Page 2 - Bug Week News Today

Friday, 14 May 2021, 12:56 pm It wasn’t your ordinary Wednesday, at least not for UCOL lecturer Airini Beautrais. At the New Zealand Ockham Book Awards it was announced that Beautrais has won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction – the country’s most prestigious literary fiction award, coming with a $57,000 prize. Beautrais won for her collection of short stories ‘ Bug Week’, which judges described as “a tightly-wound and remarkably assured collection”. The win has been viewe...

The thing about short stories is that there is nowhere to hide. A short story has to work hard, saying a lot by saying very little. Whether she is writing about or from the perspective of a little girl, a spurned lover, an ageing madam, or, astonishingly, a toroa (albatross), Beautrais nails an authentic voice each time. With a spiky confidence and knowing, mordant humour, Beautrais writes with a crushing and witty eye on humanity at its most troubled and askew. We all agreed it’s a tightly w...

Composite: Stuff Airini Beautrais’ Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the Acorn Prize in over a decade, and the second ever. First-time nominee Airini Beautrais​ was awarded the country’s premier fiction prize at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards on Wednesday night. The Whanganui-based author beat out two previous winners and a previous nominee to win the Jann Medlicott​ Acorn Prize for Fiction, becoming the first winner for a collection of short stories in over ...

Whanganui author Airini Beautrais wins major prize at Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 12 May, 2021 08:45 AM 3 minutes to read Beautrais Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the major prize in over a decade and only the second in the awards 53-year history. Photo / Lewis Gardner Beautrais Bug Week is the first short story collection to win the major prize in over a decade and only the second in the awards 53-year history. Photo / Lewis Gardner Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has ...

Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won the premier award at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her book Bug Week - its her first book of fiction and its also the first time the category has been won by a collection of short stories in more than a decade. Airini Beautrais. