The 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlist has been announced!
What’s made the cut? The Ockham’s expert judges guarantee that these 16 must-read books are fresh, reflective, and pack a punch! Fiction, poetry, history, art and more — all the shortlisted books have been beautifully crafted and reflect the immense talent that is at work in our homegrown book industry. Congratulations to all the outstanding nominees.
The winners will be announced on 13 May, so get reading! What’s the first one you’ll pick up?
Nicola Legat, spokesperson for the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa, says this year’s shortlisted books are fresh, reflective, and pack a punch.
“It’s a very exciting finalist list – 16 titles that readers of any genre will enjoy. They have been beautifully crafted by their authors and produced with great care by their publishers. The Book Awards Trust salutes them all.”
Nicola Legat
The 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted titles are:
*represents debut authors
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
- All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) (Āporo Press)
- How to Paint a Nude by Sam Mahon (Ugly Hill Press)
- The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
The awards’ fiction category convenor of judges, Craig Cliff, says these four books indicate the breadth and brio of fiction being produced in Aotearoa today. “You laugh, you shudder, you are pulled along by character and voice and plot. Set in different time periods and across the globe, these four authors speak directly to the contemporary concerns of New Zealanders. How free are we really? How much have attitudes to gender and sexuality actually changed? What might be killing us and what sustains us?” he says.
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
- Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)*
- No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg (Auckland University Press)*
- Sick Power Trip by Erik Kennedy (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts by Anna Jackson (Auckland University Press)
“As judges we were filled with imagination and excitement, and we were also torn by the reasoning, culture, storytelling and language of the high-quality poetry collections in this year’s submissions,” says category convenor of judges Daren Kamali. “We salute the four finalists, from the island realness of Black Sugarcane and the love, loss and distance in No Good, to long COVID in Sick Power Trip and the shape and form of Terrier, Worrier.”
BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
- Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and Across the British Empire by Charlotte Macdonald (Bridget Williams Books)
- He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones (Auckland University Press)*
- Mark Adams: A Survey – He Kohinga Whakaahua by Sarah Farrar (Massey University Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
- Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press)
The category’s convenor of judges Lauren Gutsell says books that complicate what we think about ourselves, our history, and the land we live on comprise this year’s shortlist. “These four titles each bring new understandings of their subject matter, not only through research and narrative but through photography, artwork, illustration, and mapping. Each book makes a notable contribution to our understanding of our country,” she says.
General Non-Fiction Award
- A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin, Penguin Random House)*
- Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa by Naomi Arnold (HarperCollins Aotearoa New Zealand)
- The Hollows Boys: A Story of Three Brothers & the Fiordland Deer Recovery Era by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton)
- This Compulsion in Us by Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
The awards’ General Non-Fiction category convenor of judges Philip Matthews says the shortlisted books are highly readable works that give honest impressions of this country and its people. “The final four were elevated by artful writing and personal reflections that also offered profound insights. Each came as a surprise, even to those who thought they knew the story,” he adds.
The 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards winners – including the four Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards recipients and potentially, at the discretion of a specially appointed judge, Te Mūrau o te Tuhi Māori Language Award – will be announced at a public ceremony on 13 May during the Auckland Writers Festival.
The winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction will receive $65,000 and each of the other main category winners will receive $12,000. Each of the Best First Book winners, for fiction, poetry, general non-fiction and illustrated non-fiction, will be awarded $3,000.
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are supported by Ockham Residential, Creative New Zealand, the late Jann Medlicott and the Acorn Foundation, Mary and Peter Biggs CNZM, BookHub, The Mātātuhi Foundation and the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki.