OCKHAM NEW ZELAND BOOK AWARDS 2026 — Winners
The 2026 winners of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have just been announced. Read what the judges have to say about each of these books, and then click through to our website to secure your copies. We can send your books to you by overnight courier, or have them ready to collect from our door in Church Street, Whakatū.
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
”Poet, memoirist and scholar Ingrid Horrocks turns to fiction and crushes it. Across nine elegant, probing stories that range from the late eighteenth century to the unsettled present, from rural Wairarapa to icy Norwegian ports and rave culture Berlin, All Her Lives explores the shifting expectations and constraints of womanhood. Characters confront leaky rentals and sexual assault, join anti-nuclear and climate movements, while seeking many forms of love. Sparks from one story and one generation ignite elsewhere in the book, illustrating how material conditions, freedoms and ideologies can be shaped, for better or worse, by our forebears. Emotionally intelligent and historically alert, this book is an outrageously good addition to the top shelf of New Zealand fiction.”
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
”Black Sugarcane is a work of rare linguistic grace and emotional precision, a collection that transforms memory, land, and inheritance into something both intimate and expansive. With a voice that is at once grounded and lyrical, the poet navigates histories of labour, migration, and identity, distilling them into images that linger long after the page is turned. Each poem pulses with clarity, restraint, and quiet power, revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary. The collection’s careful architecture and tonal control mark it as a deeply considered achievement for debut author Nafanua Purcell Kersel. Black Sugarcane not only enriches contemporary poetry but also expands its possibilities, offering a resonant, enduring contribution to the literary landscape today.”
BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press)
”Innovative, engaging and inherently human, Mr Ward’s Map is a celebration of research, storytelling, and archives. Elizabeth Cox deployed one historic cartographic document as the foundation for a superbly written publication that bridges multiple world views and time periods – highlighting one source and how it resonates in the contemporary moment. Across 560 pages, Cox unpacks the 88 sheets of Mr Ward’s map, alongside carefully selected archival photography and illustrations. While anchored in Victorian Wellington, Cox presents a range of complex issues and histories that have universal reach. This skilfully interweaves impacts of colonial land alienation on tangata whenua, reveals imbalances and intersectional experiences of race, class and gender, and offers a reflection of societal changes, and what remains the same.”
General Non-Fiction Award
This Compulsion in Us by Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)
”Tina Makereti is better known as a writer of fiction, and she uses her well-honed literary skills to advantage in this artful and skilfully curated collection of essays, adding up to an alternative memoir of one person’s discoveries about her whakapapa and childhood family, and her place in national society and within Māori literature. The linked essays build with a growing sense of connection, as Makereti craftily balances the wider social context and her own fascinating life story. Complex yet universal, This Compulsion in Us is an honest, revealing and stimulating work, and a celebration of writing as a timeless way of experiencing and understanding the world and ourselves.”
Mūrau o te Tuhi – Māori Language Award
Te Āhua o ngā Kupu Whakaari a Te Kooti by Tā Pou Temara (Ngāi Tūhoe) (Auckland University Press)
”Ko Te Āhua o Ngā Kupu Whakaari a Te Kooti, he mahi rangahau nui whakahirahira e wānanga ana i te rētōtanga, te mana, me te toitūtanga o ngā kupu whakaari me ngā whakataukī, me te hononga ā-ngākau ki te whakapono, ki te whenua, ki te hītori, me te tangata. He mea whakarite te hanganga o te pukapuka nei ki tētahi tupuna whare hei arataki i te kaipānui mai i te tūāpapa o te whare ki tōna whatumanawa, e whakakitea ana te kupu tapu mā ngā whakataukī, ngā kupu whakaari, ngā waiata, me ngā ingoa o ngā whare nā Te Kooti Arikirangi Turuki i tapa. E whakaatu ana a Tā Pou he tapu atua tō te reo poropiti, he maha ōna paparanga tikanga, ā, he kawenga matatika kei runga i te kawe o aua kupu. Mā tēnei pukapuka ka whakarangatira te reo Māori, ka whakahoki i te mauri o te mātauranga Māori, ā, ka waiho he wāhi mā te kaipānui hei whakaaroaro, hei wānanga, ka mutu, kia ū ki tōna ake māramatanga.”
”Te Āhua o Ngā Kupu Whakaari a Te Kooti is a significant scholarly work that examines the depth, authority, and enduring power of kupu whakaari and whakataukī, and the intimate connections to faith, land, history, and people. Structured metaphorically as a whare tūpuna, the book guides the reader from the foundations of the whare through to its heart, revealing the sacred nature of language through whakataukī, kupu whakaari, waiata, and named houses of Te Kooti Arikirangi Turuki. Tā Pou Temara demonstrates how prophetic language conveys divine tapu, layered meaning, and moral responsibility. This work enriches te reo Māori, restores the mauri of mātauranga Māori, and creates space for readers to reflect, interpret, and arrive at their own understandings.”
Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards
Hubert Church Prize for Fiction
Pastoral Care by John Prins (Otago University Press)
”A youth group leader seeks solace from an AI chatbot. Two brothers disagree about the future of the family bach. A teacher positions himself for another career change. In John Prins’ lively story collection, both men and women battle to balance domestic and work spheres, how they perceive themselves and how they act. Funny, assured, thoughtful, of the moment and of this place, Pastoral Care is a grand debut.
Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry
No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg (Auckland University Press)
”The poetic persona in the poems of No Good begs for attention. And why? Sophie van Waardenberg’s honed ability to hold the reader’s focus is impossible to ignore. No Good reads like a stupefying kiss. The poet shares her insights on grief, love and friendship with generosity. She makes the work of editing look effortless. The ‘Cremation Sonnets’ sequence is particularly impressive for the confidence with which this debut poet tackles the inexpressible, non-literary realities of bereavement.”
The Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction
He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones (Auckland University Press)
”Built out of a career dedicated to research and scientific discovery, He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers cements Philip Garnock-Jones as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading botanists. Detailed, accessible and stunningly beautiful in its design, his first book is a celebration of scholarship and the power of stereoscopic photography. In the text, Garnock-Jones reveals the hidden sex life of Aotearoa flora supported by his exquisite macro photographs that communicate a sense of wonder about our natural world.”
E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction
A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House)
”Good political memoirs and biographies are rare in New Zealand, but former prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s first book, A Different Kind of Power, is exceptional. A singular figure with both national and global appeal, her time in office was marked by several catastrophic events, including the country’s worst terror attack, the deadly White Island eruption, and the defining pandemic. Ardern’s thoughtful and rewarding account sheds important light on those years, and on a Kiwi childhood that somehow inadvertently prepared her for the rigours of leadership.”