1st

Leaves of the Banyan Tree by Albert Wendt (Longman Paul, 1979)

2nd

New Zealand Adrift: The Theory of Continental Drift in a New Zealand Setting by Graeme Stevens (Reed, 1980)

3rd

Indirections: A Memoir by Charles Brasch (Oxford University Press, 1980)

Poetry

An Incorrigible Music: A Sequence of Poems by Allen Curnow (Auckland University Press, 1979)

Fiction

Living in the Maniototo by Janet Frame (Braziller, 1979)

Non-Fiction

I Passed This Way by Sylvia Ashton-Warner (Knopf, 1979)