Montana shortlist | Book Awards

Montana Book Awards The Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2006 shortlist has been announced, with a fine line-up that anyone would be proud of.

The judges (Lawrence Jones, Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago and convenor of the judging panel, Linda Burgess, novelist, script writer and teacher of creative writing, and Bob Ross, a publisher with over 40 years experience in the trade) followed a strict set of guidelines, taking into account enduring literary merit and overall authorship; quality of illustration and graphic presentation; production values, general design and the standard of editing and the impact of the book on the community, with emphasis on issues such as topicality, public interest, commercial viability, entertainment, cultural and educational values and lifespan of the book. So why the heck wasn’t Vantastic on the history list? Sigh. Anyway, here we go:

Fiction Category
Responsibility by Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press)
Blindsight by Maurice Gee (Penguin Books)
The Captive Wife by Fiona Kidman (Vintage)
Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox (Fourth Estate)
Watch of Gryphons and other stories by Owen Marshall (Vintage)

Poetry Category
Footfall by Brian Turner (Godwit)
Lifted by Bill Manhire (Victoria University Press)
The Time of the Giants by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press)

Biography Category
Charles Fleming: Environmental Patriot by Mary McEwen (Craig Potton Publishing)
Dingle: Discovering the Sense in Adventure by Graeme Dingle (Craig Potton Publishing)
Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life by Alexa Johnston (Viking)

History Category
Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand by Geoffrey W Rice (Canterbury University Press)
Thrift to Fantasy: Home Textile Crafts of the 1930s – 1950s by Rosemary McLeod (HarperCollins Publishers)
We Call it Home: A History of State Housing in New Zealand by Ben Schrader (Reed Publishing)

Reference & Anthology Category
The Geographic Atlas of New Zealand by Roger Smith / GeographX (Craig Potton Publishing)
Great Sporting Moments: The best of Sport magazine 1988 – 2004 edited by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press)
The Nature of Things: Poems from the New Zealand Landscape edited by James Brown, photographs by Craig Potton (Craig Potton Publishing)

Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture Category
The Art of Maori Weaving: The Eternal Thread / Te Aho Mutunga Kore by Miriama Evans and Ranui Ngarimu (Huia Publishers)
How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton (Awa Press)
I Had a Black Dog: His Name was Depression by Matthew Johnstone (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Environment
New Zealand Birds in Focus: A Photographer’s Journey by Geoff Moon (Reed Publishing)
Pohutukawa & Rata: New Zealand’s Iron-hearted Trees by Philip Simpson (Te Papa Press)
Swimming with Orca by Dr Ingrid N Visser (Penguin Books)

Illustrative
Contemporary New Zealand Photographers edited by Hannah Holm and Lara Strongman (Mountain View Publishing)
Faithfully Mozart: The Fantastical World of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Donovan Bixley (Hodder)
Jeffrey Harris by Justin Paton (Victoria University Press / Dunedin Public Art Gallery)

The winner of the Poetry category will be announced on Montana Poetry Day, Friday 21 July 2006. The winners of the other categories, plus the Deutz Medal for Fiction or Poetry and the Montana Medal for Non Fiction will be announced in Auckland at a special awards ceremony on Monday 24 July 2006.

LeafSalon’s very heartiest congratulations to all the shortlisted authors. Jolly good show.

02 Jun 06 | Filed by Kathy | Add your comment (6 so far)

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Comment by maggie ~ June 3, 2006 9:04 AM

My vote goes to "Watch of Gryphons" - about time Timaru's Chekov got a gold for his world class short stories.

And, even if it is not on the list (sigh) - yes, I'll vote for Vantastic... it is fantastic.

But also, you have to say...what a line up in the fiction... it sure reflects the depth of talent in NZ writing at the top.

Comment by Mark Hubbard ~ June 3, 2006 10:26 AM

Must start reading NZ fiction again. I've not read one of these fiction titles.

Comment by Mark Hubbard ~ June 4, 2006 4:02 PM

Not related to above thread at all, sorry,

Does anyone know of a general NZ literary forum, espeically regarding markets, etc? If so, could you email me a link (mhubbard at es.co.nz).

Question two: the NZ literary magazine, Sport: do they allow simultaneous submission?

(Oh, do they pay?)

Question three: why are NZ lit magazine so vague with their submission guidelines? How hard can it be to give clear full guidelines?

/rant off

Comment by Stephen ~ June 5, 2006 2:58 PM

Mark, try overseas. Many more magazines (with actual guidelines) and they pay for stories.

Try these digests of magazines:
http://www.duotrope.com/
http://www.spicygreeniguana.com/

Comment by Mark Hubbard ~ June 5, 2006 4:54 PM

Thanks Stephen. I'm already onto that. Also, a very kind lady contacted me by email regarding my questions, which are now largely cleared up, although, vis a vis simultaneous submission, cited preference probably for not doing so, but not a conclusive no. I think it still behoves the magazines concerned to give clear guidelines (which isn't hard).

Oh hell ... /rant on

I started submitting my work 'again' eighteen months ago (after a break of 18 or so years). I've only been submitting in that time to overseas markets that allow email submission simply to utilise simultaneous submission policies of many of these magazines. I have, however, sent one query to Sport, many many months ago as to whether I could make an email submission, as under guidelines they state to query: I've heard nothing back. Probably about fifiteen or something months ago I sent two poems to Trout. As yet, despite the fact they've actually uploaded another edition, I've heard nothing at all regarding the likely reject.

Are NZ literary markets a black hole? (I don't remember this state of affairs being so bad when I was submitting two decades ago)

/rant off

... by the by; it would seem there is a niche just for a generalised NZ literary online forum to discuss local markets etc. (I now have the details of NZSA, which is good, but I'd find it far easier to simply be able to post to an online forum rather than have to wait for regional meetings. Plus I'm an anti social hermit, by nature, so would normally stay away from meetings in the first place. The Internet was made in Heaven for me :) Are there any such forums? Perhaps this excellent site could create one as an add on.

Comment by J. ~ June 5, 2006 7:19 PM

Actually Sport do pay and pay quite well for an NZ lit mag. Yes they can be very tardy with responses (like the vast majority of journals - too many submissions and not enough staff) and it's no use making an email submission in my experiance, they do take them but there's a high chance what you send will get lost in their system. If you send them a postal submission with a usual pre-paid envelope you will probably get a response at some point, however.