23 March 2011 – Auckland author Ian Robinson won the Whitcoulls Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Tea with the Taliban – Travels in Afghanistan (David Bateman Publishing). The winner for the inaugural Whitcoulls Pictorial Travel Book of the Year Award was Grant Sheehan’s New Zealand Landscapes.
For the second year running, Auckland’s Steve Braunias won the Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year Award presented last night (Tuesday 22 March) at the Travel Media Awards gala dinner at the Heritage Auckland’s Grand Tearoom. Piha’s Tessa Chrisp took the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award.
The Cathay Pacific Travel Media and Whitcoulls Travel Book awards are organised by Travcom (New Zealand Travel Communicators) to celebrate excellence in travel writing and photography.
Braunias (right) took top spot with his story ‘Trouble in Mosgiel’ published in North & South. Braunias is a regular contributing writer to North & South and winner of numerous national journalism awards.
He has authored four books. His first, Fool’s Paradise, won Best First Book of Non-Fiction at the 2002 Montana Book Awards and Braunias was the 2009 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. He has been the editor of Capital Times, feature writer at Metro, deputy editor at the NZ Listener, and was a contributing writer to TV One’s Eating Media Lunch and The Unauthorised History of New Zealand. Braunias is currently Editor in Residence at the School of Media Arts at Wintec in Hamilton.
Jonathan Lorie judged all travel writing categories excluding the New Travel Writer of the Year award judged by Brenda Ward. Brenda Ward is the award-winning former editor of Next, New Idea, and Your Home & Garden, and is now contract publisher of NZ Property Investor. Winner of the AA Directions New Travel Writer of the Year Award was Bonnie Jay Etherington with her story ‘A Farewell to an Adopted Nation’.
Winner of Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award, Tessa Chrisp is a commercial photographer working throughout the Southern Hemisphere. She has been a regular contributor to magazines such as NZ Life & Leisure, Kia Ora Air New Zealand, Next, AA Directions, NZ House and Garden, North & South to name a few.
Braunias and Chrisp have each won a trip for two to Nepal, travelling with Cathay Pacific, $500 travel expenses, plus a six-day Taste of Nepal tour courtesy of Adventure World.
Auckland author Ian Robinson won the top prize at the eighth annual Whitcoulls Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Tea with the Taliban – Travels in Afghanistan (David Bateman Publishing). Auckland writer Michael Field received runner up prize for Swimming with Sharks – Tales from the South Pacific Frontline (Penguin Group NZ). Third place went to Wellington-based Jo and Gareth Morgan with John McCrystal for their book Up the Andes (Public Interest Publishing).
Robinson has been a previous winner of this award. His book Alone Across Gantsara won the 2005 Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year Award and he also received a Highly Commended in 2007 for his book You Must Die Once.
The public voted online for their favourite book in the Readers’ Choice Award: Tara Arctic by Grant Redvers.
The photography judging panel also chose the winner for the inaugural Whitcoulls Pictorial Travel Book of the Year Award. The unanimous winner was Grant Sheehan’s New Zealand Landscapes. The runner up was Rob Suisted’s Majestic New Zealand.
No comments:
Post a Comment