Ockham NZ Book Awards 2026 Judges’ Announcement

Journalists, award-winning writers, reviewers, academics, curators and booksellers are among the 12 experts announced today by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa as the judges of the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards,

The $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction will be judged by novelist, short story writer and reviewer Craig Cliff (convenor); novelist, poet and Arts Foundation Te Tumi Toi Laureate Alison Wong; and bookseller, writer and reviewer Melissa Oliver (Ngāti Porou).

Judging the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry will be poet, musician and multi-disciplinary artist Daren Kamali (convenor); poet, writer, performer and editor Jordan Hamel; and writer, musician and translator Claudia Jardine.

The General Non-Fiction Award will be judged by journalist, author and reviewer Philip Matthews (convenor); academic and writer Georgina Stewart (Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki); and screen director, producer and author Dan Salmon.

The BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction will be judged by art historian and curator Lauren Gutsell (convenor); photographer, moving-image artist, writer and academic Natalie Robertson (Ngāti Porou, Clann Dhonnchaidh); and non-fiction writer and former magazine editor Rebekah White.

New Zealand Book Awards chair Nicola Legat says this year’s judging panels have a wide range of experience, skills and interests, and are deep readers across all the categories of the awards

“New Zealand publishing is in a vital, powerful state and the strong entries this year will really challenge the judges’ powers of expertise and discernment,” she says. “The Trust is very confident that our judges will do a splendid job.”

Submissions are currently open for the second tranche of entries for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Online entries for titles published between 1 September 2025 and 31 December 2025 close on Thursday 16 October 2025. Eligibility criteria and entry instructions can be found on the awards website.

Category longlists will be announced on 29 January 2026, and the shortlist of 16 books on 4 March 2026.The finalists and winners will be celebrated on 13 May 2026 at an awards ceremony held as part of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are supported by Ockham Residential, Creative New Zealand, the late Jann Medlicott and the Acorn Foundation, Mary and Peter Biggs CNZM, BookHub, The Mātātuhi Foundation, and the Auckland Writers Festival.

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact Penny Hartill – director hPR, 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz

For submission enquiries, please email Awards Administrator Chris Chan at awards@nzbookawards.org.nz.

Judges’ images are here

EDITOR’S NOTES:

OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS 2026 – JUDGING PANELS

JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION

Craig Cliff is a novelist, short story writer and reviewer based in Ōtepoti Dunedin. He is the author of The Mannequin Makers (2013), Nailing Down the Saint (2019) and the story collection A Man Melting, which won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Craig reviews books for a range of New Zealand publications.

Writer and poet Alison Wong’s debut novel, As the Earth Turns Silver, won the Fiction award at the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She co-edited A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand (2021) and was a 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate. Born and raised in Hawke's Bay, Alison currently lives in Geelong in Victoria, Australia.

Melissa Oliver (Ngāti Porou) is from Te Matua a Māui and now lives in Te Whanganui a Tara, where she is a bookseller, writer, and reviewer. The Aotearoa buyer for Unity Books Wellington, Melissa was announced as the Emerging Bookseller of the Year at the 2024 Aotearoa New Zealand Book Industry Awards.

MARY AND PETER BIGGS AWARD FOR POETRY

Daren Kamali is a Fijian/Wallisian and Futunan published poet, recording musician and multi-disciplinary artist, based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He was the Fulbright Pacific Writer in Residence at the University of Manoa, Hawai'i in 2012, and was presented with a Pacific Heritage Arts Award by Creative New Zealand in 2022. Founder of the South Auckland Poets Collective (2008-2012), Daren’s published works include Squid Out of Water: The Evolution (2014) and Vunimaqo and Me: Mango Tree Collections (2021).

Poet, writer, performer and editor Jordan Hamel holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan. His debut poetry collection Everyone is Everyone Except You (2024) was published in Aotearoa and the UK. Jordan is the co-editor of No Other Place to Stand (2022). His recent work can be found in POETRY Magazine, Poetry Daily, Kenyon Review, and Electric Literature. He is currently based in Wellington, and is the Director of Featherston Booktown.

Claudia Jardine is a writer, musician and translator based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Her debut collection BITER (2023) was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Claudia is a member of the band Goodbye Starlet, events coordinator at Scorpio Books, and works for the University of Canterbury as a creative writing teaching assistant.

GENERAL NON-FICTION AWARD

Philip Matthews is an award-winning journalist and reviewer from Ōtautahi Christchurch. His journalism features in The Press and his reviews have run in the Listener, Newsroom and Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books. Philip is the author of The Quiet Hero (2023) and co-wrote the New Zealand comedy history Funny As (2019).

Georgina Tuari Stewart (Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki) is Professor of Māori Philosophy of Education at Auckland University of Technology and author of Māori Philosophy: Indigenous thinking from Aotearoa (2021). A mokopuna of the North who grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau, Georgina has a background teaching secondary science, mathematics and te reo Māori in English-medium and Māori-medium schools in Auckland and Whangarei.

Auckland-based Dan Salmon is an award-winning screen director and producer, specialising in documentary. His screen credits include Origins – with Scotty Morrison, Grit and Glory, The Road to Paris 2024 and Pictures of Susan. Dan is also the author of the Neands series of Young Adult novels, co-writer of Helen Clark: Inside Stories (2015), and has worked internationally to promote sustainable fisheries and human rights at sea.

BOOKHUB AWARD FOR ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION

Art historian Lauren Gutsell is a curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery. With an emphasis on collaborative curatorial practice and national and international art histories, her recent exhibition and publication projects include Shireen Taweel: 5364 nocturne (2024); Marilynn Webb: Folded in the hills (2023-24); and Joanna Margaret Paul: Imagined in the context of a room (2021-25).

Dr Natalie Robertson (Ngāti Porou, Clann Dhonnchaidh) is a photographer, moving-image artist, writer, and Associate Professor at Auckland University of Technology. Her creative practice centres on Waiapu River in Te Tai Rāwhiti, advancing Māori counter-narratives to settler colonialism. Natalie co-leads AWA (Artists for Waiapu Action) and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally.

Rebekah White is a non-fiction writer and editor, currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She writes magazine features about climate change, marine biology, and conservation for a range of local and international publications. A Fulbright scholar and former editor of New Zealand Geographic, Rebekah holds a master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia Journalism School in New York.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders. First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Awards are given for Fiction (the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction), Poetry (the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry) Illustrated Non-Fiction (the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction) and General Non-Fiction. There are also four Best First Book Awards for first-time authors (The Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards) and, at the judges’ discretion, Te Mūrau o te Tuhi, a Māori Language Award. The awards are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa (a registered charity). Current members of the Trust are Nicola Legat, Richard Pamatatau, Garth Biggs, Renée Rowland, Laura Caygill, Suzy Maddox and Elena de Roo. The Trust also governs the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day.