remain so distinct, how Cessnock has stood aloof and refused to re-fashion itself as a centre for the wine tourists. That's where Broke Road is set, between these two communities, neighbours standing apart. With my first novel, I was in my comfort zone, geographically. I was writing about my childhood home - the big old boarding school in the book is a real place, The King's School at North Parramatta, and it's where I grew up, the son of teachers. With Broke Road and the Hunter, I was well out of my depth, and certainly stretching myself. Which is good as a writer, I think (I hope). I fell back on my journalism, and did some research. I twice travelled the Hunter with a journalist friend who knows the region well. We sampled some wares, and he introduced me around. I went back several times on my own. I spoke to locals in Cessnock, winemakers in Pokolbin (and another in Murrumbateman), a forensic investigator and a forensic pathologist in Newcastle, a former homicide detective, a geologist in Maitland, a property developer, a local council manager, a politician, a builder, a ceramics teacher, a urologist, a pilot. The pilot character got cut, but the rest is all in there, threaded through Broke Road's plots and people and sense of place. I hope I've done it all justice, so that, most important of all, readers can enjoy.
The Advertiser
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Movie star opens up about the accident that nearly killed him
What's new: Adelaide's Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of notorious cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne, while Australian journalist John Lyons details the "extraordinary efforts of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Jeremy Renner. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. On New Year's Day, 2023, actor Jeremy Renner needed to clear mountains of snow from his Nevada driveway to enable his visiting family to go skiing. So the star of The Hurt Locker fired up a snowcat to bulldoze the road. The accident that followed should have killed him. Renner was run over by the six-tonne machine, and his account of the calamity is bloodcurdling. "I can promise you this much at least: The sounds of being crushed are just as terrifying as the visual," he writes. Renner's injuries were catastrophic. This is the story of his survival and recovery. Candice Chung. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. "A meal is a shape. It is a container into which we pour our cravings." At 35, when a 13-year relationship with her first love ends, food journalist Candice Chung must decide if she wants her retired Cantonese parents to join her as she reviews restaurants. Will they eat together in polite silence as the children of immigrants might traditionally expect? Or will this be her opportunity to finally broach the reasons they have drifted so profoundly apart over the years? This tender, intimate but brave memoir has a meditative tone and structure and should delight lovers of food who treasure its sacred place in family and culture. John Lyons. ABC Books. $34.99. Australian journalist John Lyons has made three trips to wartime Ukraine. The first two were on assignment with the ABC. The third was on his holidays, which allowed him to absorb what was happening in the country without the need to file daily news. It was on this trip that he learned the most, doing what regular Ukrainians do and, most importantly, taking the time to talk to everyday people. He found that resourceful civilians from every walk of life are doing their part. This is a story about the "extraordinary efforts ... of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Mark Lilla. Hurst Publishers. $44.99. Humans are driven by the need to know, right? We are curious, we want to discover, look around the corner, explore over the horizon. Or do we? Mark Lilla examines the opposite compulsion: "the will not to know, the will to ignorance". This is not about those who are indifferent to learning, who simply don't want to expend the energy. This is about people who have "developed a particular antipathy toward the search for knowledge, whose inner doors are fastened tight against anything that might cast doubt on what they believe they already know". Starting to sound familiar to anyone? Sinead Stubbins. Affirm Press. $34.99. Apparently work doesn't have to define your life and corporate programs to build team bonds and boost employee engagement might not always deliver healthy outcomes - especially for those of us with messy bits in our personalities and our personal lives (you know, the bits that make us individuals). This wicked little satire of white-collar workplace culture follows Edith and a select group of her co-workers at ad agency Winked as they are sent to an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, run by an outfit called Consequi. She hopes to impress her bosses and escape a looming restructure. But so do her, um, work friends. Madeleine Cleary. Affirm Press. $34.99. Inspired by what she has described as her own family's secret, salacious past - "my great-great-great grandmother was a colonial 'common prostitute'" - Melbourne-raised former Canberra diplomat Madeleine Cleary threads fictional mystery and romance into a grim but fascinating