NZ author wins Australia’s biggest literary prize

New Zealand author wins Australia’s biggest literary prize

Penguin New Zealand author Lloyd Jones has won the $40,000 Tasmania Pacific fiction Prize for his novel The Book of Fame.

The prize, announced at an awards ceremony in Hobart yesterday evening is open to residents of Australia, New Zealand or Melanesia and is the richest literary award in the Pacific. The Book of Fame also won New Zealand’s most prestigious literary award in 2001, the Deutz Montana Medal for Fiction.

“I’m delighted naturally. You’re never sure whether you’ll win and there’s always a sense of disbelief when they read out your name,” says Lloyd Jones.

“It’s an important award because it presents fantastic opportunities to cross-pollinate our literature with that of our neighbouring countries” he says.

“This is further confirmation that The Book of Fame is one of the finest novels produced in New Zealand in recent years,” says Penguin Books NZ Publishing Director Geoff Walker.

Film rights to The Book of Fame have just been sold and the book’s stage production begins soon in Wellington.

The Book of Fame is available from booksellers throughout New Zealand.

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