Judges 2009

Each year a panel of three judges is appointed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The judges are supported by eight specialist category advisors and a Te Reo Māori advisor. The judges and advisors are chosen by the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Management Committee from a broad range of nominations put forward by literary and book trade organisations. Wherever possible one of the judges will be a practising writer.

Judging Panel 2009

Professor Mark Williams has previously taught at the University of Tokyo and University of Canterbury. His publications on New Zealand and modern literature include Leaving the Highway: Six Contemporary New Zealand Novelists (Auckland University Press, 1990), Patrick White (Macmillan, 1993), and, with Jane Stafford, Māoriland: New Zealand Literature 1872-1914 (Victoria University Press, 2006). He has edited or co-edited numerous anthologies and collections and is on the editorial boards of several international literary journals.

Jane Westaway’s book, Reliable Friendly Girls (Longacre, 1996) won Best First Book at the 1997 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Love and Other Excuses (Longacre, 1999) was shortlisted for the same awards in 2000, and the novel, Good at Geography also appeared that year. She co-edited the anthology, It Looks Better on You - New Zealand Women Writers on Their Friendships (Longacre, 2003) and co-wrote Accusation - A Wife's Story (Longacre, 2005). She reviews for Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon, and is co-editor of the review quarterly New Zealand Books. She lives in Wellington, and teaches judgment writing in New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Margo White has worked on several magazines, including the NZ Listener, where she first worked as a feature writer before becoming the magazine’s Arts and Books Editor, and Metro magazine, where she was Senior Writer and Books Editor. She is currently the deputy editor of New Zealand Geographic and also writes in a freelance capacity for a range of publications. She lives in Auckland.

Category Advisors 2009

An advisor has been appointed to assist the judges in each category. A Te Reo advisor has also been appointed to assist the judges with books written in both English and Maori. The 2009 advisors are:

Fiction: Tina Shaw is a novelist, short story writer, editor and reviewer. She has written five novels for adults, the most recent being The Black Madonna (Penguin 2005). Her short stories have been published in anthologies, literary journals and magazines. Shaw was a 1999 recipient of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and has held the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency. An occasional book reviewer, Shaw works as Programme Manager for the New Zealand Society of Authors and lives in Auckland. Her novel for young adults, About Griffen's Heart will be published in 2009.

Poetry: Bernadette Hall is an award-winning poet, essayist, editor, reviewer and creative writing tutor based in North Canterbury. Her work has appeared in all major New Zealand anthologies since the 1990’s. She performs her work regularly on the national circuit and has also done so overseas. She has held the Burns Fellowship at Otago and writing residencies at Canterbury and Victoria Universities. In 2003 her 6th collection of poetry, Settler Dreaming (VUP), was shortlisted for the Tasmania Pacific Poetry Prize. In 2004 she went to Antarctica on an Antarctic Arts Award. The resulting collection, The Ponies (VUP 2007) was highly praised. Her ninth collection of poems, The Lustre Jug, will be published later this year.

Biography: Philip Norman is a freelance composer and author based in Christchurch. His biography of Douglas Lilburn (CUP 2006) was the winner of the biography category of the 2007 Montana Book Awards. He was the 2007 Ursula Bethell Writer-in-Residence at the University of Canterbury and is currently continuing work on a history of New Zealand composition with the assistance of a 2008 Copyright Licensing Limited Writers’ Award.

Environment: Geoff Chapple is a former books editor for the Sunday Star Times, and book reviewer. He was formerly a judge for the New Zealand Book Awards and is presently on selection panels for the Copyright Licensing Ltd Writers' Awards and the Michael King Writers' Centre fellowships.  He wrote the libretto for the opera Alley  performed at the New Zealand International Arts Festival in 1998,  and  co-wrote the script for Vincent Ward's The Navigator. He is the author of five books, one of which, Te Araroa -The New Zealand Trail, won the Montana Book Awards Environment category in 2003.  His play Hatch-Or The Plight of the Penguins has toured New Zealand almost continuously since 2006 and is scheduled for a March 2009 season in Tasmania.  He is founder and presently CEO of Te Araroa Trust, which is putting in a walking trail the length of New Zealand.

Reference and Anthology: Anna Rogers has spent most of her working life as a book editor, over the last 25 years as a freelancer. She has an MA in English from Canterbury University, and has also worked as a bookseller and as a sub-editor for NZ Listener. She has written seven books of non-fiction, including Turning the Pages: The Story of Bookselling in New Zealand (with her late father, Max Rogers) (Reed 1993), While You’re Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899–1948 (AUP, 2003), and illustrated histories of the West Coast and Canterbury. Anna has also edited an anthology of writing about Christchurch, was the editor of Booksellers News for nine years and is a regular book reviewer.

History: Emeritus Professor Tim Beaglehole is Chancellor at Victoria University. He has a long association with the University including as a student, Professor of History and Dean of Arts. He has a PhD from King’s College, Cambridge and was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University. After retiring from Victoria in 1996 he worked on the acclaimed biography of his father, A Life of J.C.Beaglehole New Zealand Scholar, published by the Victoria University Press in 2006, as well as crewing on a number of voyages on the replica of James Cook’s Endeavour. Beaglehole has previously been Deputy Chairman of the council of the National Art Gallery and Chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.

Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture: Charmian Smith is a feature writer at the Otago Daily Times specializing in food, wine and other lifestyle topics. Until late last year she was the newspaper’s Book Review Editor, a position she held for 13 years.

Illustrative: Dr TL Rodney Wilson retired recently from the position of Director of Auckland War Memorial Museum. His many high profile directorships include the Auckland Art Gallery, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne). He was Founding Director of the New Zealand National Maritime Museum. Rodney Wilson has a PhD from Canterbury University and was one of the institution’s senior lecturers. A former Montana New Zealand Book Awards judge, he has written a number of publications including two books on Petrus van der Velden. In 2007 he was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts.

Te Reo: Hone Apanui has devoted his career to Māori education. For almost a decade he was Māori Publishing Manager for Learning Media Ltd. Prior to that he held various roles with the Department of Education – as the Takawaenga Māori (Māori Coordinator), as Schools’ Inspector and as Chief Editor of Māori Publications.