Listen Now: 
January 30, 2025
Record number of Māori authors shortlisted
Atereano Mateariki
Posted On January 30, 2025
Download AudioThe list of the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards finalists has been announced, featuring a record number of books by Māori writers.
Today, a total of 43 books made the shortlist, narrowed down from 173 entries, with nine debut authors receiving nominations.
NZ Book Awards Trust chair Nicola Leggett says the Māori finalists capture the modern Māori experience in a way not seen in previous years.
“Three of them in particular, are by young Māori women, and they’re really talking about the issues for young Māori, particularly urban Māori, a lot of it’s to do with, you know, that loss of language and the trauma and the shame of that and the struggle it is to think again when it’s been lost in so many generations for families. So I think what reading is all about is spending some time standing in someone else’s shoes. Don’t you like you get to inhabit their world,” says Leggett.
RELATED NEWS
