Rachel Barrowman’s biography Maurice Gee: Life and Work is on the non-fiction longlist. It has been widely praised since its publication in August and is now being reprinted. The book is the first major biography of Gee, and a significant contribution to New Zealand literary history.
On the poetry longlist are two VUP titles.
Dear Neil Roberts by Airini Beautrais is a search for Neil Roberts, the young man who was killed when bombing the Whanganui Police Computer Centre in 1982. Airini’s first poetry collection, Secret Heart, won Best first book of poetry at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2007.
Song of the Ghost in the Machine by Roger Horrocks is the second title and is a freewheeling philosophical poem that emerged during the walks Roger took over one year of his life. Roger is well known for his biography of Len Lye as well as the opera with Eve de Castro Robinson about Lye.
Three VUP fiction titles are on the longlist including The Invisible Mile, a debut novel gathering international attention.
Author David Coventry has recently sold international rights to the book to Picador UK and Commonwealth alongside translations into Spanish, Dutch and Hebrew.
Astonished Dice, a short fiction collection by much-loved poet and 2014 Arts Laureate Geoff Cochrane, and The Back of His Head, a novel about literary fame by highly acclaimed Christchurch writer Patrick Evans, also make the longlist.
For the first time the winner of the fiction category will be awarded a $50,000 prize—a significant increase from last year’s prize.
The shortlist will be announced in March 2016, with the award ceremony being held in May as part of the 2016 Auckland Writers Festival.
More information about the 2016 Ockham NZ Book Awards can be found on the Auckland Writers Festival website.