Gang women’s story wins first book prize (Waatea News)

A book about a work co-operative for gang women has won writer Pip Desmond the New Zealand Society of Authors E.H. McCormick award for best first non-fiction book.

from Waatea News, by Adam Gifford; 22/06/2010

Stephen Stratford, the convener of judges for the New Zealand Book Awards, says Trust: A True Story of Women & Gangs is a potent combination of oral history and memoir.
He says it was an extraordinarily hard topic to write about, but Desmond, who had been a member of Wellington's Aroha Trust during its three-year existence in the 1970s, Aroha Trust, had exceptional access to the women.

“I don't think anyone will again be in a position to write a book with such inside knowledge of what the life is like. She’s known these women for years and they obviously trust her a lot and shared things with her they wouldn’t with anyone else, so it’s a real one of a kind, this book,” Mr Stratford says.

Titles shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards, which will be announced in August, include Dame Judith Binney's history of Te Urewera, Encircled Lands, and Maori Architecture: From fale to wharenui and beyond by University of Auckland art and architectural historian Deidre Brown from Ngati Rehia and Ngapuhi.