Ockham 2026 winners announced

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the winners of the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have been announced.

Poet, memoirist and scholar Ingrid Horrocks won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for her debut story collection All Her Lives, published in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2025 by Te Herenga Waka University Press and in Australia in 2026 by University of Queensland Press (UQP).

Fiction category convenor of judges Craig Cliff said, “Across 9 elegant, probing stories that range from the late 18th century to the unsettled present, from rural Wairarapa to icy Norwegian ports and rave culture Berlin, All Her Lives explores the shifting expectations and constraints of womanhood. Sparks from one story and one generation ignite elsewhere in the book, illustrating how material conditions, freedoms and ideologies can be shaped, for better or worse, by our forebears.”

The winning titles, chosen from shortlists announced in March, are:

Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction (NZ$65,000)

• All Her Lives (Ingrid Horrocks, Te Herenga Waka University Press)

Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry (NZ$12,000)

• Black Sugarcane (Nafanua Purcell Kersel [Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu], Te Herenga Waka University Press)

BookHub Award for Illustrated Nonfiction (NZ$12,000)

• Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street (Elizabeth Cox, Massey University Press)

General Nonfiction Award (NZ$12,000)

• This Compulsion in Us (Tina Makereti [Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā], Te Herenga Waka University Press)

Mūrau o te Tuhi – Māori Language Award (NZ$12,000)

• Te Āhua o Ngā Kupu Whakaari a Te Kooti (Tā Pou Temara [Ngāi Tūhoe], Auckland University Press)

The Best First Book Awards, sponsored by the Mātātuhi Foundation, were also presented at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony.

The winning titles in the Best First Book Award categories are:

Hubert Church Prize for Fiction (NZ$3000)

• Pastoral Care (John Prins, Otago University Press)

Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry (NZ$3000)

• No Good (Sophie van Waardenberg, Auckland University Press)

EH McCormick Prize for General Nonfiction (NZ$3000)

• A Different Kind of Power (Jacinda Ardern, Penguin)

Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Nonfiction (NZ$3000)

• He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers (Philip Garnock-Jones, Auckland University Press).

The awards ceremony, emceed by Miriama Kamo and attended by politicians, publishers, writers and readers, was held on 13 May at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Aotea Centre as part of the 2026 Auckland Writers Festival.

More information about the awards is available on the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa website.

Category: Awards Local news