Catherine Chidgey author of The Axeman's Carnival Photo: Helen Mayall /
A 'powerfully compelling' novel narrated by a cheeky magpie called Tama has flown off with New Zealand's top literary prize.
The Axeman's Carnival, by Ngāruawāhia-based writer Catherine Chidgey, has won the $64,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Fiction judge convenor Stephanie Johnson said the novel, which details the inner workings of a deteriorating marriage from the perspective of Tama the magpie, is "a powerfully compelling read from start to finish".
"The unforgettable Tama - taken in and raised by Marnie on the Te Waipounamu high country farm she shares with champion axeman husband Rob - constantly entertains with his take on the foibles and dramas of his human companions. Catherine Chidgey's writing is masterful, and the underlying sense of dread as the story unfolds is shot through with humour and humanity," Johnson said.
The Axeman's Carnival, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press, is Chidgey's seventh novel. She is the first writer to win the major prize twice - she won the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize in 2017 for her fourth novel, The Wish Child.
Alice Te Punga Somerville Photo: supplied
Alice Te Punga Somerville (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry for Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised (Auckland University Press).
"Always Italicise stood out amongst a very strong field for its finely crafted, poetically fluent and witty explorations of racism, colonisation, class, language and relationships," said poetry category convenor Diane Brown. "It's a fine collection, establishing and marking a new place to stand."
Photo: Supplied / Robert Cross
Broadcaster, music critic and author Nick Bollinger won the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction for Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press).
Category convenor Jared Davidson described Jumping Sundays as a triumph of production and design.
"A joy to read and to hold, Jumping Sundays is a fantastic example of scholarship, creativity and craft."
Ned Fletcher Photo: Supplied
The General Non-Fiction Award went to historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher for his work, The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi (Bridget Williams Books).
Category convenor of judges Anna Rawhiti-O'Connell said Fletcher's "meticulously constructed work of scholarship" will shift and inform modern debates about the intentions of those who constructed and signed the Treaty.
"Fletcher's comprehensive examination sheds new light on the document's implications and contributes fresh thinking to what remains a very live conversation for all of us that call this country home."
The Poetry, Illustrated Non-Fiction and General Non-Fiction category award winners each took home a $12,000 prize.
Four Best First Book Awards were also presented at the ceremony. Winners received $3000 and a 12-month membership subscription to the New Zealand Society of Authors.
Home Theatre by Anthony Lapwood (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Pākehā) won the Hubert Church Prize for Fiction. We're All Made of Lightning by Khadro Mohamed was awarded the Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry. The Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction went to Christall Lowe (Ngāti Kauwhata, Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto) for Kai: Food Stories and Recipes from my Family Table. Grand: Becoming my Mother's Daughter by Noelle McCarthy won the E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction.