Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand has always been strong supporters of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and is delighted to have cemented that support of these significant awards by signing a five-year agreement to sponsor the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction.

Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Chief Executive Dan Slevin says, ‘We are thrilled to be supporting the NZ book awards. There has been a long association between the New Zealand Book Awards Trust and Booksellers New Zealand and we have ensured that commitment is ongoing. This year, Booksellers New Zealand celebrates 100 years, we see this sponsorship as a way for us to launch the centenary celebrations.’

Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand has traditionally always supported the bookselling community and is looking to expand this continued support with collaborations with not only the book awards but with writers festivals.

‘We are focused on the changing world of books and are committed to the continued success of bookselling in New Zealand. Our focus is on supporting booksellers and by extension publishers, authors, readers, and the book sector as a whole and we see the Ockham book awards as an important touchstone within this community’

‘The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards is one of the country’s most important literary events and one which we encourage booksellers to support. The awards spotlight some of our best literary talent and the effect on sales of the shortlisted and winning titles is considerable. We see this becoming only more crucial in the current market where online sales are growing and the expertise of a bookseller is not always able to be sought.’

Tracking of the sales of the Ockhams finalists last year during the shortlist period and the month after the winners’ ceremony showed a massive 60% increase over the previous year, despite four weeks of Level 4 lockdown when no sales could be recorded. It illustrates that the effect on sales of these announcements is immediate and considerable.

Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand congratulates the shortlisted authors who have just been announced and look forward to the highly anticipated Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony to be held in Auckland as part of the Auckland Writers Festival on Wednesday 12 May.

Shortlist titles for the 2021 Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction are:

An Exquisite Legacy: The Life and Work of New Zealand Naturalist G.V. Hudson by George Gibbs (Potton & Burton)

Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine by Monique Fiso (Godwit, Penguin Random House)

Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists by Leonard Bell (Auckland University Press)

Nature — Stilled by Jane Ussher (Te Papa Press)