Five THWUP books on the 2026 Ockham Shortlist

We are thrilled that five Te Herenga Waka University Press titles have been shortlisted for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards — congratulations to all our authors!

Shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction

  • All Her Lives — Ingrid Horrocks
  • The Book of Guilt — Catherine Chidgey

Shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry

  • Black Sugarcane — Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa'itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu)
  • Sick Power Trip — Erik Kennedy

Shortlisted for the General Non-Fiction Award

  • This Compulsion in Us — Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā)

A Catherine Chidgey win would be a remarkable feat — she has won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction twice before, for The Wish Child in 2017 and The Axeman's Carnival in 2023, making her the only author to have done so. Equally exciting is seeing Ingrid Horrocks shortlisted alongside her — short story collections face a particular challenge in prize culture, and All Her Lives earning its place here is a real testament to the power and skill of Ingrid's writing.

We're so happy to see Tina Makereti back in the limelight — she was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction last year, and now returns with This Compulsion in Us in the General Non-Fiction category, which speaks to the remarkable range of her work.

Erik Kennedy is another familiar face in the Ockham finalists — he was previously shortlisted for There's No Place Like the Internet in Springtime, and it's wonderful to see him back with Sick Power Trip, an excellent book that has made a strong impression on readers.

And we're especially delighted to see Nafanua Purcell Kersel shortlisted for Black Sugarcane as a debut poet — as we said when the longlist was announced, this feels like the beginning of a brilliant writing career, and the judges' recognition of her work is very well deserved.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 13 May as part of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki. We'll be cheering loudly from the crowd!

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