New Zealand Listener Editorial issue June 13-19, 2009.

The good books
It's time to inject some excitement into our book awards.
Robyn Malcolm shouldn’t sit by her phone waiting for the call to be a judge just yet, but the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are undergoing their most significant review since being established 13 years ago, and organisers are “open to making pretty big changes”. The review is ahead of New Zealand Post taking over as sponsor and the Montanas becoming the Posties.
The receptiveness to change is heartening as the announcement of yet another year’s finalists is met with dutifully handled media coverage. But what’s missing is the sense of occasion that befits the country’s premier book awards.
If the Man Booker Prize can be such a talking point in Britain from the word go, why did a walk down Wellington’s Lambton Quay on the afternoon after the Montanas’ announcement find no promotional material or table displays in either of the two major bookshops? This is not the co-ordinated opening salvo one might hope for. We’re a long way from the TAB offering odds on the awards’ outcome.
You might argue that America’s Pulitzer Prize manages quite well without such a brouhaha. But though revered, the Pulitzer does not get the blood pumping in the same way as the Booker does, and New Zealand books could do with some of that excitement.
If the media is incapable of seeing literature as offering the same dramatic possibilities as sport – did nobody notice CK Stead facing off against Vincent O’Sullivan in one of the categories? – then the award organisers should look elsewhere.
Read the full editorial at The Listener online.
Footnote:
A full review of the NZ Book Awards is soon to be undertaken and submissions are being sought. Link here for details.