1st

Plumb by Maurice Gee (Oxford University Press, 1979)

2nd

Heinemann New Zealand Dictionary edited by Harry Orsman (Heinemann, 1979)

3rd

The Herb Garden Displayed by Gillian Painter, illustrated by Elaine Power (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979)

Poetry

Literary Cartoons by Kevin Ireland (Islands/Hurricane, 1978)

Fiction

Plumb by Maurice Gee (Oxford University Press, 1979)

Non-Fiction

Trade, Growth and Anxiety: New Zealand Beyond the Welfare State by S. H. Franklin (Methuen, 1978)