Archive for June, 2008

A stunning line-up of books feature as this year’s finalists in the Reference & Anthology and the Environment sections. This week we give you a breakdown of both sections, point you to some more information and invite you to enter the giveaway on NZLive.com.

It’s now only three weeks until the gala dinner at the Wellington Town Hall where the winners will be announced. The winner in each category receives a prize of $5,000. Each category winner is eligible for the Montana Medal for non fiction or the Montana Medal for poetry or fiction, both of which carry a prize of $10,000.

Reference & Anthology

Look This Way: New Zealand Writers on New Zealand Artists edited
by Sally Blundell (Auckland University Press)

Sally Blundell has been a freelance journalist for nearly 20 years. She has written for a range of magazines specialising in art, literature and education. Her written work includes previews, reviews, artist profiles and articles. She is currently completing a PhD in English Literature at the University of Canterbury.

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The cold fronts are coming so it’s a great chance to get intimate with a good biography or history book in front of the fire. We continue our coverage of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2008 this week by delving into these two categories.

Let’s take a look at this year’s finalists. And remember to enter the giveaway on NZLive.com.

Biography

The Best Man Who Ever Served the Crown? A Life of Donald McLean
by Ray Fargher (Victoria University Press)

After war service with the 3rd NZ Division in the Pacific and a period of secondary teaching, much of Ray Fargher’s working life was spent as General Secretary of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutes until retiring in 1986. He then spent the next four years chairing ministerial working parties advising on the reform of post-school vocational education and training, including the Probine-Fargher Report on The Organisation, Management and Funding of Continuing Education.

The Best Man Who Ever Served the Crown? A Life of Donald McLean is the first full biography of one of the key actors in the drama of 19th-century New Zealand land dealing and fills a gaping hole in New Zealand historiography. McLean was highly respected by Māori for his knowledge of Te Reo and respect for rank and protocol, and was closely involved in land dealings in the Taranaki and elsewhere that still have repercussions today.

Read a review or ‘Best Man’ at The NZ Listener
Buy ‘Best Man’ at Fishpond

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Last night the programme for the 37th Wellington Film Festival was launched at the Paramount in Wellington. It’s always a packed event and the hottest ticket in town is the ’still warm from the press’ festival brochure. This year the brochure has a brand-spanking new format. It’s big, it’s glossy and it’s bulging with celluloid treats. The website has also been spruced up and it’s fabulous and informative - check it out at www.nzff.co.nz. And in a smart move the festival is making the most of our obsession with Web 2.0 and have their very own MySpace page where you can see snippets of some of the films on offer.

The 2008 Festival line-up is chock-a-block with good Kiwi talent and includes the largest number ever of feature-length New Zealand films. Well done, we say! Fourteen diverse works from the South to North Island represent the New Zealand of today in all its vibrant shades: idiosyncratic, traditional, outrageous, conformist, gritty, ephemeral.

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We start NZLive.com’s sweeping coverage of the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards with a look at the Fiction category. The purpose of this category is to recognise literary excellence in works of published fiction and drama.

The winning book will, in the opinion of the judges, be a significant addition to the literature of New Zealand. Past winners in this category include Lloyd Jones for Mister Pip, Patricia Grace for Tu, Elizabeth Knox for The Vintners’ Luck and Craig Marriner for Stonedogs.

In a strange twist, the all-female finalist line-up for 2008 is a direct reversal of last year’s all-male showing.

Controversy has arisen over the fact only four books were short-listed this year, instead of the usual five. You can read more about this here, here, and here.

Let’s take a look at this year’s Fiction finalists. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a copy of one of the books on NZLive.com.

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NZLive.com is making a big fuss and hoopla over the Montana New Zealand Book Awards this year – because we think NZ authors and publishers are worth it!

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

Each week we will be profiling one or two of these categories right here on the Lively blog. We will have links to reviews, news and interviews – all you need to know about the finalists. We also will have a copy of one of the books from each category to give away on NZLive.com.

Remember to come back each week to learn all about a new category and go into the draw to win one of these lovely books on Lively.

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