chapter of Australia's hardscrabble past, bringing to richly detailed life the women so often overlooked by history. It's 1863 and a serial killer stalks the notorious red-light district of the goldrush-rich city of Melbourne, endangering poor Irishwoman Johanna Callaghan who hopes to make a living at the glamorous Papillon brothel, and respectable journalist Harriett Gardiner who is intent on unmasking the murderer. Cynthia Timoti. Macmillan. $22.99. Think Crazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe and you'll get the Asian rom-com gist of this sweetly flirty debut novel about Ellie Pang, a young woman fed up with the meddling of her overbearing parents after she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Ellie sets out on her own to open her dream bakery - selling sugar-free treats, of course - but needs help to renovate. The man for the job is none other than Alec, the childhood crush who broke her heart - and it just so happens he needs a fake girlfriend to seal a business deal. But can they fake that they're in love? Georgia Rose Phillips. Picador. $34.99. Family is everything to Anne. And Anne demands everything from her family. That's because Anne knows how devastatingly easy it is to lose your family. The debut novel from Adelaide-based Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, notorious founder and leader of the cult known as The Family. What formative traumas during her 1920s childhood shaped her later abuse of illegally adopted children through the 1960s and '70s at Lake Eildon in Victoria? Where the author's imagined psychological portrait of Hamilton-Byrne and the disturbing facts of The Family diverge may require further reader research. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark it so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Adelaide's Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of notorious cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne, while Australian journalist John Lyons details the "extraordinary efforts of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Jeremy Renner. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. On New Year's Day, 2023, actor Jeremy Renner needed to clear mountains of snow from his Nevada driveway to enable his visiting family to go skiing. So the star of The Hurt Locker fired up a snowcat to bulldoze the road. The accident that followed should have killed him. Renner was run over by the six-tonne machine, and his account of the calamity is bloodcurdling. "I can promise you this much at least: The sounds of being crushed are just as terrifying as the visual," he writes. Renner's injuries were catastrophic. This is the story of his survival and recovery. Candice Chung. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. "A meal is a shape. It is a container into which we pour our cravings." At 35, when a 13-year relationship with her first love ends, food journalist Candice Chung must decide if she wants her retired Cantonese parents to join her as she reviews restaurants. Will they eat together in polite silence as the children of immigrants might traditionally expect? Or will this be her opportunity to finally broach the reasons they have drifted so profoundly apart over the years? This tender, intimate but brave memoir has a meditative tone and structure and should delight lovers of food who treasure its sacred place in family and culture. John Lyons. ABC Books. $34.99. Australian journalist John Lyons has made three trips to wartime Ukraine. The first two were on assignment with the ABC. The third was on his holidays, which allowed him to absorb what was happening in the country without the need to file daily news. It was on this trip that he learned the most, doing what regular Ukrainians do and, most importantly, taking the time to talk to everyday people. He found that resourceful civilians from every walk of life are doing their part. This is a story about the "extraordinary efforts ... of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Mark Lilla. Hurst Publishers. $44.99. Humans are driven by the need to know, right? We are curious, we want to discover, look around the corner, explore over the horizon. Or do we? Mark Lilla examines the opposite compulsion: "the will not to know, the will to ignorance". This is not about those who are indifferent to learning, who simply don't want to expend the energy. This is about people who have "developed a particular antipathy toward the search for knowledge, whose inner doors are fastened tight against anything that might cast doubt on what they believe they already know". Starting to sound familiar to anyone? Sinead Stubbins. Affirm Press. $34.99. Apparently work doesn't have to define your life and corporate programs to build team bonds and boost employee engagement might not always deliver healthy outcomes - especially for those of us with messy bits in our personalities and our personal lives (you know, the bits that make us individuals). This wicked little satire of white-collar workplace culture follows Edith and a select group of her co-workers at ad agency Winked as they are sent to an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, run by an outfit called Consequi. She hopes to impress her bosses and escape a looming