Announcing the shortlist for the NZSA Heritage Book Awards 2022

The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) and the Canterbury branch of NZSA are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the 2022 NZSA Heritage Book Awards!

With many thanks to our judges, here are the shortlisted books for the 2022 NZSA Heritage Book Awards:

Non-fiction Books: judged by David Veart and Julia Gatley

  • Toi Tu Toi Ora: Contemporary Maori Art by Nigel Borell (Penguin Random House NZ)
  • How to Be a Bad Muslim and Other Essays by Mohamed Hassan (Penguin Random House NZ)
  • So Far, For Now by Fiona Kidman (Penguin Random House NZ)
  • Uprising by Nic Low (Text Publishing)
  • Shifting Grounds: Deep Histories of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland by Lucy Mackintosh (Bridget Williams Books)
  • The Forgotten Coast by Richard Shaw (Massey University Press)

Fiction Books: judged by Philippa Werry

  • Harbouring by Jenny Pattrick (Penguin Random House NZ)
  • How to loiter in a turf war by Coco Solid (Penguin Random House NZ)

Te Reo Māori Books: judged by Vaughan Rapatahana

  • Blimmin’ Koro/ Kātahi rā e Koro e!Jill Bevan-Brown, Trish Bowles ngā whakaahua (Oratia, 2021)
  • Te Kōkōrangi, Te Aranga o MatarikiWiti Ihimaera, Nā Heni Jacob te whakamāoritanga, Nā Isobel Joy Te Aho-White ngā whakaahua (Puffin NZ, 2022)

Children’s Books: judged by Kyle Mewburn

  • Coastwatcher by David Hill (Penguin Random House NZ)
  • Torn Apart by Swapna Haddow (Scholastic)

Poetry Books: judged by Kiri Piahana-Wong

  • The Pistils by Janet Charman (Otago University Press)
  • Unseasoned campaigner by Janet Newman (Otago University Press)

The Canterbury Branch NZSA Poem shortlist: judged by Joanna Preston

Imagine a woman by Karen Zelas

My Father, Nurse Maud and the Hospice by Marjory Woodfield

Fireman in the cab by Frankie McMillan

The Coal Range by James Norcliffe

The Canterbury Branch NZSA Short Prose shortlist: judged by Carl Nixon

Annie, my Anne by Barbara Else

Immigrants’ Child by Tui Bevin

In Search of Jane Deans by Nataliya Oryshchuk

Moments in Time – Memories of Christchurch Tramways  by Angela Pope

Mum’s Mistake by Sandy Nelson

Nestling in the Shadows by Husayn Rawlings

The Twenty-First by Shani Naylor


Winners of the Fiction and Non-fiction book awards each receive $1000; Te Reo Māori book award, Children’s book award, and Poetry book award winners will receive $300 each. Judges were guided by the theme of the Christchurch Heritage Festival 2022:  Our Stories – Milestones and Moments.

The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony to be held at St Michael and All Angels, 95-99 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch, on Thursday, 20 October at 7pm. All welcome.


The NZSA Heritage Book Awards are proudly bought to you by the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa (NZSA) and celebrate New Zealand writers who have published work in the previous year to the opening date of the awards. First established in 2014 by the Canterbury branch of NZSA, the awards are now well established on the New Zealand writers’ calendar. The awards are open to self-published and traditionally published books and have inclusivity and diversity at the heart of their kaupapa.

These awards are in their ninth year, and past winners include Fiona Farrell, Witi Ihimaera, Whiti Hereaka, Brian Turner, Caroline Barron, and Fiona Kidman. In 2021 the winners of the book awards were ROCK COLLEGE: An unofficial history of Mount Eden Prison by Mark Derby (Massey University Press), EVERYTHING CHANGES by Stephanie Johnson (Vintage), I AM THE UNIVERSE by Vasanti Unka, (Puffin Books, Penguin Random House), HE ITI TE KUPU:  Māori metaphors and similes by Hona Black (Oratia Books).

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