New Zealand Book Award Winners
want to read more from New Zealand, but not sure where to start? here! start right here
created by jordynreads
last updated August, 2026
Comments
Thank you ☺️ I definitely need to read more nz lit 😁 the only one I've read (parts of) is Toi Te Mana! It's really interesting and I read it last year as the textbook for my Māori art history paper - taught by one of the authors, Ngarino Ellis!
I definitely need to read more too, it always gets pushed aside! I'm going to start Poorhara soon though. That's awesome your lecturer was one of the authors!
Yeah it really does 😭 but that's cool! Let me know how it is 😁 and yeah I've had some really cool lectures 😆
2026 - Prize for Fiction: All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks - Award for Poetry: Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel - Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Mr Ward’s Map: Victorian Wellington, Street by Street by Elizabeth Cox - General Non-Fiction Award: This Compulsion in Us by Tina Makereti - Māori Language Award: Te Āhua o ngā Kupu Whakaari a Te Kooti by Tā Pou Temara
Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards - Prize for Fiction: Pastoral Care by John Prins - Prize for Poetry: No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg - Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction: He Puāwai: A Natural History of New Zealand Flowers by Philip Garnock-Jones - Prize for General Non-Fiction: A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern
2025 - Prize for Fiction: Delirious by Damien Wilkins - Award for Poetry: Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale - Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown and Ngarino Ellis and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki - General Non-Fiction Award: Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku
Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards - Prize for Fiction: Poorhara by Michelle Rahurahu - Prize for Poetry: Manuali'i by Rex Letoa Paget - Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Sightlines: Women and Art in Aotearoa by Kirsty Baker - Prize for General Non-Fiction: The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank
2024 - Prize for Fiction: Lioness by Emily Perkins - Award for Poetry: Chinese Fish by Grace Yee - Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O'Brien - General Non-Fiction Award: An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays by Damon Salesa - Māori Language Award: Te Rautakitahi o Tūhoe ki Ōrākau by Tā Pou Temara
Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards - Prize for Fiction: Ruin and Other Stories by Emma Hislop - Prize for Poetry: At the Point of Seeing by Megan Kitchingt - Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History by Ryan Bodman - Prize for General Non-Fiction: There’s a Cure for This: A Memoir by Emma Espiner
