Go Fish goes large at the New Zealand Post Book Awards

Here are the winners from tonight’s New Zealand Post Book Awards ceremony, congratulations to the authors and the publishers and all those involved:

Illustrated non-fiction winner: Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown, Random House NZ is the night’s big success – winning the People’s Choice Award and the Illustrated non-fiction category.

The other double winner is General non-fiction winner: Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books which took out the prestigious Book of the Year award.

• General non-fiction winner: Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 by Judith Binney, Bridget Williams Books
• Illustrated non-fiction winner: Go Fish: Recipes and stories from the New Zealand Coast by Al Brown, Random House NZ
• Poetry: Just This by Brian Turner, Victoria University Press
• Fiction: As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong, Penguin Books

Find out more about the finalists and winners of the best first book awards.

Thanks to those livetweeting the event including http://twitter.com/nzbookcouncil and http://twitter.com/auchmill for all the up to date information.

New Zealand Post Book Awards – winners announced tonight

Tonight is the big night in New Zealand’s literary calendar – the New Zealand Post Book Awards awards ceremony.

If you want to get all the gossip and hot of the press awards news, Noel from the New Zealand Book Council will be live tweeting from the event via http://twitter.com/nzbookcouncil.

Here are the finalists in the running:

So many brains, so little time

Hooray and hurrah! I’m lucky enough to be attending the The Press Christchurch Writers Festival along with a selection of my esteemed library colleagues. Joining forces, we’ll be able to attend and blog about as many of the events as is humanly possibly.

This will be my first festival of the kind. I’m looking forward to being immersed in the energy, atmosphere and intellect! Imagine all the brainpower and sheer creative energy that will be gathered in one place over four days. My only lament is that I won’t be able to go to more events! So many brains, so little time.

I can’t wait for  Made in New Zealand. Bruce Ansley, David McPhail and Roger Hall — a writer, an actor and a playwright — will be discussing how location influences their lives. To prepare, I’ve plunged into Ansley’s Gods and Little Fishes: A Boy and a Beach about Ansley’s life in New Brighton during the second half of the last century. And hey, there’s a surfer pictured on the cover (circa 1963). Can’t go wrong with that!

Here’s a gem I found on page 27:

…the New Brighton Library [is] a liberated institution where you can sit in wonderfully padded chairs, listen to music through headphones, and lose yourself in the sea rolling under the new pier outside. New Brighton is a great town to read a book in.

Look forward to seeing you at the festival!