Finalists announced for New Zealand’s richest non-fiction writer’s award

Five finalists have been chosen for the 2011 Copyright Licensing Limited (CLL) Writers’ Awards, from an exciting and varied list of applications.

The two overall winners, who will each receive $35,000, will be announced at the awards event at the National Library in Auckland on Thursday, 1 September.

The five finalists and their proposed works are:

• Dr Lee Davidson: Mountain Feeling : The Lives of Climbers and Other Stories
• Bradford Haami – Ka Mau Te Wehi: May the Force Be With You
• Janet Hunt – Dick Henry and the Birds
• Dr Malcolm McKinnon – The 1930’s Depression in New Zealand
• Melissa Williams – Maori Urban Migrations from North Hokianga to Auckland 1930 – 1970

CEO of CLL, Paula Browning  says, “The Selection Panel for the 2011 awards commented on the extremely high standard of the 69 applications that were received and the mix of proposals from both emerging and established writers. This shows that non-fiction writing in New Zealand is alive and well.”

About the awards
The awards are financed from copyright licensing revenue received by CLL from New Zealand institutions on behalf of authors and publishers. They enable New Zealand writers to devote time to specific non-fiction projects. Two research grants, provided in conjunction with the NZ Society of Authors and the Stout Research Centre, will also be awarded at the event on 1 September.
 
2011 is the 10th anniversary of the awards and will mark an investment by Copyright Licensing Limited of $1 million into New Zealand non-fiction. 

Eight previous winners have already published their books, with three more titles due to go to print in the next 12 months. These will include the 2010 winners, Dame Christine Cole Catley and Steve Braunias, and one of the successful titles from 2009 by Peter Wells.

Another former CLL winner, No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson by Paul Millar, was a finalist in the General Non-fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards.