LIANZA, NZ Children’s Book Awards to merge

The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Children’s Book Awards will merge from 2016.

The new awards, which will be called the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, will be presented in August 2016 and will have a prize pool of NZ$59,500 (A$55,164). The awards will include categories from both awards, including book of the year, junior fiction, young adult fiction, nonfiction, illustration, best book in Te Reo and best first book, as well as two children’s choice awards.

The awards will be administered and governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, and a LIANZA representative will have a permanent seat on the board of trustees. In a statement New Zealand Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat said: ‘We are thrilled about this decision to amalgamate the awards … We feel privileged to have LIANZA’s trust, and their awards will be in very good and sustainable hands.’

The New Zealand Book Awards have been governed by the Trust since 1975. The call for entries for the merged awards opens on 16 November. For more information, click here.

Category: Junior Local news