The $50,000 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for 2018 will be judged by novelist, poet and academic Anna Smaill; journalist and reviewer Philip Matthews; and award-winning bookseller and reviewer Jenna Todd. They are joined in deciding the ultimate winner from their shortlist of four by Glasgow-based writer, journalist and founding editor of the Scottish Review of Books Alan Taylor.

The Poetry Award will be judged by poet, novelist and creative non-fiction writer Alison Wong; poet and deputy chief executive, Māori, at Manukau Institute of Technology Robert Sullivan; and Otago poet, publisher, editor and librettist Michael Harlow.

The Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-Fiction will be judged by lecturer in the Māori faculty at the Auckland University of Technology Dr Ella Henry; editor and award-winning journalist Toby Manhire; and former bookseller and publisher Philip King.

The Illustrated Non-Fiction Award will be judged by Professor of History at the University of Otago and winner of the Illustrated Non-Fiction prize in 2017 Barbara Brookes; curator Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa Matariki Williams (Tūhoe, Taranaki, Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Whakaue); and director of the public art gallery Objectspace Kim Paton.