Opportunity Knocks for Grimshaw at Montana Book Awards

Opportunity Knocks by Charlotte Grimshaw has taken out New Zealand's most coveted book award, the gold award at the Montana Book Awards.

The book is a series of short New Zealand stories, all written in the first person, that delve into a diverse range of lives which are interlinked. The series also captures the unique New Zealand voice.

Grimshaw, the daughter of literary great CK Stead, was overseas for Monday night's award ceremony at the Wellington Town Hall. Her publisher Harriet Allan collected the award on her behalf.

She said, via her publisher, that she was pleased Opportunity Knocks had done well.

This year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards judges - Lynn Freeman, David Elworthy and Tim Corbaliss - said Opportunity was a clear winner for the breadth and ambition of its design, the layers of its meaning and the multiplicity of reading experiences it affords.

"By turns touching, funny, dark, and redemptive, this is a book for reading through then re-reading in a different order, for following clues, for setting aside and thinking about, and for getting lost in," the judges said.

The complete list of 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards winners:

Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry winner and Fiction category winner: 
Opportunity by Charlotte Grimshaw.
Fiction runner-up: Edwin & Matilda by Laurence Fearnley.
Poetry winner: Cold Snack by Janet Charman.

Montana Medal for Non-Fiction winner and Environment category winner:  
Wetlands of New Zealand - A bitter-sweet story by Janet Hunt.

Biography winner:
The Life and Times of James Walter Chapman-Taylor by Judy Siers.

History winner:
Te Tau Ihu O Te Waka Volume II: Te Ara Hou - The New Society by Hilary and John Mitchell.

Reference and Anthology winner:
A Nest of Singing Birds - 100 years of the New Zealand School Journal by Gregory O'Brien.

Lifestyle & Contemporary Culture winner:
Mau Moko - The World of Maori Tattoo by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku with Linda Waimarie Nikora, Mohi Rua and Rolinda Karapu.

Illustrative winner:
Bill Hammond - Jingle Jangle Morning by Jennifer Hay, with Ron Brownson, Chris Knox and Laurence Aberhart, designed by Aaron Beehre.

Maori Language Prize announced at Montana New Zealand Book Awards:
A short story collection written in Te Reo Mâori made history this year by winning the inaugural Mâori Language Prize at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Editors Piripi Walker and Huriana Raven were presented with the $5,000 prize for their book Te Tu a Te Toka: He Ieretanga no nga Tai e Wha.