The Ockhams are turning 10! That’s right, it’s a decade since Auckland’s most thoughtful developer, Mark Todd of Ockham Residential, stepped in to secure the future of our country’s national book awards. You can join the celebration on Wednesday 14 May at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Auckland.

There'll also be a livestream for those too far from Auckland to attend in person, with details closer to the date.

Fiction

At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin, Penguin Random House)

Jackie Lee Morrison says, ‘while this is, inevitably, a book about cancer, it’s incredibly funny in parts, albeit darkly… This is a very distinctly New Zealand book.’ It’s the 3^rd in experienced writer Fearnley’s series about the five senses, focussed on sound, and while it moves quietly, it has the ability to throw a sucker punch when needed.

Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

Director of the IIML at Te Herenga Waka University, Wilkins has published 13 previous novels before Delirious, which is focussed on ageing, contemplating death around the corner. It’s spent weeks on the bestseller list. Clare Travaglia writes, ‘Delirious teaches us that there is always more to learn from the past — personal, pre-colonial — and that ageing is a perilous, precious privilege.’

Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn (Otago University Press)

The first in Otago University Press’s new series of short story collections, established author Kirsty Gunn’s stories are shocking, dark, provocative. But as reviewer Nat Baker points out, ‘who wants to read forgettable short stories?’ She goes on to say that ‘these are tales that will make your heart race as you try to make sense of what you’ve encountered, and for a long time after reading, keep you wondering about where you stand. ‘

The Mires by Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) (Ultimo Press)

Tina Makereti’s The Mires is the story of four mothers, of extremism, climate change, immigration, of wai, and so much more. It asks what we do when faced with what we don’t understand. Natasha Lampard writes that ‘wai is the fundamental essence of The Mires… a reminder of the insistent truth that our humanity and our flourishing, lies not in dominion, but in kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga and community.’

Poetry

Hopurangi - Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka by Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu) (Auckland University Press)

Sullivan’s ninth poetry collection is compiled from a series of poems posted on social media, one a day over two and a half months, inspired by the Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar. Tru Paraha writes for Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books, ‘Sullivan’s oeuvre of works is lush with figurative language, most notably when the celestial and trivial co-exist.’

In the Half Light of a Dying Day by C.K. Stead (Auckland University Press)

Stead is undoubtedly the oldest author on the longlist and his reputation precedes him: eminent critic, author, reviewer, poet. This collection returns to Catullus, a mix of fictional and autobiographical. On Reading Room the author writes of his journey to this book: ‘How ‘real’ was my Clodia, who seemed to be derived from the Roman poet’s Lesbia? How real was Catullus himself? Were these poems autobiography or fiction?’

Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale (Otago University Press)

The seventh collection of poetry from established novelist and poet Neale is an exploration of our doubleness, of the shifting deceptions we can practise. Part personal childhood exploration, part wider social commentary on deceptions, Liar Liar Lick Spit is ‘a skilful exploration of the white lie; the schoolyard rumour; the gap in the narrative… Neale takes aim at injustice, at how people ignore inequality,’ writes Anuja Mitra.

Slender Volumes by Richard von Sturmer (Spoor Books)

Von Sturmer’s tenth book, published by Spoor Books, is comprised of 300 seven-line poems in response to 300 koans. Buddhism set in Onehunga, Slender Volumes speaks to being intimate with our surroundings. In the Spinoff’s How to Read a Poem series, three poems from Slender Volumes are discussed, carrying the thought that ‘we should look deeply into each one but we shouldn’t expect to “understand”, or solve, them. The purpose is to let each verse find a space in our minds and see what it might illuminate.’

General Non-Fiction Award

Bad Archive by Flora Feltham (Te Herenga Waka University Press)*

Debut author Feltham presents 13 tightly woven essays in this collection. Using archival material to make sense of her own life, she ‘is so curious about the evidence she preserves that she admits to feeling a ‘gravitational pull’ into the gaps between artifact and meaning,’ writes Becs Tetley for Kete. The stories are personal, intricate and engaging. Reviewing for takahē, Hannah Patterson adds, ‘The reader’s curiosity is challenged to keep pace with Feltham’s searching gaze.’

Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Ngāpuhi, Waikato) (HarperCollins Publishers Aotearoa New Zealand)

Fire and force from within are a theme in this memoir. Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku brings her strength to the page in this account of a working-class restless girl from the pa, and her life as an activist after university. Paula Morris at the Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books describes it as ‘an important book: vital to write, vital to publish and vital to read.’ An extract is available on Kete Books.

The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press)

Richard Shaw has gathered stories from Pākehā grappling with their settler histories and brought them together, weaving them with his own as they try to live well with past, present and future. The history of the New Zealand Wars is complicated and difficult, and this book attempts to help with the journey toward understanding. In an interview with NZ Booklovers, Shaw says that ‘there is a growing appetite among many non-Māori for a more forthright, historically informed conversation about what really went on here during peak colonisation’. The Unsettled is his contribution to that. Reviewer Paul Diamond at the Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books calls it ‘a courageous book.’

The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank (Te Herenga Waka University Press)*

Cruickshank muses on the cycles of use and reuse through time, in a tour that focusses on wave after wave of ruin and remaking across the globe and through centuries. Lyrical writing, considering both the global and the microscopic, it was written in an attempt to ward off existential dread. Writing for Kete, Kelly Ana Morey calls it ‘a veritable Alice in Wonderland trip down the rabbit hole of writer Una Cruickshank ’s incredible mind and the magical, mystical research adventures it takes her on.’ You can read an extract from the book at the Spinoff.

Illustrated Non-Fiction Award

Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist by Jill Trevelyan, Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson (Massey University Press)

Edith Collier wasn’t always beloved in her home town of Whanganui. Bruised, she didn’t exhibit often after sneering reviews, but this book, which is published in conjunction with the re-opening of the Sargeant Gallery and an exhibition of Edith’s work, ‘mark[s] our opportunity to join the party putting Collier first. She deserves it’, writes Linda Herrick for Kete. Jenny Partington, writing for takahē, adds ‘This book remembers Edith Collier in three dimensions, layered and complex, alongside her equally layered collection of artworks.’

Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī) (Auckland University Press)The book is the result of 12 years of research and study, and weighs as much as a newborn baby. On the Spinoff, the authors write that ‘Toi Te Mana asserts our understanding of Māori art as nuanced, dynamic and challenging, with people at its heart.’ Covering a nearly definitive history of Māori art is no mean feat. Jade Kake, reviewing for Kete, calls it ‘a serious scholarly text… and a major contribution from two of our foremost thinkers… A remarkable achievement.’

Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa by Matiu Baker (Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Whakaue), Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald and Rebecca Rice (Te Papa Press)

‘I started reading Te Ata o Tū anticipating another 'history in 500 objects' picture book,’ writes David Veart at Kete, ‘but have found much, much more.’ The book provides a strong narrative and a powerful Māori voice as it makes sense of the New Zealand wars, and hundreds of images both support this and create story themselves. Multiple essays tug on different viewpoints and facets of history and how we understand it.

Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)

In an era where photographs were usually posed, studio affairs, Leslie Adkin’s domestic photographs of his family, specifically his wife, and his farm, provide an intimate picture of day to day life. He was an exceptional, organised recorder of life, the treasure trove of his pictures donated to the Turnbull Library and The National Art Gallery in 1965. This book is ‘a de facto photo album of family life for European settlers in provincial Aotearoa before WWII’, says Hamish Coney, reviewing for Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books, but Adkin was also ‘an amateur archaeologist and documenter of Māori sites of significance as well as scenes from the life of members of the Muaūpoko iwi.’ You can read an extract from the book on Kete.

Scroll down for the reading list.