The Booksellers NZ annual conference concluded on Monday night with the presentation of New Zealand's premier book prizes, the Montana Awards.
Charlotte Grimshaw (pictured, photo courtesy of Random NZ) was the evening's big winner, taking out the overall Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry and the fiction category for her short story collection Opportunity (Random). Grimshaw also picked up the BPANZ Reviewer of the Year award for her work as a book reviewer.
The Montana Medal for Nonfiction went to Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-sweet Story by Janet Hunt (Random). Hunt's book also won the environment category.
Other category winners were:

• Poetry: Cold Snack (Janet Charman, Auckland University Press)
• Biography: The Life and Times of James Walter Chapman-Taylor (Judy Siers, Millwood Heritage Productions)
• History: Te Tau Ihu O Te Waka Volume II (Hilary and John Mitchell, Huia)
• Reference and Anthology: A Nest of Singing Birds: 100 years of the New Zealand School Journal (Gregory O'Brien, Learning Media)
• Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture: Mau Moko: The World of Māori Tattoo (Ngahuia Te Awekotuku et al, Penguin)
• Illustrated: Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning (Jennifer Hay et al, Christchurch Art Gallery)
• Māori Language Prize: Te Tū a Te Toka: He Ieretanga nō ngā Tai e Whā (ed by Piripi Walker & Huriana Raven, Totika Publications).

In other awards announced on the night, The Blue by Mary McCallum (Penguin) took out both the NZ Society of Authors Best First Book award for fiction and the Reader's Choice award. Jessica Le Bas won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry for her collection, Incognito (Auckland University Press); and the NZSA E H McCormick Best First Book Award for Nonfiction went to The Great Forest of Tāne by Alan Clarke (Raupo).

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/07/08957/

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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