Literary award · New Zealand · since 1996

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

New Zealand literary awards. Established 1996.

About Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards, which ran from 1968 to 1995 (known as the Montana Book Awards from 1994 to 1995). The awards have changed name several times depending on sponsorship. From 1996 to 2009, the awards were known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and sponsored by Montana Wines. From 2010 until 2014, the awards were known as the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Since 2015, the main sponsors have been property developer Ockham Residential, the Acorn Foundation, Creative New Zealand, Mary and Peter Biggs, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand and biotech company MitoQ.

From the Wikipedia article “Ockham New Zealand Book Awards”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2024Grace Yee—
2023Noelle McCarthy—
2022Vincent O'Malley—
2022Bridget Hackshaw—
2022Claire Regnault—
2021Madison Hamill—
2020Stephanie Gibson—
2020Tim Denee—
2020Chris McDowall—
2019Sean Mallon—
2019Chessie Henry—
2019John Reid—
2019Fiona Kidman—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data