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Novelist Witi Ihimaera has won the fiction section of 2017 Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement.
He will be awarded $60,000 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature.
Ihimaera, from Te Aitanga a Mahaki, was the first Maori writer to publish both a book of short stories and a novel.
Since the release of Pounamu Pounamu in 1972 he has published extensively, with many of his books drawing from autobiographical experiences and several including Whale Rider and Bulibasha forming the basis for films.
The non-fiction section of the awards was won by literary historian and fine arts writer Peter Simpson and Paula Green won the poetry prize.
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