Alison Wong’s As the Earth Turns Silver was selected by a judging panel of five for the Fiction category shortlist, along with award-winning author Fiona Farrell, for her novel Limestone, and award-winning short-story writer Owen Marshall for his collection, Living as a Moon.
Note that the same book by Alison Wong was also nominated for the Prime Minister Awards. See the announcement here.
Fiction is one of the four finalist categories reduced from a previous eight - in the new, streamlined Awards structure. The other three categories are Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction.
The full list of finalists in the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards by category are:
FICTION
As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong (Penguin Group (NZ))
Limestone by Fiona Farrell (Vintage, Random House NZ)
Living as a Moon by Owen Marshall (Vintage, Random House NZ)
POETRY
Just This by Brian Turner (Victoria University Press)
The Lustre Jug by Bernadette Hall (Victoria University Press)
The Tram Conductor’s Blue Cap by Michael Harlow (Auckland University Press)
GENERAL NON-FICTION
Aphrodite’s Island by Anne Salmond (Viking, Penguin Group (NZ))
Beyond the Battlefield: New Zealand and its Allies, 1939-1945 by Gerald Hensley (Viking, Penguin Group (NZ))
Cone Ten Down: Studio pottery in New Zealand, 1945-1980 by Moyra Elliott and Damian Skinner (David Bateman Ltd)
Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney (Bridget Williams Books)
The Invention of New Zealand Art & National Identity, 1930-1970 by Francis Pound (Auckland University Press)
ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
Art at Te Papa edited by William McAloon (Te Papa Press)
Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown (Random House NZ)
Māori Architecture: From fale to wharenui and beyond by Deidre Brown (Raupo, Penguin Group (NZ))
Marti Friedlander by Leonard Bell (Auckland University Press)
Mrkusich: The Art of Transformation by Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling (Auckland University Press)
The Category Award winners and the overall New Zealand Post Book of the Year winner will be announced at a gala dinner held in Auckland on 27 August 2010.
With fewer categories, the Awards’ prize pool has been substantially increased, with the overall New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award winner receiving $15,000. Winners of the four Category Awards will each receive $10,000 and the People’s Choice Award winner $5,000.
The Best First Book Awards for Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Fiction were established by the New Zealand Society of Authors with the aim of encouraging new writers and their publishers. They are announced simultaneously with the New Zealand Post Book Awards category finalists for the first time this year.
More information here.
