Ockham 2026 longlists announced
The longlists for this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced.
The titles in each category are:
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
- 1985 (Dominic Hoey, Penguin)
- All Her Lives (Ingrid Horrocks, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- Before the Winter Ends (Khadro Mohamed, Tender Press)
- Empathy (Bryan Walpert, Mākaro Press)
- Hoods Landing (Laura Vincent [Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi], Āporo Press)
- How to Paint a Nude (Sam Mahon, Ugly Hill Press)
- Star Gazers (Duncan Sarkies, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- The Book of Guilt (Catherine Chidgey, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- The Last Living Cannibal (Airana Ngarewa [Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine], Moa Press)
- Wonderland (Tracy Farr, The Cuba Press).
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
- Black Sugarcane (Nafanua Purcell Kersel [Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu], Te Herenga Waka University Press)*
- Clay Eaters (Gregory Kan, Auckland University Press)
- E kō, nō hea koe (Matariki Bennett [Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hinerangi], Dead Bird Books)*
- Giving Birth to my Father (Tusiata Avia, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- If We Knew How To We Would (Emma Barnes, Auckland University Press)
- Joss: A History (Grace Yee, Giramondo)
- No Good (Sophie van Waardenberg, Auckland University Press)*
- Sick Power Trip (Erik Kennedy, Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- Standing on my Shadow (Serie Barford, Anahera Press)
- Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts (Anna Jackson, Auckland University Press).
BookHub Award for Illustrated Nonfiction
- Atlas of the New Zealand Wars: Volume One 1834–1864, Early Engagements to the Second Taranaki War (Derek Leask, Auckland University Press)*
- Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance (ed Jacinta Ruru [Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui], Angela Walhalla [Kāi Tahu] and Jeanette Wikaira [Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāpuhi], Otago University Press)
- Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and Across the British Empire (Charlotte Macdonald, Bridget Williams Books)
- Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris (Michele Leggott & Catherine Field-Dodgson [Rongowhakaata, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Te Aitanga a Mahaki], Te Papa Press)
- He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers (Philip Garnock-Jones, Auckland University Press)*
- Mark Adams: A Survey – He Kohinga Whakaahua (Sarah Farrar, Massey University Press & Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki)
- Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street (Elizabeth Cox, Massey University Press)
- Takoto ai te Marino: Selected Works 2018–2025 (Raukura Turei [Ngā Rauru Kītahi, Taranaki, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki], Greta van der Star, Vanessa Green & Katie Kerr, Raukura Turei)*
- The Collector: Thomas Cheeseman and the Making of the Auckland Museum (Andrew McKay & Richard Wolfe, Massey University Press)
- Whenua (ed Felicity Milburn, Chloe Cull [Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi te Ruahikihiki] & Melanie Oliver, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū).
General Nonfiction Award
- 50 Years of the Waitangi Tribunal: Whakamana i te Tiriti (ed Carwyn Jones [Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki] & Maria Bargh [Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa], Huia Publishers)
- A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin)*
- An Uncommon Land: From an Ancestral Past of Enclosure Towards a Regenerative Future (Catherine Knight, Totara Press)
- Everything But the Medicine: A Doctor’s Tale (Lucy O’Hagan, Massey University Press)*
- Hardship and Hope: Stories of Resistance in the Fight Against Poverty in Aotearoa (Rebecca Macfie, Bridget Williams Books)
- Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa (Naomi Arnold, HarperCollins)
- Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century (Steve Braunias, A&U)
- Ruth Dallas: A Writer’s Life (Diana Morrow, Otago University Press)
- The Covid Response: A Scientist’s Account of New Zealand’s Pandemic and What Comes Next (Shaun Hendy, Bridget Williams Books)
- The Hollow Boys: A Story of Three Brothers & the Fiordland Deer Recovery Era (Peta Carey, Potton & Burton)
- The Middle of Nowhere: Stories of Working on the Manapōuri Hydro Project (Rosemary Baird, Canterbury University Press)*
- The Welcome of Strangers: A History of Southern Māori (Atholl Anderson, Bridget Williams Books & Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu)
- This Compulsion in Us (Tina Makereti [Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā], Te Herenga Waka University Press)
- Tony Fomison: Life of the Artist (Mark Forman, Auckland University Press).
* debut authors.
Authors Elizabeth Smither and Stephanie Johnson were originally ruled out of contention for the fiction prize because their covers were generated with AI, reported Radio New Zealand. But the New Zealand Book Awards Trust relaxed its ruling after some publishers argued they hadn’t been given enough warning about the rule.
Trust chair Nicola Legat said, “It is essential that entries to New Zealand’s national book awards, and especially to the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, which has a $65,000 prize, be made with all due care. However, in this instance the collateral damage done has been to two very fine authors, and so it is with this in mind that the trust has decided that it should allow their entries.”
The awards shortlist of 16 titles (4 books in each category) will be announced on 4 March 2026. The winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction will receive NZ$65,000, and each of the other main category winners will receive NZ$12,000. Each of the Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book winners (for fiction, poetry, general nonfiction and illustrated nonfiction) will be awarded NZ$3000.
Winners will be announced on 13 May 2026 during this year’s Auckland Writers Festival.
More information about the awards is available on the NZ Book Awards Trust website.
Category: Awards Local news
