Mātātuhi Foundation to sponsor prestigious Best First Book Awards

The Mātātuhi Foundation, established to support the growth and development of the literary landscape of Aotearoa, has formally assumed the sponsorship of the Best First Book awards at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Set up in 2018 by the Auckland Writers Festival, the organisation holds a biannual grants round, inviting submissions from projects that support and promote the work of New Zealand writers and/or increase the levels of engagement or appreciation for New Zealand literature amongst New Zealand readers.

Nicola Legat, chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa, warmly welcomes the Foundation as the Best First Book Awards’ new official funder after it stepped in to support them in 2023. “We are delighted to have now consolidated this lasting partnership with an organisation that has literature and writers at the heart of its aims,” she says. “These four awards have a long history, which in the case of the fiction award dates back to 1940, and many of its past winners have gone on to have stellar careers. It seems very fitting that the Foundation recognises this legacy and the career-changing impact these awards have.”

Mātātuhi Foundation trustee Paula Morris says, “I won a Best First Book award in 2003 for Queen of Beauty, and it felt like an achievement as well as a great gift. It gave me confidence to keep going and meant the book received more attention from readers, the press and booksellers. I'm glad that the Mātātuhi Foundation is helping to support emerging writers in this way and to support the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in its recognition of excellence.”

The four winners of The Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards for 2024 will be announced next year at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony on Wednesday, 15 May, at a marquee event at the Auckland Writers Festival.

The judges will select a Best First Book winner in each of the Ockhams’ four categories – Fiction, Poetry, General Non-Fiction and Illustrated Non-Fiction – from books by debut authors that have been shortlisted or longlisted in the awards. Each winner will receive $3000 and a 12-month membership of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are supported by Ockham Residential, Creative New Zealand, Jann Medlicott and the Acorn Foundation, Mary and Peter Biggs CNZM, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand, The Mātātuhi Foundation and the Auckland Writers Festival.

Photo credit: Mātātuhi Foundation trustee Paula Morris (left) congratulates Christall Lowe, author of Kai: Food Stories and Recipes from my Family Table, Best First Book winner of the Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. They are accompanied by Christalle’s publisher Louise Russell of Bateman Books.