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!

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