Two books with strong connections to Massey University are among the 16 finalists in the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Both books are published by Massey University Press.
Wanted: the Search for the Modernist Murals of E. Mervyn Taylor is one of four contenders for the Illustrated Books Award. It was edited by Dr Bronwyn Holloway-Smith from the College of Creative Arts, and designed by Associate Professor Anna Brown, also of CoCA.
The book, honouring the work of New Zealand artist, craftsman and designer E Mervyn Taylor, includes essays by Professor Huhana Smith, Dr Terri Te Tau, and Associate Professor Nick Roskruge.
With Them Through Hell: New Zealand Medical Services in the First World War, by Anna Rogers, is a finalist in the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non Fiction. This book is a further volume in the First World War Centenary History Programme series of official histories of the war.
Massey University is a partner with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the New Zealand Defence Force in this programme; the Centenary History Programme board is co-chaired by Professor Giselle Byrnes. Massey University Press has published three of the volumes in this series, with two more to be published in 2019
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealander. First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Post Book Awards.
Ten books are selected for each of the four categories, including Illustrated Non-Fiction. Winners of the other three main categories receive $10,000. There are also the four Best First Book awards, and a Māori language award for books written entirely in te reo Māori.
The winners will be announced at the Auckland Writers Festival on May 14.