Montana New Zealand Book Awards
Awards History
Before 1996, there were two major New Zealand literary prizes, the New Zealand Book Awards (1973-1995) and the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards (1968-1993). Montana took over the sponsorship of the latter in 1994, and the Awards became the Montana Book Awards (1994-1995).
In 1996, the two Awards merged to form the Montana New Zealand Book awards (1996-2009). In 2010, sponsorship of the Awards will be assumed by New Zealand Post.
2009
The winning books are the judges' picks for the very best of all those published in 2008.
Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry winner and Fiction category winner:
Novel About My Wife, by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury)
Fiction runners up:
The 10PM Question, by Kate De Goldi (Longacre Press) and Acid Song, by Bernard Beckett (Longacre Press)
Poetry category winner:
The Rocky Shore, by Jenny Bornholdt (Victoria Univesrity Press)
Montana Medal for Non-Fiction winner and Biography category winner:
Rita Angus: An Artists' Life, by Jill Trevelyan (Te Papa Press)
Environment category winner:
A Continent on the Move: New Zealand Geoscience into the 21st Century, edited by Ian J. Graham
(Geological Society of New Zealand)
History category winner:
Buying the Land, Selling the Land, by Richard Boast (Victoria University Press)
Lifestyle and contemporary culture category winner:
Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Baking, by Alexa Johnston (Penguin Group New Zealand)
Reference and Anthology category winner:
Collected Poems 1951 - 2006, by C K Stead (Auckland University Press)
Illustrative category winner:
Len Castle: Making the Molecules Dance, by Len Castle (Lopdell House Gallery)
Maori Language Award:
He Pataka Kupu te kai a te rangatira, Maori Language Commission
Readers' Choice Award:
The 10PM Question, by Kate De Goldi (Longacre Press)
New Zealand Society of Authors Best First Book Awards
NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction:
The Rehearsal, by Eleanor Catton (Victoria University Press)
NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry:
Everything Talks, by Sam Sampson (Auckland University Press)
BZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non-fiction:
Mates & Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand, by Chris Brickell (Godwit)
