{"id":426709,"date":"2026-05-14T04:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426709\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:01:09","slug":"stunned-and-shocked-ingrid-horrocks-wins-top-prize-at-new-zealands-ockham-awards-for-her-fiction-debut-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426709\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Stunned and shocked\u2019: Ingrid Horrocks wins top prize at New Zealand\u2019s Ockham awards for her fiction debut | New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-time fiction writer Ingrid Horrocks has won New Zealand\u2019s richest literary prize for her debut short story collection, All Her Lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wellington-based poet, essayist and memoirist won the prestigious NZ$65,000 (A$53,000, \u00a328,500) Jann Medlicott Acorn prize for fiction at the 2026 Ockham New Zealand<\/a> book awards on Wednesday night. The book follows nine women across nine different life stages and generations, as they navigate politics, gender and motherhood.<\/p>\n

Horrocks\u2019 win marks only the fifth time a short story collection has won the top prize since the awards began 58 years ago.<\/p>\n

Horrocks was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn prize alongside debut novelist and food writer Laura Vincent, artist and author Sam Mahon, and award-winning writer Catherine Chidgey, the only author to have previously won the top prize twice.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Guardian, Horrocks said she was \u201cstunned and shocked\u201d when her name was called out, and that her win had encouraged to write more fiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I hope it means more people will read my book,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After years of writing about women\u2019s lives as nonfiction, fiction had allowed her to get inside and closer to her characters, she said. \u201cThat was really exciting for me as a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horrocks\u2019 stories move through rural New Zealand at the end of the first world war to Berlin\u2019s Weiberfastnacht, to the protests against the Springbok tour in 1981, deftly traversing continents, centuries and political concerns \u2013 all the while with women at the centre, including an appearance from the pioneering feminist writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft.<\/p>\n

Fiction judge Craig Cliff told the Guardian that Horrocks\u2019 collection was \u201ccrisp, clear and unencumbered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way she deals with aspects of gender and sexuality, and her ability to tackle different perspectives of womanhood is so assured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

International guest judge Leslie Hurtig said she read All Her Lives in one sitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the range of women\u2019s experiences represented; as child, lover, mother, artist, the women in these stories transcended timelines and socioeconomic backgrounds to reveal storylines that reached far beyond national boundaries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Short stories and other firsts were celebrated in several categories on Wednesday night. In the M\u0101t\u0101tuhi Foundation\u2019s categories for first books, former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern won the EH McCormick prize for general nonfiction for her memoir A Different Kind of Power<\/a>, while the Hubert Church prize for best first book went to Auckland author John Prins for his debut short story collection, Pastoral Care.<\/a><\/p>\n

Samoa-born poet Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa\u2018itea, Fale\u0101lupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu) won the Mary and Peter Biggs award for poetry with her debut, Black Sugarcane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Novelist Tina Makereti (Te \u0100tiawa, Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa, Ng\u0101ti Rangatahi-Matakore, P\u0101keh\u0101) won the general nonfiction award for This Compulsion in Us<\/a>, a collection of autobiographical essays and her first nonfiction book, while historian Elizabeth Cox won the illustrated nonfiction award for Mr Ward\u2019s Map: Victorian Wellington Street by Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First-time fiction writer Ingrid Horrocks has won New Zealand\u2019s richest literary prize for her debut short story collection,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-426709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}