The decision by the judging panel, Lynn Freeman (Chair), David Elworthy, and Tim Corballis, to name only four shortlisted fiction titles instead of the traditional five, has clearly angered and disappointed authors, publishers and booksellers judging by the record number of hits I am getting on the blog and by the number of responses being posted.
I am anxious to obtain the complete list of 35 titles nominated in the fiction category so that we can all see for ourselves what we think of the judges decision that there were only four titles worthy of shortlisting. I have asked the organisers for that list and as soon as it is to hand I will publish it for all to see.
LATER - THIS FROM BOOKSELLERS NEW ZEALAND WHO ADMINISTER THE MONTANA NZ BOOK AWARDS
We are unable to supply you with a list of the titles submitted, as they are submitted to us on a confidential basis, which you know as a former Montana New Zealand Book Awards judge.
To establish which titles were nominated I will tomorrow write to all publishers seeking the titles of books they nominated. Right now I'm off on the Vespa to attend a book launch in the city.No doubt the Montana NZ Book Awards will come up in conversation.
Meanwhile Martin Edmond muses on his book being shortlisted in the biography section http://lucaantara.blogspot.com/2008/06/genre-confusion.html
1 comment:
I see that Booksellers NZ are being as closed as ever. Not content with offending against one of the fundamentals of democracy by telling PEN who is acceptable as their nominee, they also tell us that nominations for the Montana Book Award are confidential.
What a load of rubbish. If it is in the conditions, it shouldn't be.
I don't want to over-state the case but can't help wondering, why revert to closedness when openness is called for? What a sad pass the industry has come to when its institutions, instead of stoutly defending openness at all costs, default to being closed.
Does no one in Booksellers NZ think about such matters? Is it just quietly slipping into irrelevance to the wider community? Is that perhaps just what it deserves?
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