Renowned and award-winning authors, reviewers, academics, curators, a bookseller and a broadcaster 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 2027 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards,

The $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction will be judged by regional bookshop owner Millie Blackwell (convenor); novelist, writer and reviewer Linda Burgess; and award-winning author and writing teacher Shilo Kino (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Te Ata). They will be joined in deciding the ultimate winner from their shortlist of four by an international judge.

Judging the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry will be actor, writer and experimental artist Josiah Morgan (he/him, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto; convenor); renowned novelist, poet and memoirist Dame Fiona Kidman; and award-winning poet, writer and translator Mikaela Nyman.

The General Non-Fiction Award will be judged by historian and author Neill Atkinson (convenor); Samoan journalist and broadcaster Susana Lei'ataua; and academic, writer and reviewer Thomas McLean.

The BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction will be judged by dress historian, curator and award-winning author Claire Regnault (convenor); researcher and educator in library and information studies Spencer Lilley (Te Ātiawa, Muaūpoko, Ngāpuhi); and writer, editor, arts programmer and curator Emma Ng.

New Zealand Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Legat says this year’s judging panels bring together a wealth of literary knowledge and experience, and she’s looking forward to seeing where their deliberations take them.

“Judging this year’s entries will be no easy task. Publishers in Aotearoa continue to raise the bar for quality and diversity, so we’re expecting some lively and robust discussions around the judging table,” she says.

Submissions are currently open for the second tranche of entries for the 2027 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Online entries for titles published between 1 September 2026 and 31 December 2026 close on Thursday 15 October 2026. Eligibility criteria and entry instructions can be found on the awards website.

Category longlists will be announced on 28 January 2027, and the shortlist of 16 books on 3 March 2027.The finalists and winners will be celebrated on 12 May 2027 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 the Awards Administrator at awards@nzbookawards.org.nz.

Judges’ images are here

EDITOR’S NOTES:

OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS 2027 – JUDGING PANELS

JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION

Millie Blackwell (convenor) is the proprietor of Mrs Blackwell’s Village Bookshop in Greytown, and director of several other successful businesses in the Wairarapa. A trustee for Country Village Heaven charitable trust, she also organises the New Zealand Stationery Festival and the annual Wairarapa Bookshop Hop.

Linda Burgess is a novelist, writer and reviewer whose work appears on The Spinoff and Newsroom. She has been runner-up in both the Sunday Star-Times and the Katherine Mansfield short story awards. Linda’s collection of personal essays, Someone’s Wife, was published in 2019 and her new novel, That Weekend in October,is out in March 2027. She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

Shilo Kino (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Te Ata) is an award-winning author from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland who is currently teaching writing at Northwest University in Xi’an, China. Her debut novel, The Pōrangi Boy, won the Young Adult Fiction category at the 2021 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and her second novel, All That We Know, was longlisted for the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

MARY AND PETER BIGGS AWARD FOR POETRY

Josiah Morgan (he/him, Kāi Tahu/Ngāti Maniapoto; convenor) is an actor, writer and experimental artist based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. His chapbook, Black Window, was the Featured Poet selection in Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2026. His other published titles include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) and a book of poetry, i'm still growing (2024).

Dame Fiona Kidman is a renowned novelist, poet and memoirist, with 38 published books to her name. Her work has won a number of prizes and is published internationally. Her most recent collection of poetry was The Midnight Plane: Poems Selected and New (2025). She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

Award-winning poet, writer and translator Mikaela Nyman is from the autonomous Åland Islands in Finland, and lives in Taranaki. Her most recent collection, The Anatomy of Sand, was among the Listener’s Top Poetry Books of 2025. Mikaela was the University of Otago’s Robert Burns Fellow in 2024, and in the same year was awarded a major literary prize by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.

GENERAL NON-FICTION AWARD

Neill Atkinson (convenor) is Chief Historian at Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, where he oversees content for Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, and New Zealand History websites. He has written or co-written eight books of non-fiction, and lives on the Kāpiti Coast.

Thomas McLean is a Professor of English at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. In addition to his scholarly work on nineteenth-century British and Irish literature, his writings on art and literature in Aotearoa appear in the Listener, North & South and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Susana Lei'ataua is a journalist and broadcaster with RNZ National, where she is a presenter, producer and newsreader. She is from the Lei'ataua and Taupa'u families of Manono, Sāmoa. Susana is the founder of LAKA in Onehunga, which champions heritage and contemporary art and culture of the Pacific region, and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at New York University in 2007. She lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

BOOKHUB AWARD FOR ILLUSRATED NON-FICTION

Experienced curator Claire Regnault (convenor) is Exhibitions and Programmes Manager at Tauranga Museum, and an Honorary Research Associate at Te Papa. A specialist in dress histories, her book Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840-1910 won the Illustrated Non-Fiction Award at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Claire is President of Costume and Textiles Aotearoa New Zealand.

Emma Ng is a writer, arts programmer, curator and the Editorial Director of Satellites, an online forum developed to support Asian arts practice in Aotearoa. She is a former Curator and Manager of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, and the author of Old Asian, New Asian (2017). Emma lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

Associate Professor Spencer Lilley (Te Ātiawa, Muaupoko, Ngāpuhi) is an Information Studies academic at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. A former librarian, he is recognised for his work in Māori and Indigenous library and information science. Spencer is a past President of LIANZA and former Convenor of the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards. He lives in Palmerston North.

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, Elizabeth Jones, Renée Rowland, Kim Tairi, Suzy Maddox, and Elena de Roo. The Trust also governs the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and National Poetry Day.