Friday, June 19, 2009

Lorain Day, Publisher at Harper Collins NZ provides a piece of NZ publishing history:

May I respectfully offer a morsel of publishing history (not in any way a criticism of your comments about The 10PM Question’s extraordinary feat of shortlists for both adult and children’s premier book awards), in order to alleviate the irritating editorial itch that bedevils we guardians of accuracy and nitpickers extraordinaire from time to time.

While it is correct to say that Kate de Goldi is the first author to be shortlisted in the NZ Post and Montana Book awards for the same book, back in 1986 Tessa Duder achieved the equivalent feat when her book Jellybean , (published by in Auckland by Oxford University Press, (hardback) and in New York by Viking Kestrel, and later in the UK by Puffin in 1987, with a Dutch edition in 1987 by Clavis), was shortlisted for both the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards sponsored by Government Printer, (won by Joanna Orwin with The Guardian of the Land ) and the New Zealand Book of the Year Awards sponsored, then sponsored by Goodman Fielder Wattie, (one of shortlist of ten across all genres, won by Witi Ihimaera with The Matriarch).

So while it’s technically correct to say that The 10 PM Question is the first in the history of the Montanas and NZ Post era, it’s not strictly correct in the history of NZ book awards overall, regardless of sponsor.
There, the editorial itch is gone. Ah, the relief!
Cheers – Lorain
Footnote:
Many thanks Lorain. It is nice to have Tessa Duder amd Kate de Goldi mentioned on the blog together. Two formidable talents.

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