O’Malley wins 2025 CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award

Vincent O’Malley has won the 2025 Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) Writers’ Award, worth NZ$25,000.

A Wellington-based writer and historian, O’Malley was awarded the prize for a project with the working title ‘‘Whenua: Māori Land Loss Since 1840’’.

“Māori land ownership went from 100% of the country in 1840 to a little over 5% by the time of the 1975 Māori Land March. There has been a vast body of research into how and why this happened but much of it is unpublished and inaccessible to the general public,” said O’Malley. “Drawing on 30 years’ involvement in the Treaty claims process, I aim to provide a much-needed resource for New Zealanders seeking to understand and explore the history behind these figures in an open, honest and accessible way.”

Judges Iona Winter, Jade Kake and Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod (convenor) chose O’Malley’s project from a shortlist of three, which included Jessica “Coco” Hansell’s project “Pretty Buzzy” and Jane Simpson’s project “Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and the Landscapes of Melancholy: A Biography”.

Kake said, “A timely and important work by a highly respected historian, the project is of huge importance to Māori, who continue to experience the ongoing impacts of colonisation and alienation from whenua, but also to Pākehā and tauiwi seeking a better understanding of the history of Aotearoa New Zealand.”

The CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award is presented annually to provide financial support for a project, to cover research and associated expenses, and is open to writers of any genre of nonfiction, including writers of educational material.

Last year’s winner was Mark Derby, for a project with the working title “Outlaw Prophet – Hakaraia Mahika and the Tauranga Wars”.

Category: Awards Local news