Paula Morris writes
in the latest issue of Booknotes
about the pros and cons of what has happened to New Zealand’s book awards, detailed
here previously. In short, there won’t be any awards in 2015 and in 2016
they will be part of the Auckland Writers Festival: this means that instead of
one year’s books being judged, it will be 18 months’ worth. Paula canvassed
opinion from an impressive range of people in the book trade: authors, publishers,
booksellers and assorted media types. And me.
Comments include “ridiculous”, “lamentable”, “Readers don’t
seem to care about New Zealand books” and more.
Those of us who have been involved with the awards over the
years are more positive. Publishers’ Association president Sam Elworthy says the new
structure offers “an opportunity to establish a more relevant, more high-impact
awards”.
Author Vanda Symon says:
When I was a judge the year before last, they changed the timing of the award, so we were judging 18 months’ worth. It didn’t create a ripple […] I love the idea of the awards being incorporated into a festival, part of a week-long celebration for the readers as well as the writers, rather than one special and rather extravagant night for the writers.
Paula’s article is really good, of interest to everyone in the NZ book world. Best bit for me was this, quote unquote:
[…] there’s much off-the-record muttering among the literary community, particularly outside Auckland.
I think we all know that what means. So here is Sam Cooke in 1958 with Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive”: