Debut Wellington novelist Alison Wong tonight won the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Award for Fiction for her book, As The Earth Turns Silver, ahead of established writers, Fiona Farrell and Owen Marshall. Charmaine Pountney, who joined Paul Diamond, Elizabeth Smither, Paul Diamond, Neville Peat and convenor Stephen Stratford on the Awards judging panel, said Wong brings a powerful new voice and new themes to New Zealand fiction.
‘Based on meticulous research, this novel opens new windows on the development of our nation; it also opens our hearts to the anguish caused by racism, ignorance, failures in family relationship and communication, and war. The book is a delight to look at and hold, as well as deeply moving to read,’ says Pountney.
In a tightly fought contest that had judges reaching for superlatives, co-owner of Wellington’s famed Logan Brown restaurant, celebrity chef and passionate fisherman, Al Brown won the Illustrated Non-fiction category for his book Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast.
Awards’ judge Neville Peat described Go Fish as a seafood recipe book with edge and attitude. ‘Colourful images pour from the pages and spicing up the illustrative side are busy montages demonstrating how to prepare crayfish, crab and paua, and how to fillet a flounder – no mean feat, any of this. The recipes themselves, easy to follow, employ an engaging mix of type sizes and layout techniques. For a cookbook, it’s a remarkable page-turner,’ says Peat.
Go Fish also won this year’s coveted People’s Choice Award as voted by thousands of readers nationwide.
The full list of 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards winners is as follows:
New Zealand Post Book of the Year and General Non-fiction Award winner:
Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney (Bridget Williams Books)
Fiction Award winner: As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong (Penguin Group (NZ))
Poetry Award winner: Just This by Brian Turner (Victoria University Press)
Illustrated Non-fiction Award and People’s Choice Award winner: Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown (Random House NZ)
In a substantially increased prize-pool from previous years, the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award winner received $15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards each received $10,000 and the People’s Choice Award winner $5,000.
More information here.
