Dublin Literary Award – Nominations | Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi

Christchurch City Libraries has a chance every year to influence the largest and most international literary prize by nominating three books for The International DUBLIN Literary Award.

The Dublin Literary Award is presented annually for a novel written in English or translated into English. The Award is sponsored by Dublin City Council, the municipal government of Dublin, and administered by Dublin City Public Libraries. The Award aims to promote excellence in world literature. Nominations are submitted by library systems in major cities throughout the world.

Go to our Dublin Literary Award page.

Our selection: 2026

The Mires by Tina Makereti

“Ko wai te au, ko te wai ko au / I am the water, the water is me.” From the inspired mind of Tina Makereti (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore and Pākehā) comes a book that’s taken the country by storm: The Mires. I would call The Mires an incredible book, but for the fact that it’s so credible. A magical story, The Mires is essentially about place, identity and prejudice. Overflowing with believable themes, it’s about how people leave a heart-place, find a home place, and how they interact with the people and environment surrounding them. The people in this story have faced life-threatening climate change, poverty, racism, classism, white supremacy, and domestic violence. The plot includes internet trolling and terrorism, some cut-to-the-bone pages on the welfare experience, a sentient swamp, the power of love, friendship, matakite (prophesy and foretelling), and connection to the spiritual realm. This story is teeming with life: like the deliciously described denizens of the swamp at the centre of this urban legend, the people that make this story tick are resilient iterations of survival. The Mires was longlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Ngaio Marsh Awards, and was shortlisted for The Jann Medlicott Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards."

Comments from Fee's review of The Mires

Read Moata's report on Tina Makereti's WORD Christchurch session: The Swamp Mother takes control

Our selection: 2025

Lioness by Emily Perkins

‘Lioness’ explores the relationship between privilege and inertia. It looks at class and the need to constantly accumulate. Our capacity for change is a crucial element - and how comfort makes change so much harder. Therese, the main character, has a homeware shop in which taste becomes judgement. The novel looks at philanthropy and how we use this to make up for privileges, opening a window into the systemic forces of our society.

Our selection: 2024

The axeman's carnival by Catherine Chidgey, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press.

The well-deserved winner of the Jannn Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in this years’ Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, the opening lines of Catherine Chidgey’s wonderful book read like poetry. Myth, alliteration, and descriptive language spill from Chidgey’s imagination to create a setting so incredibly Kiwi, you can almost smell the woodsmoke and sweat. The Axeman’s Carnival is a thoroughly modern tale told from the unique point of view of Tama(gotchi); a magpie, who goes viral on the internet. Chidgey portrays domestic violence, hidden, unspoken, mistaken, regretted, repeated, and the violence towards animals that is often a part of farm life – pest control in the form of poison or gun, euthanasia perpetrated on sheep, or dogs who have outlived their usefulness, and the constant threat of death – death by car, death by cold, death by gun, death by dog… Absolutely wonderful!

Our selection: 2023

Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka, published by Huia Publishers

On the face of it, it is simply the retelling of the legend but it is so much more than this. It is about the power of our own voice to tell our story. It is about the importance of story to ourselves and our culture and the destructive nature of someone else telling or supplanting our story eg colonisation. An amazing, thought-provoking, beautifully lyrical work.
'Do you see what their stories have done?...They have made monsters of us both'.

Kurangaituku

Our selection: 2022

Sprigs by Brannavan Gnanalingam, published by Lawrence & Gibson

"Sprigs is a powerful and challenging story. Priya is a fifteen-year-old who goes to a party with rugby players and other kids, and is attacked in an 'incident'. We hear words from different people, and power and privilege combine to protect the guilty. When we hear from Priya herself - her voice is so compelling it cuts through and leaves the reader devastated."

Sprigs

Shining a spotlight 💡

Sprigs by @Brannavan & pub. Lawrence & Gibson, is a tale of a rugby match, the after party, and life for Priya after the ‘incident’, of whispers and confrontations, wealth and privilege.

Nominated @ChristchurchLib New Zealandhttps://t.co/RQjtRF9wkp pic.twitter.com/kAAXy8qQSw

— Dublin Literary Award (@DublinLitAward) February 21, 2022

Our selection: 2021

Auē by Becky Manawatu, published by Mākaro Press

Kia ora from Tūranga, Christchurch City, New Zealand!

Many thanks to Mike from @ChristchurchLib who reviews their nomination for the 2021 #DubLitAward, Auē by Becky Manawatu.

🎉SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED @ 00:01am on Thurs, 25 March🎉@IrelandinNZ @MakaroPress @dubcilib @ILFDublin pic.twitter.com/Puz2IVEdzp

— Dublin Literary Award (@DublinLitAward) March 24, 2021