We asked our finalists in the Ockham NZ Book Awards some very relevant questions.
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| Tusiata Avia (Hayley Theyers) |
Fale Aitu by Tusiata Avia is a finalist in the poetry category.
What are you wearing to awards night?
A fresh, fruity, fobby frock.If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
Maybe a wedding dress - just in case.
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
Umm, human sacrifice?
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
My BFF and hopefully my cousin.
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
Mpho Tutu Van Furth!!
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| Hera Lindsay Bird (Russell Kleyn) |
What are you wearing to awards night?
A dress, some shoes and my Britney Spears handbag
If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
I am saving up to catch some trains overseas. Maybe one of those internet perfumes that smell like bread.
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
I brush my hair..............for luck
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
My mother and my father and my father’s wife and my boyfriend and my friend and her boyfriend who also happens to be my boyfriend’s brother, it’s very complicated.
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
Shirley Jackson, but she’s dead so I’m excited to meet George Saunders who isn’t.
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| Andrew Johnston (Peter Black) |
What are you wearing to awards night?
A shirt by Liberty of London (and a few other things).
If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
Time to write - a month this year, more later.
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
I don’t have a charm or ritual, but if I have to speak in public I imagine that I am standing up to my neck in water.
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
No one!
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
Lloyd Geering, because his book Tomorrow’s God is a favourite.
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| Adam Dudding (Lawrence Smith) |
What are you wearing to awards night?
Mostly my favourite designers Farmers and Hallensteins, though I may bust out some of my fancier socks from Barkers.
If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
Paying down the debt on irrational purchases made in a spirit of optimism since the shortlist came out.
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
Spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to write profound and thoughtful responses to foolish
questionnaires about what I wear to awards nights, before abandoning the task and spending a few seconds coming up with something glib and misleading instead.
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
My first wife.
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
Ashleigh Young, because although I’m grateful that she edited my book at VUP, if I can slip
hemlock into her drink early in the evening, my odds of victory in the non-fiction category rise from a quarter to a third. Also, because though we bonded deeply via email, I’ve only met her a couple of times in the flesh. I also wouldn’t mind touching the hem of the robe of Susan Faludi, Armando Iannucci, Lauren Child, Teju Cole, James Gleick and a few others, just cos they’re great.
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| Ashleigh Young (Russell Kleyn) |
Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young is a finalist in the non-fiction category.
What are you wearing to awards night?
Maybe just, like, a big pile of snakes. Non-venomous snakes.
If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
I will take the VUP team out for breakfast the morning after the ceremony!*
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
I don’t have any proper rituals, but in an ideal world I would swaddle myself in a luxurious robe and then just sort of lie motionless under a tree for an hour. Like a huge baby in a nursery rhyme.
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
My mum and dad.
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
I would love to meet Dr David Galler, whose work is so great. But also he seems like a very calming presence and I think he would help soothe my nerves. So I would like to meet him right before my AWF session with Roxane Gay and Teju Cole, which I’m very nervous about. I guess I could also ask him to inspect this funny-looking mole on my arm.
*Conditions apply: No talking! Each person is to spend no more than $5 on their breakfast!
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| Catherine Chidgey (Fiona Pardington) |
What are you wearing to awards night?
Probably my Tanya Carlson black lace.
If you win your category what is the first thing you’ll spend your award winnings on?
The bit of our mortgage that covers the living room and my office, where I do most of my writing.
What lucky charm or ritual do you perform before things like awards?
I try to wear something meaningful. This time, in honour of the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize, I’ll accessorise with a 1920s silver mesh bag that has little silver acorns hanging from it.
Who are you bringing with you to the awards?
My husband Alan.
Which writer at the AWF would you most like to meet and why?
Susan Faludi, because she’s Susan Faludi.
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