Ardern to win Ockham book award

2026-03-03 - 16:07

Jacinda Ardern is set to win a major prize at the Ockham NZ national book awards. Her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, was named in the shortlist, published today at 5am – and as the only shortlisted author with a debut work, she will almost certainly be awarded the $3000 prize for best first book of nonfiction. One down, one to go; the $12,000 nonfiction prize itself will be announced at the finalists ceremony on May 13. The full shortlist is printed at the end of this preview. Oh and Catherine Chidgey is a finalist for the $65,000 fiction prize, and 14 other titles of considerable merit and beauty have been shortlisted across the various categories of fiction, nonfiction and poetry but of course Ardern’s shortlisting is the only Ockham story that the dear old mainstream media will cover. When her book was longlisted in February, I got a call from a producer of old mate Heather du Plessis-Allan wanting me to appear on her Newstalk ZB show. Du Plessis-Allan is not exactly illiterate – she once sent me a selfie wearing a T-shirt designed with the cover of my 2014 book, Madmen: Inside the Weirdest Election Campaign Ever – but the invitation was not to discuss the state of New Zealand literature. I was out fishing so Jenna Todd from Time Out bookstore got roped in. All that Heather wanted her to talk about was the Ardern book. Fair enough. It’s only right that a former Prime Minister of considerable international standing should overshadow the 2026 Ockham awards, and her memoir won another major prize in February when A Different Kind of Power was named best political book by a non-parliamentarian at the faintly prestigious Westminster Book Awards in London. The ceremony was held inside the Houses of Parliament. She operates in that league. But she has a hell of a fight on her hands to win the Ockham prize for best New Zealand work of nonfiction. It’s one of the strongest categories in years. Longlisted books of the quality of The Middle of Nowhere: Stories of Working on the Manapōuri Hydro Project by Rosemary Baird, Hardship and Hope: Stories of Resistance in the Fight Against Poverty in Aotearoa by Rebecca Macfie and Dr Lucy O’Hagan’s memoir Everything but the Medicine: A Doctor’s Tale failed to make the shortlist cut (as did my own Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century – sob!). Peta Carey’s tragic book about deer recovery, The Hollows Boys, and an essay collection by Tina Makereti, This Compulsion In Us, are on the shortlist and deservedly so but I think judges will choose Ardern’s memoir or the tramping journey Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa by Naomi Arnold. Interesting comment from chief judge Philip Matthews: “Each [book] came as a surprise, even to those who thought they knew the story.” He is surely talking about A Different Kind of Power. Will the former PM attend the May 13 ceremony in Auckland? Finalists have only just been notified, and invited to the awards night. But it’s the awards expectation that all finalists will attend. The big money (and final, show-stopping award of the May 13 ceremony) is the $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction. The Book of Guilt, a kind of speculative fantasy about English mutants by the sage of Cambridge, Catherine Chidgey, is the clear favourite but I suspect there might be a surprise win for the set-firmly-in-NZ comedy Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent (Āporo Press). It’s one of two novels from independent publishers on the shortlist, alongside How to Paint a Nude by Sam Mahon (Ugly Hill Press). The fourth shortlisted title is a collection of short stories (actually all really long) by Ingrid Horrocks. Possibly revealing comment from chief judge Craig Cliff: “These four authors speak directly to the contemporary concerns of New Zealanders. How free are we really? How much have attitudes to gender and sexuality actually changed? What might be killing us and what sustains us?” Who cares? I was disappointed that the novel I regard as the best work of fiction published in 2025, Before the Winter Ends by Khadro Mohamed, went no further than the longlist. Winners of the two other categories each pocket $12,000. The poetry shortlist is one of the strongest fields in years and I commend the judges for their choices: they entirely match my assessment of the four best books of poetry from the 2026 longlist, although I remain baffled that Nick Ascroft’s stupendous collection It’s What He Would‘ve Wanted failed to make it even that far. I think Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel will win or maybe Sick Power Trip by Erik Kennedy, but then again judges might prefer the chicken fantasias of Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts by Anna Jackson. All are worthy winners. I have only clapped eyes on one of the four shortlisted illustrated nonfiction books, He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones. I don’t have much to say about it other than that the book comes with a pair of 3D glasses to make out the images, but I couldn’t get them to work and after a while I threw the glasses and the book aside in a sulk. In any case, the author, like Ardern in nonfiction, is the only debutant in his category, and will surely win the $3000 prize for best first book. I will have more to say about each of the shortlisted books by and by, beginning tomorrow, when ReadingRoom announces the greatest book prize of all times ... In the meantime, bravo to the 16 shortlisted authors and their publishers, and huzzah to the sponsors including, chiefly, Ockham Residential, for making it all happen. GENERAL NONFICTION AWARD A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin) Named book of the year at the 2025 ReadingRoom literary awards. Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa by Naomi Arnold (HarperCollins) Wonderful, footsore account of walking the Te Araroa trail. The Hollows Boys: A Story of Three Brothers & the Fiordland Deer Recovery Era by Peta Carey (Potton & Burton) A story of death. This Compulsion In Us by Tina Makereti (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Excellent collection of essays. JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Ingenious tale about mutant children who learn the truth about their lives. All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Good long short stories. Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent (Āporo Press) Four-star GoodReads review, from Rosie: “It was poetic and queer and kiwi.” How to Paint a Nude by Sam Mahon (Ugly Hill Press) Not especially inviting blurbology: “Set in Christchurch, it centres around a Belarus refugee who fled his country to find freedom. Sam and Gregor meet weekly to discuss art’s purpose.” MARY AND PETER BIGGSY AWARD FOR POETRY Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Very powerful poems on the 2019 tsunami that hit Samoa, viz: A tidal pool fenced with mangroves is a buoyant graveyard for tens of thousands of empty water bottles. No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg (Auckland University Press) Elliptical debut, viz: In summer when I picked dandelions for the geriatric guinea pig I changed the world. I killed a weed. I filled a mouth with gold. Sick Power Trip by Erik Kennedy (Te Herenga Waka University Press) I love every line, viz: There is some evidence to suggest that cold water swimming boosts the immune system but almost no research on if it’s good to feel like frozen diamonds are growing in your skin. Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts by Anna Jackson (Auckland University Press) Chickens, viz: I read that birds dream about songs in their sleep, rats dream about running, and I wondered if my hens ever dreamt of me. BOOKHUB AWARD FOR ILLUSTRATED NONFICTION He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones (Auckland University Press) Comes with 3D glasses. Good luck with that. Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers in New Zealand and Across the British Empire by Charlotte Macdonald (Bridget Williams Books) History of the Imperial forces, 1840-1870. Mark Adams: A Survey – He Kohinga Whakaahua by Sarah Farrar (Massey University Press and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki) Career survey of 65 photos, including his celebrated documentation of tattooing in Samoan communities in Auckland. Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press) Incredible images from an 1891 map of Wellington, revealing its slumhouses, whorehouses, oyster saloons, horse stables, lunatic asylum and other specificities.