restructure. But so do her, um, work friends. Madeleine Cleary. Affirm Press. $34.99. Inspired by what she has described as her own family's secret, salacious past - "my great-great-great grandmother was a colonial 'common prostitute'" - Melbourne-raised former Canberra diplomat Madeleine Cleary threads fictional mystery and romance into a grim but fascinating chapter of Australia's hardscrabble past, bringing to richly detailed life the women so often overlooked by history. It's 1863 and a serial killer stalks the notorious red-light district of the goldrush-rich city of Melbourne, endangering poor Irishwoman Johanna Callaghan who hopes to make a living at the glamorous Papillon brothel, and respectable journalist Harriett Gardiner who is intent on unmasking the murderer. Cynthia Timoti. Macmillan. $22.99. Think Crazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe and you'll get the Asian rom-com gist of this sweetly flirty debut novel about Ellie Pang, a young woman fed up with the meddling of her overbearing parents after she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Ellie sets out on her own to open her dream bakery - selling sugar-free treats, of course - but needs help to renovate. The man for the job is none other than Alec, the childhood crush who broke her heart - and it just so happens he needs a fake girlfriend to seal a business deal. But can they fake that they're in love? Georgia Rose Phillips. Picador. $34.99. Family is everything to Anne. And Anne demands everything from her family. That's because Anne knows how devastatingly easy it is to lose your family. The debut novel from Adelaide-based Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, notorious founder and leader of the cult known as The Family. What formative traumas during her 1920s childhood shaped her later abuse of illegally adopted children through the 1960s and '70s at Lake Eildon in Victoria? Where the author's imagined psychological portrait of Hamilton-Byrne and the disturbing facts of The Family diverge may require further reader research. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark it so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Adelaide's Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of notorious cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne, while Australian journalist John Lyons details the "extraordinary efforts of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Jeremy Renner. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. On New Year's Day, 2023, actor Jeremy Renner needed to clear mountains of snow from his Nevada driveway to enable his visiting family to go skiing. So the star of The Hurt Locker fired up a snowcat to bulldoze the road. The accident that followed should have killed him. Renner was run over by the six-tonne machine, and his account of the calamity is bloodcurdling. "I can promise you this much at least: The sounds of being crushed are just as terrifying as the visual," he writes. Renner's injuries were catastrophic. This is the story of his survival and recovery. Candice Chung. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. "A meal is a shape. It is a container into which we pour our cravings." At 35, when a 13-year relationship with her first love ends, food journalist Candice Chung must decide if she wants her retired Cantonese parents to join her as she reviews restaurants. Will they eat together in polite silence as the children of immigrants might traditionally expect? Or will this be her opportunity to finally broach the reasons they have drifted so profoundly apart over the years? This tender, intimate but brave memoir has a meditative tone and structure and should delight lovers of food who treasure its sacred place in family and culture. John Lyons. ABC Books. $34.99. Australian journalist John Lyons has made three trips to wartime Ukraine. The first two were on assignment with the ABC. The third was on his holidays, which allowed him to absorb what was happening in the country without the need to file daily news. It was on this trip that he learned the most, doing what regular Ukrainians do and, most importantly, taking the time to talk to everyday people. He found that resourceful civilians from every walk of life are doing their part. This is a story about the "extraordinary efforts ... of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Mark Lilla. Hurst Publishers. $44.99. Humans are driven by the need to know, right? We are curious, we want to discover, look around the corner, explore over the horizon. Or do we? Mark Lilla examines the opposite compulsion: "the will not to know, the will to ignorance". This is not about those who are indifferent to learning, who simply don't want to expend the energy. This is about people who have "developed a particular antipathy toward the search for knowledge, whose inner doors are fastened tight against anything that might cast doubt on what they believe they already know". Starting to sound familiar to anyone? Sinead Stubbins. Affirm Press. $34.99. Apparently work doesn't have to define your life and corporate programs to build team bonds and boost employee engagement might not always deliver healthy outcomes - especially for those of us with messy bits in our personalities and our personal lives (you know, the bits that make us individuals). This wicked little satire of white-collar workplace culture follows Edith and a select group of her co-workers at ad agency Winked as they are sent to an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, run by an outfit called Consequi. She hopes to impress her bosses and escape a looming restructure. But so do her, um, work friends. Madeleine Cleary. Affirm Press. $34.99. Inspired by what she has described as her own family's secret, salacious past - "my great-great-great grandmother was a colonial 'common prostitute'" - Melbourne-raised former Canberra diplomat Madeleine Cleary threads fictional mystery and romance into a grim but fascinating chapter of Australia's hardscrabble past, bringing to richly detailed life the women so often overlooked by history. It's 1863 and a serial killer stalks the notorious red-light district of the goldrush-rich city of Melbourne, endangering poor Irishwoman Johanna Callaghan who hopes to make a living at the glamorous Papillon brothel, and respectable journalist Harriett Gardiner who is intent on unmasking the murderer. Cynthia Timoti. Macmillan. $22.99. Think Crazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe and you'll get the Asian rom-com gist of this sweetly flirty debut novel about Ellie Pang, a young woman fed up with the meddling of her overbearing parents after she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Ellie sets out on her own to open her dream bakery - selling sugar-free treats, of course - but needs help to renovate. The man for the job is none other than Alec, the childhood crush who broke her heart - and it just so happens he needs a fake girlfriend to seal a business deal. But can they fake that they're in love? Georgia Rose Phillips. Picador. $34.99. Family is everything to Anne. And Anne demands everything from her family. That's because Anne knows how devastatingly easy it is to lose your family. The debut novel from Adelaide-based Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, notorious founder and leader of the cult known as The Family. What formative traumas during her 1920s childhood shaped her later abuse of illegally adopted children through the 1960s and '70s at Lake Eildon in Victoria? Where the author's imagined psychological portrait of Hamilton-Byrne and the disturbing facts of The Family diverge may require further reader research. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark it so you can find our latest books content with ease. What's new: Adelaide's Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of notorious cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne, while Australian journalist John Lyons details the "extraordinary efforts of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Jeremy Renner. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. On New Year's Day, 2023, actor Jeremy Renner needed to clear mountains of snow from his Nevada driveway to enable his visiting family to go skiing. So the star of The Hurt Locker fired up a snowcat to bulldoze the road. The accident that followed should have killed him. Renner was run over by the six-tonne machine, and his account of the calamity is bloodcurdling. "I can promise you this much at least: The sounds of being crushed are just as terrifying as the visual," he writes. Renner's injuries were catastrophic. This is the story of his survival and recovery. Candice Chung. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. "A meal is a shape. It is a container into which we pour our cravings." At 35, when a 13-year relationship with her first love ends, food journalist Candice Chung must decide if she wants her retired Cantonese parents to join her as she reviews restaurants. Will they eat together in polite silence as the children of immigrants might traditionally expect? Or will this be her opportunity to finally broach the reasons they have drifted so profoundly apart over the years? This tender, intimate but brave memoir has a meditative tone and structure and should delight lovers of food who treasure its sacred place in family and culture. John Lyons. ABC Books. $34.99. Australian journalist John Lyons has made three trips to wartime Ukraine. The first two were on assignment with the ABC. The third was on his holidays, which allowed him to absorb what was happening in the country without the need to file daily news. It was on this trip that he learned the most, doing what regular Ukrainians do and, most importantly, taking the time to talk to everyday people. He found that resourceful civilians from every walk of life are doing their part. This is a story about the "extraordinary efforts ... of ordinary Ukrainians" trying to save their country. Mark Lilla. Hurst Publishers. $44.99. Humans are driven by the need to know, right? We are curious, we want to discover, look around the corner, explore over the horizon. Or do we? Mark Lilla examines the opposite compulsion: "the will not to know, the will to ignorance". This is not about those who are indifferent to learning, who simply don't want to expend the energy. This is about people who have "developed a particular antipathy toward the search for knowledge, whose inner doors are fastened tight against anything that might cast doubt on what