2011 Awards

Blue Smoke by Chris Bourke wins 2011 New Zealand Post Book of the Year

Christopher Finlayson, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, tonight awarded music historian Chris Bourke the New Zealand Post Book of the Year, for his work Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964.

The Best First Book Awards for Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Fiction were established by the New Zealand Society of Authors with the aim of encouraging new writers and their publishers.

The five members of this year’s judging panel, charged with identifying the country’s best books published in 2010, bring with them wide-ranging talents and celebrated literary nous.