NEWS RELEASE

For immediate releaseTuesday 29 January2008

Award winning broadcaster leads Montana NewZealand Book Awards judging panel

Award winningbroadcaster Lynn Freeman is the convenor of the 2008 MontanaNew Zealand Book Awards judging panel.

Freeman is joinedby David Elworthy and Tim Corballis.

Freeman, hosts RadioNew Zealand National’s The Arts on Sunday show and fillsin on Nine to Noon when the main presenter is away, is atheatre critic and a Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards judge. She is also on the board of the Playwriting agency,Playmarket and served on the panel selecting the ArtsFoundation of New Zealand Arts Laureates. She resides inWellington.

Christchurch based David Elworthy, a veteranin the publishing industry, started his career as a NewZealand diplomat with postings in both London and New Delhi.He then joined A.H. & A.W. Reed as an editor, eventuallybecoming their Editorial Director. He then became thePublishing Director for Collins for 10 years before he andhis wife Ros Henry founded Shoal Bay Press, which they ransuccessfully for 20 years before selling to Longacre Press.

Wellington writer Tim Corballis, brings a young voiceto the judging panel.In 2005/2006 he spent a year inBerlin as the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writer inResidence. In 2002 he was the Randell Cottage Writer inResidence and in 2000 he was awarded the Adam FoundationPrize and a Modern Letters Fellowship for his work towardsan MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University inWellington.

All three judges are looking forward to thechallenge of judging.“As judges, it is ourprivilege—and our challenge—to engage thoroughly withthe full breadth of a year’s writing”.

“We are allanticipating – and looking forward to – many a robustround table discussion over the next few months, as we honedown the pleasingly extensive list of eligiblebooks.”

The judges are very aware of the task ahead ofthem and the impact their choices will have on the readingpublic.

“Looking back on the first 12 years of theMontana New Zealand Book Awards, one is struck first by thequality of the work submitted by New Zealand authorsand publishers, and secondly by the increasing impact of theAwards on the New Zealand scene. Betting on the Awardsmay not yet have been taken up by the TAB, but book sales,let alone the interest expressed by the general media,reflect the keen interest of the New Zealand public,” thejudges said.

The judging of New Zealand’s best bookspublished during the 2007 calendar year is carried outacross eight categories – Fiction, Poetry, Biography,History, Reference & Anthology, Environment, Illustrative,and Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture – and follows strictguidelines.

This is the 12th year of the Montana NewZealand Book Awards. Judges take into account enduringliterary merit and overall authorship; quality ofillustration and graphic presentation; production values,general design and the standard of editing and the impact ofthe book on the community, with emphasis on issues such astopicality, public interest, commercial viability,entertainment, cultural and educational values and lifespanof the book.

Each category has a specialist advisor toassist the judging panel. This year’s advisors also boaststrong writing and publishing credentials:

Fiction –Diane Brown is a poet, novelist and memoirist, and theco-ordinator and tutor for the Aoraki Polytechnic CreativeWriting Course in Dunedin. Her publications include thecollections of poetry Before The Divorce We Go ToDisneyland, (winner of the NZSA Best First Book of Poetry atthe Montana New Zealand Book Awards 1997); Learning to LieTogether, novels If The Tongue Fits, and Eight Stages ofGrace, travel memoirs Liars and Lovers and Here ComesAnother Vital Moment. She is currently writing a novel,Hooked.

Poetry – Anna Jackson lectures in English andAmerican literature at Victoria University of Wellington.She has published four books of poetry with AucklandUniversity Press, most recently The Gas Leak. She lives inIsland Bay with her jeweller husband Simon Edmonds, andchildren Johnny (13) and Elvira (11).

History – JockPhillips is General Editor of Te Ara, the OnlineEncyclopedia of New Zealand. Previously New Zealand’sChief Historian, he was also the founding Director of theStout Research Centre for the study of New Zealand society,history and culture. His ten published books on New Zealandhistory include collections on the major Maori tribes of NewZealand, and on the settler and immigrant peoples of NewZealand. He is just completing a book on the history ofBritish immigration to New Zealand.

Biography – JuliaMillen is a biographer, historian and fiction writer whoseworks include biographies of New Zealand novelists GuthrieWilson and Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Her social history worksinclude: Kirkcaldie & Stains and Bell Gully Buddle Weir;about the department store and the legal firm respectively,Salute to Service, on the RNZ Corps of Transport; andBreaking Barriers, on IHC New Zealand. She has an honoursdegree in music, has compiled and presented programmes forRadio New Zealand Concert and was librettist for two NewZealand operas.

Reference and Anthology – Margie Thomsonwas a journalist for more than 20 years, working on avariety of publications but mainly for the New ZealandHerald where she wrote features before becoming the BooksEditor. Over the past 10 years she has edited books pagesfor Canvas, Herald on Sunday and Next magazine. Last yearshe left the media to take up a position as the BooksPromotions Manager for Whitcoulls.

Environment – SimonNathan is an earth scientist, with a long standing interestin environmental history. He has written biographicalaccounts of several New Zealand scientists, most recentlyHarold Wellman: a man who moved New Zealand. For the lastfour years Simon has been Science Editor of Te Ara:Encyclopedia of New Zealand which launched “The Bush” themein 2007, dealing with New Zealand’s naturalenvironment.

Lifestyle and contemporary culture – AnnPacker is a freelance writer who last year won the MontanaNew Zealand Book Awards Lifestyle and Contemporary Culturecategory with Stitch, featuring New Zealand textile artists.She lives in Eastbourne and walks to Days Bay each morningbefore starting work on subjects as diverse as children’sbooks, homes, gardens, arts, travel and visiting authors.Ann has raised three children and worked as a community artsadvisor, International Festival administrator andteacher.

Illustrative – Artist Dick Frizzell, havingworked as an animator, commercial artist and illustrator,has no qualms about blurring the categories between hiscommercial work and art. His paintings are often a pasticheof images drawing on modern art and graphic design. In 2005Frizzell was invited on the Antarctic artist programme.Frizzell’s works are held in major public and corporatecollections and his 1997 retrospective exhibition, DickFrizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, toured major publicart galleries of New Zealand.(Courtesy Gow LangsfordGallery)

The winner in each category receives a prize of$5,000. Each category winner is eligible for the MontanaMedal for non fiction or poetry/fiction, both of which carrya prize of $10,000.

The finalists across all categorieswill be announced on Tuesday 10 June.

The winner of thepoetry category will be announced on Montana Poetry Day onFriday 18 July. All other winners will be advised at theawards ceremony in Wellington on Monday 21 July 2008.

Theprincipal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awardsare Montana and Creative New Zealand. The awards aremanaged by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by BookPublishers Association of New Zealand, the New ZealandSociety of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ)Ltd.

ENDS

www.montananzbookawards.conz