Three New Zealand writers included on shortlists for 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book and Best First Book
Monday, 23 February 2009
Three New Zealand writers feature on the shortlists for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book and Best First Book announced on the 18 February in London.
The writers are:
- Paula Morris for her book Forbidden Cities (nominated in the Best Book category)*
- Mo Zhi Hong for The Year of the Shanghai Shark (nominated for Best First Book)*
- Bridget Van der Zijpp for Misconduct (nominated for Best First Book)
*Mo Zhi Hong and Paula Morris' books were published with the assistance of a block grant from Creative New Zealand.
Two regional winners each for Best Book and Best First Book from the four global areas will be announced on 11 March 2009. These winners then go on to compete for overall Best Book and Best First Book awards. The four regional areas are South East Asia and the Pacific; Europe and South Asia; Canada and the Caribbean and Africa.
The two overall winners of the awards will be chosen by an international panel of six judges during an Awards Ceremony on 16 May at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival (AWRF).
Each of the regional winners will be invited to take part in a week-long series of community events and public readings around New Zealand alongside the final judging in New Zealand, culminating in the announcement of the two overall winners for Best First Book and Best Book on May 16. The shortlisted finalists will be included in the programme for the 2009 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. All Commonwealth Writers’ sessions and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Awards ceremony will be free to the general public.
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation. The Prize, now in its 23rd year, celebrates cutting-edge fiction across the four regions of the Commonwealth: Africa; Canada and the Caribbean; Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and the South Pacific. From these regions, the overall winners for the Best Book, worth £10,000 and Best First Book, worth £5,000, are chosen.
For further information you can download the press release here, or contact:
Jenny Nagle
New Zealand Co-ordinator
Commonwealth Writers' Awards 2009
P.O.Box 28616, Remuera
Auckland 1541
nagle@xtra.co.nz
or visit the Commonwealth Foundation website (www.commonwealthfoundation.com/cwp)