they believe they already know". Starting to sound familiar to anyone? Sinead Stubbins. Affirm Press. $34.99. Apparently work doesn't have to define your life and corporate programs to build team bonds and boost employee engagement might not always deliver healthy outcomes - especially for those of us with messy bits in our personalities and our personal lives (you know, the bits that make us individuals). This wicked little satire of white-collar workplace culture follows Edith and a select group of her co-workers at ad agency Winked as they are sent to an elite three-day work retreat in the remote mountains, run by an outfit called Consequi. She hopes to impress her bosses and escape a looming restructure. But so do her, um, work friends. Madeleine Cleary. Affirm Press. $34.99. Inspired by what she has described as her own family's secret, salacious past - "my great-great-great grandmother was a colonial 'common prostitute'" - Melbourne-raised former Canberra diplomat Madeleine Cleary threads fictional mystery and romance into a grim but fascinating chapter of Australia's hardscrabble past, bringing to richly detailed life the women so often overlooked by history. It's 1863 and a serial killer stalks the notorious red-light district of the goldrush-rich city of Melbourne, endangering poor Irishwoman Johanna Callaghan who hopes to make a living at the glamorous Papillon brothel, and respectable journalist Harriett Gardiner who is intent on unmasking the murderer. Cynthia Timoti. Macmillan. $22.99. Think Crazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe and you'll get the Asian rom-com gist of this sweetly flirty debut novel about Ellie Pang, a young woman fed up with the meddling of her overbearing parents after she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Ellie sets out on her own to open her dream bakery - selling sugar-free treats, of course - but needs help to renovate. The man for the job is none other than Alec, the childhood crush who broke her heart - and it just so happens he needs a fake girlfriend to seal a business deal. But can they fake that they're in love? Georgia Rose Phillips. Picador. $34.99. Family is everything to Anne. And Anne demands everything from her family. That's because Anne knows how devastatingly easy it is to lose your family. The debut novel from Adelaide-based Georgia Rose Phillips dares to fictionalise the early life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, notorious founder and leader of the cult known as The Family. What formative traumas during her 1920s childhood shaped her later abuse of illegally adopted children through the 1960s and '70s at Lake Eildon in Victoria? Where the author's imagined psychological portrait of Hamilton-Byrne and the disturbing facts of The Family diverge may require further reader research. Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark it so you can find our latest books content with ease.
The Spinoff
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
All the finalists in the 2025 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults
Announcing all the books – and their authors, illustrators, translators and publishers – in the running for this year's New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The winter months are an apt time to celebrate the creators of books that feed future creators of books. With long nights and days punctuated by weather, here's an opportunity to gather around the best Aotearoa has to offer and their promises of armchair adventure. There were 156 entries to the awards this year (slightly down on 2024's 176). The judging panels were assisted by 450 reviews submitted by school students from 51 schools around Aotearoa. Among this year's finalists are books that, according to convenor of judges Feana Tu'akoi, present 'big ideas from our past, present and possible dystopian futures are considered in absorbing and thoughtful ways, providing springboards for deeper discussion. Themes include identity, connection, mental health, our histories, traditional wisdom, indigenous languages, and the importance of being exactly who we are.' Before we dive into some analysis of each category, a recap of what they are and the monies attached. There are six categories: Picture Book, Junior Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, Non-Fiction, Illustration and te reo Māori. Winners are announced at a ceremony at Pipitea Marae in Wellington on August 13 and will each take home $8,500. Of those winners, one will be named the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and will receive an extra $8,500. The Best First Book prize winner gets $2,500. The Bookhub Picture Book Award finalists Ten Nosey Weka by Kate Preece, illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu) (Bateman Books) Titiro Look by Gavin Bishop (Tainui, Ngāti Awa), translated by Darryn Joseph (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Rereahu) (Gecko Press, Lerner Publishing Group) You Can't Pat a Fish by Ruth Paul (Walker Books Australia) Picture books are an artistic collaboration. Words, text, design and format all have to work together perfectly. These finalists are all pros. Gavin Bishop, Ruth Paul, Juliette MacIver have all been here before, as have illustrators Lily Uivel and Isobel Joy Te Aho-White. Kate Preece is new to the awards with her first-of-a-kind counting book revolving around those curious, sneaky wee birds, the weka. In this interview with The Sapling, Preece explains how the book is tri-lingual and is the first to include Ta rē Moriori, the indigenous language of Rēkohu, where Preece now lives. Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award finalists Brown Bird by Jane Arthur (Penguin Random House New Zealand) Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen (Penguin Random House New Zealand) The Apprentice Witnesser by Bren MacDibble (Allen & Unwin) The Raven's Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey (Allen & Unwin) V iolet and the Velvets: The Case of the Missing Stuff by Rachael King, illustrated by Phoebe Morris (Allen & Unwin) This is all very … strange, for me. I love writing. I love writing novels for young readers because at heart I am still a young reader. It's extremely odd to be writing with this books editor hat on about this award with my author hat on. But the books editor is saying well done to the author and the author is chuffed (if not quite awkward). Mostly because of the company my first novel is keeping here. Back for the second year in a row is the unstoppable Rachael King (who was also a finalist in 2024 for The Grimmelings); I adored Jane Arthur's self-described 'quiet novel' about a character who now looms large in my mind. Bren MacDibble is an absolute powerhouse writer whose work is admirable for its voice, its world building and its control. And Li Chen's Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat has stunning visual worldbuilding and a cute as leading cat. Note the mystery theme: definitely a trend I've noticed in international publishing. Young readers love intrigue just as much as anyone! Young Adult Fiction Award finalists Bear by Kiri Lightfoot, illustrated by Pippa Keel Situ (Allen & Unwin) Gracehopper by Mandy Hager (One Tree House) Migration by Steph Matuku (Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga) (Huia Publishers) The Mess of Our Lives by Mary-Anne Scott (One Tree House) The Paradise Generation by Sanna Thompson (umop apisdn press) Writing for young adults is a tall order. Young adults (otherwise known as teenagers) can be a tough crowd. What all of these books do is simply tell a story, build worlds, with teenage protagonists at the heart of them. Kiri Lightfoot's Bear is akin to acclaimed Patrick Ness novel, A Monster Calls, in that it uses a metaphoric beast to represent Jasper's rage, fear and consuming emotional undertow. Steph Matuku (no stranger to these awards) has written a brilliant dystopian sci-fi that reflects our present-day conflicts all too well. The Mess of Our Lives by Mary-Anne Scott is a story of overcoming an extremely challenging home life; while Mandy Hager (also no stranger to these awards) has written a story that centres on themes of identity and inclusion. First-time author Sanna Thompson is the wild card here: you can read an excerpt from The Paradise Generation over on Kete Books. Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction Finalists Black Magic by David Riley, illustrated by Munro Te Whata (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou, Makefu) (Reading Warrior) Dear Moko: Māori Wisdom for our Young Ones by Hinemoa Elder (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kurī, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāpuhi nui tonu) (Penguin Random House New Zealand) Ruru: Night Hunter by Katie Furze, illustrated by Ned Barraud (Scholastic New Zealand) The Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi by Ross Calman (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Kāi Tahu) (Oratia Books) Tui Pea Luva by Mele Tonga Grant, illustrated by Luca Walton (Mila's Books) Huge names! These books are so crucial for education at home and at school: they condense complex subjects and present them in fluid, learnable ways via text, image and design. I love Ruru: Night Hunter for its immersive journey through the nightlife of our little owls. Ross Calman's The Treaty of Waitangi | Te Tiriti o Waitangi is extremely useful: highly illustrated, clearly written, an all-ages text, really. Mila's Books are the only all-Pasifika publishing house in the world and they consistently put out books made by and for Pasifika children and families. Tui Pea Luva is Grant's poetry collection which passes down the wisdom of Pasifika women. David Riley's Reading Warrior is a multi-faceted organisation that publishes books, creates projects in collaboration with communities, runs workshops and puts student writing into print. Black Magic continues Reading Warrior's focus on sporting heroics with the story of how we got our all black uniforms with a silver fern. Russell Clark Award for Illustration Alice and the Strange Bird by Isaac du Toit (Isaac du Toit) Hineraukatauri me Te Ara Pūoro, illustrated by Rehua Wilson (Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa), written by Elizabeth Gray (Ngāti Rēhia, Ngāti Uepōhatu, Tama Ūpoko ki te awa tipua, Ngāti Tūwharetoa anō hoki) (Huia Publishers) Poem for Ataahua, illustrated by Sarah Wilkins, written by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (Reading Warrior) Sad Sushi, Anna Aldridge (Anna Aldridge) You Can't Pat a Fish by Ruth Paul (Walker Books Australia) It's always amazing to me how illustrators find angles, perspectives, and wordless narratives that bring a text to life. Sarah Wilkins' illustrations for Poem for Ataahua first caught my eye on Instagram: they're stunning, ethereal. Wilkins is longlisted for the World Illustration Awards 2025 for this same work (selected from 5000 entries from 81 countries). I also adore Ruth Paul's bold style: there's such comedy in the images that work so well with Paul's rollicking rhyme (hard to do but Paul does it so well). Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award Finalists A Ariā me te Atua o te Kūmara by Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau a Kai, Rongowhakaata, Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngāti Porou), illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu), translated by Hēni Jacob (Ngāti Raukawa) (Penguin Random House New Zealand) *Hineraukatauri me Te Ara Pūoro by Elizabeth Gray (Ngāti Rēhia, Ngāti Uepōhatu, Tama Ūpoko ki te awa tipua, Ngāti Tūwharetoa anō hoki), illustrated by Rehua Wilson (Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa) (Huia Publishers) Ka mātoro a Whetū rāua ko Kohu i Rotorua by Hayley Elliott-Kernot, translated by Te Ingo Ngaia (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Te Ātiawa, Waikato-Maniapoto, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Whānau-a-Karuai ) (Round Door Design) Ko ngā Whetū Kai o Matariki, ko Tupuānuku rāua ko Tupuārangi by Miriama Kamo (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga), illustrated by Zak Waipara (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata), translated by Ariana Stevens (Poutini Ngāi Tahu) (Scholastic New Zealand) * Ngā Kupenga a Nanny Rina by Qiane Mataa-Sipu (Te Waiohua, Waikato, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pikiao, Cook Islands), illustrated by Isobel Joy Te Aho-White (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu) (Penguin Random House New Zealand) * Indicates a finalist book originally written in te reo Māori A specialist judging panel was enlisted to analyse the merits of these books either translated into te reo Māori or originally written in te reo Māori. Many familiar names here including Mirama Kamo and Zak Waipara (who were finalists in 2019 for Ngā Whetū Matariki i Whānakotia, translated by Ngaere Roberts); and Witi Ihimaera and Isobel Joy Te Aho-White who were finalists in 2023 with Te Kōkōrangi: Te Aranga o Matariki (translated by Hēni Jacob). NZSA Best First Book Award Finalists Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie by Shelley Burne-Field (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Sāmoa) (Allen & Unwin) Play Wild by Rachel Clare (Bateman Books) The Raven's Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey (Allen & Unwin) The Witch of Maketu and the Bleating Lambs by Anika Moa (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri), illustrated by Rebecca ter Borg (Penguin Random House New Zealand) The Writing Desk by Di Morris (Bateman Books) I don't think many of us on this list ever expected to see our names alongside queen Anika Moa. I loved her book based on the character in her superbly creepy song. Shelley Burne-Field is a gorgeous writer (you can read about why she writes for children on The Spinoff). Di Morris' The Writing Desk is a stunning graphic account of the lives of colonial women; and Rachel Clare's Play Wild is a guide to having little adventures outside (reminiscent of Giselle Clarkson's The Observologist, though more geared towards using natural materials to aid imaginative play). Thanks to the English and bilingual judging panel: Convenor of judges Feana Tu'akoi, a Kirikiriroa-based writer; Don Long, a children's and educational publishing expert; Linda Jane Keegan, a Singaporean-Pākehā writer and reviewer; Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Pukeko, Ngāti Maru Hauraki), recipient of the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the 2024 NZCYA awards; and Mero Rokx (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai), an education specialist who is on the English-language and bilingual panel, as well as Te Kura Pounamu panel. And to the panel judging te reo Māori entries: Convenor Mat Tait (Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Kuia), a freelance artist, illustrator, writer and te reo Māori tutor based in the Motueka area; Justice-Manawanui Arahanga-Pryor (Ngāti Awa ki Rangitaiki, Ngāti Uenuku, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki), a kaitakawaenga / library programming specialist; and Maxine Hemi (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne), a kaiako with over 30 years' experience teaching. And praise be for those who make the awards possible: Creative New Zealand, HELL Pizza, the Wright Family Foundation, LIANZA Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa, Wellington City Council, BookHub presented by Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand, New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa, the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, the Mātātuhi Foundation, and NielsenIQ BookData. The Awards are administered by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa.
