Winners Of MitoQ Best First Book Awards At Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2021 Announced

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards is a highly anticipated event on the annual arts calendar, and one category that continues to gain interest is the Best First Book Awards, sponsored by MitoQ.

The Best First Book Awards recognise work of quality by an author for whom the entry is their first published book. For the third year running, MitoQ has sponsored the category, giving new writers a financial boost and recognition to help them focus on pursuing a writing career.

The Best First Book Awards category has seen steady growth in submission numbers since its introduction to the Book Awards in 1996. In 2021, 50 books entered were from debut authors, nearly a third of all submissions.

“This is MitoQ’s third year sponsoring this award and every year we are overwhelmed by both the talent in this country and the quality of writing from first time book writers. Whilst the basis of our company is anchored in robust science, we recognise that storytelling is critical to connecting at a human level with people. It has been this way for millennia and across cultures. I want to recognise all the hard work that the authors have put into writing their books, it is an incredible achievement, and we offer a huge congratulations to all our winners,” says MitoQ CEO, Mahara Inglis.

The winners of the 2021 MitoQ Best First Book Awards are:

• MitoQ Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction: Monique Fiso, Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine, Godwit, Penguin Random House

“Hiakai is an astounding first book. Monique Fiso shares her personal journey as a chef alongside her journey into the knowledge of her tūpuna/ancestors. Hiakai weaves understanding of our unique environment, hunting, foraging, cooking, eating and preserving into an expansive but very accessible offering. Fiso does not shy away from unusual ingredients and this makes it all the more fascinating. The images are beautiful and combined with inspiring text, they ensure this book will be a favourite for many years to come,” says llustrated Non-Fiction category convenor of judges Dale Cousens.

• MitoQ Best First Book Award for Fiction: Rachel Kerr, Victory Park, Mākaro Press

“Five debut novels made the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2021 longlist, and the judges were particularly impressed by the big-hearted social realism of Victory Park, which follows the quiet heroics of a widowed solo mother of squeezed means. Sensitively examining the emotional and mental labour of being careful with money and the blind spots people have when they don’t need to worry about it, this quietly powerful novel is about privilege, community, compassion and care,” says Fiction category convenor of judges Kiran Dass.

• MitoQ Best First Book Award for Poetry: Jackson Nieuwland, I Am A Human Being, Compound Press

“Jackson Nieuwland’s I Am a Human Being asserts a Whitmanesque ecstasy of holistic oneness with the world. The poems’ insistent ‘I am’ refrain merges selfie and panoramic view, close-up and long shot in a whirl of words. Nieuwland’s dramatic monologues assail the reader with absurd, appealing, poignant, and humorous scenarios that are gleefully illogical, grandiose, deflating, and bulging with insight. The writing frequently overspills its lyrical open form and flows into newly imagined dimensions. It’s fun, fast, sometimes fragile, and full-on,” says Poetry category convenor of judges Dr Briar Wood.

• MitoQ Best First Book Award for General Non-Fiction: Madison Hamill, Specimen Personal Essays, Victoria University Press

'In this compulsively readable first book, Madison Hamill observes her own difference with an outsider’s detached gaze, and the ordinary people around her with tender curiosity. This is the work of a luminous new talent in New Zealand life writing,” says General Non-Fiction category convenor of judges Dr Sarah Shieff.

Each MitoQ Best First Book Award winner receives a $2,500 cash prize, a 12-month membership subscription to the New Zealand Society of Authors and MitoQ product.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards were announced at a public event on 12 May, as part of the 2021 Auckland Writers Festival.

About MitoQ

MitoQ is a New Zealand cellular health company that invented an advanced molecule which is clinically proven to target cells for better health. Created at the University of Otago in the 1990s, MitoQ’s unique ingredient is available in a range of cellular products designed to power the health and ambitions of every body. MitoQ’s potential benefits to health have been the subject of 9 clinical trials and over 500 independent published papers, and it holds 60 patents globally. For more information about the company and its products, visit https://www.mitoq.com

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders. 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. Awards are given for Fiction (the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction), Poetry (the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry) Illustrated Non-Fiction (the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction) and General Non-Fiction. There are also four awards for first-time authors (The MitoQ Best First Book awards) and, at the judges’ discretion, Te Mūrau o te Tuhi, a Māori Language Award. The awards are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust (a registered charity). Current members of the Trust are Nicola Legat, Karen Ferns, Paula Morris, Jenna Todd, Anne Morgan, Melanee Winder, Melinda Szymanik and Richard Pamatatau. The Trust also governs the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day

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