Oxford University

When you catch my eye through the clouded air
Of the coffee house, patting your hair
As if you were made only for men to look on,
I remember another body also human,
That leper wound in filthy bandages
Dying beside a fruit stall in Calcutta
With a few coins in a metal dish,
His lion's face of black mahogany
Turned upwards to the sky:
He, you, I.

So I love, but not as you would wish.

I do not know another beauty
Like what your face has shown
Silently, silently,

Pure as the moon in fences of torn cloud
Who floods the earth and sky and troubled water
With light like music for one man alone:

Beauty you posses, time's daughter,
Lamp of my life, O hidden one
You who are the song you sing,

Silently, silently,
From faithful pillows on a night of love
Pouring in my heart's gulf

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.

The reference & anthology finalists for the New Zealand Book Awards 2009 are:

The judges selected for the inaugural New Zealand Post Book Awards bring with them a wealth of literary expertise as they set about choosing the country’s best books published in 2009.

This year sees an increase from three to five judges as part of a new, streamlined structure of the country’s premier book awards.

Deutz Medal For Fiction
Fiction
Live Bodies Maurice Gee, (Penguin).

Montana Medal for Non Fiction
History & Biography
Dictionary of New Zealand English ed. Harry Orsman, (Oxford University Press)

Poetry
Shape-Shifter Hone Tuwhare, (Steele Roberts).

Illustrative Arts
Goldie Roger Blackley, (David Bateman).

 Environment & Heritage
Pick of the Bunch: New Zealand Wildflowers Peter Johnson, (Longacre Press).

Lives & Lifestyle
The Complete New Zealand Fisherman Geoff Thomas, (David Bateman).

Readers' Choice Award
New Zealand Historical Atlas
ed. Malcolm McKinnon, (David Bateman)

Best Review Page
The Evening Post

Reviewer of the Year
Graeme Lay

The New Zealand Society of Authors Best First Book Awards
Hubert Church Award for Fiction:
In a fishbone church Catherine Chidgey,( Victoria University Press).

Jessie Mackay Award for Poetry:
All Roads Lead to the Sea Kapka Kassabova, (Auckland University Press).

E H McCormick Award for Non-Fiction:
Olives: The new passion Genevieve Noser, (Penguin).

Deutz Medal For Fiction or Poetry
Tu, Patricia Grace (Penguin Books)

Montana Medal for Non Fiction
At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins (Godwit)

Fiction
Tu, Patricia Grace (Penguin Books)

Fiction runners-up
Mansfield, C K Stead (Vintage)
Tarzan Presley, Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press)

Poetry
Nice morning for it, Adam, Vincent O'Sullivan (Victoria University Press)

History
At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins (Godwit)

Biography
Chronicle of the Unsung, Martin Edmond (Auckland University Press)

Environment
Tiritiri Matangi: A Model of Conservation, Anne Rimmer (Tandem Press)

Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture
Hip Hop Music in Aotearoa, Gareth Shute (Reed Publishing)

Illustrative
Handboek: Ans Westra Photographs, Luit Bieringa (BWX)

Reference & Anthology
The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary , edited by Tony Deverson & Graeme Kennedy (Oxford University Press)

Readers' Choice Award
Made in Morocco, Julie Le Clerc & John Bougen (Penguin Books)

Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction
My Real Life and Other Stories, Julian Novitz (Vintage)

Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry
Clung, Sonja Yelich (Auckland University Press)

E.H. McCormick Best First Book of Non-Fiction
Ghost Dance, Douglas Wright (Penguin Books)

Review Page or Programme of the Year Award
North & South

Reviewer of the Year Award
Tony Simpson