Twenty-three questions to test your level of lit over the long weekend.<\/p>\n
Sometimes a person\u2019s love language includes forcing friends and family to take part in a lit quiz over a cosy Matariki weekend. The Spinoff Books midwinter quiz is here to serve! This quiz mixes general knowledge with literary insights and a touch of bookish news, too. All of the answers, pretty much, can be found in the pages of The Spinoff books section so even if your reading has been woefully inadequate so far this year then you can at least study the books pages in advance to sleuth some points.<\/p>\n
At the bottom of the list of questions you\u2019ll find where the answers can be revealed; and where your score places you on the lit-o-metre.<\/p>\n
1. Name the short story collection that won this year\u2019s Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. (Bonus point if you can also name the author.)<\/p>\n
2. Which writer, who passed away in 2025, does Arena Williams consider the greatest New Zealand writer of all time?\u00a0<\/p>\n
3. What is Alice Liddell\u2019s occupation in the novel The Black Monk by Charlotte Grimshaw?<\/p>\n
4. In which picture book by Margaret Mahy does Michelle Langstone\u2019s favourite literary mother appear?\u00a0<\/p>\n
5. What is the one memoir that The Spinoff\u2019s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith has reviewed (on The Spinoff) this year?<\/p>\n
6. Which novel was considered the \u201cdark horse\u201d of this year\u2019s shortlist for the Jann Medlicott Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026?<\/p>\n
7. Name one of the two new indie bookshops opening in Wellington this winter? (Bonus point if you can name them both.)<\/p>\n
8. What is the title of Kate Camp\u2019s book version of her 1986 diary?<\/p>\n
9. What is the title of Bill Manhire\u2019s latest poetry collection? (Bonus point if you can name one of the authors who published a collection of the same name in 1798.)<\/p>\n
10. Which Marian Keyes novel did Madeleine Chapman place in the number one spot in her ranking of all Marian Keyes novels?<\/p>\n
11. Which acclaimed Aotearoa poet has watched the TV show Schitt\u2019s Creek more than 40 times?<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t disappoint Moira Rose!<\/p>\n
12. On what date did Wellington\u2019s Te Matapihi library officially re-open?<\/p>\n
13. \u201cMy name is Roimata Kararaina and I\u2019m married to Hemi Tamihana.\u201d This is the opening sentence of chapter one of which classic Aotearoa novel? (You must also name the author to get the full point.)<\/p>\n
14. What is the title of the Asako Yuzuki novel published in English after her hit novel, Butter?<\/p>\n
15. Name the writer and associated novel that provides a gothic scaffold for Noelle McCarthy\u2019s memoir, Stakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
16. What was the name of Elizabeth Knox\u2019s mother\u2019s cat? (Named in her brilliant memoir, Night, Ma)<\/p>\n
What was Elizabeth Knox\u2019s Mum\u2019s cat called? (Photo: Ebony Lamb).<\/p>\n
17. Which New Zealand writer is up for an Ursula K. LeGuin prize for fiction this year? (Bonus if you can also name the novel)<\/p>\n
18. \u201c\u2018I can\u2019t do it,\u2019 is what she says. \u2018I simply can\u2019t admit students without prior musical training. My teaching methods, Mrs Henderson, are rather more specific than I think you understand.’\u201d This is the first sentence from the first novel by which acclaimed Aotearoa writer?\u00a0<\/p>\n
19. Which Aotearoa non-fiction book has Toby Manhire named the book of the year?<\/p>\n
20. Name the author of the novel that made Auckland\u2019s mayor Wayne Brown laugh.<\/p>\n
21. Which classic novel did Emerald Fennell ruin with her recent film adaptation? (Bonus point if you can name the author\u2019s pen name under which she published the classic novel)<\/p>\n
22. Who is the author of the poem called \u201cI used to be head girl of my high school and now I am a massive cunt\u201d?<\/p>\n
23. What recently betrothed singer and reader just opened a library in Porto? (Bonus point if you can give the name of the library and\/or the kind of book it offers to readers)<\/p>\n
Reveal the answers<\/p>\n
1. All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks
2. Maurice Gee
3. Children\u2019s writer
4. The Witch and the Cherry Tree
5. Barry Soper\u2019s One Last Question, Prime Minister
6. How to Paint a Nude by Sam Mahon
7. XO Book Co, and Aurelia Books
8. Leather & Chains
9. Lyrical Ballads; Williams Wordsworth and \/or Samuel Taylor Coleridge
10. The Mystery of Mercy Close
11. Tusiata Avia
12. March 14, 2026
13. Potiki by Patricia Grace
14. Hooked
15. Bram Stoker, Dracula
16. Cheeky
17. Pip Adam; Audition
18. Eleanor Catton; it\u2019s from The Rehearsal
19. The Valley by Asher Emanuel
20. Kate Atkinson
21. Wuthering Heights; Emily Bront\u00eb used the pen name Ellis Bell
22. Freya Daly Sadgrove
23. Dua Lipa; it\u2019s called Manifesto Library and is specifically for banned books or books considered dangerous or controversial to the powers that be<\/p>\n
Your score:<\/p>\n
0\u20135: get thee to a reading retreat<\/p>\n
6\u201310: cancel those streaming subs and warm up that library card, just a little bit of lit goes a long way<\/p>\n
11 \u2013 15: out of the danger zone, just<\/p>\n
16 \u2013 20: head girl territory, baby!<\/p>\n
21 \u2013 29 (there are six bonus points to be won): let the people bow down because you are a lit legend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-three questions to test your level of lit over the long weekend. Sometimes a person\u2019s love language includes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[489,156,111,257064,139,69,12890,2507],"class_list":["post-517704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-books","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quiz","tag-the-spinoff-books-confessional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517704","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=517704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}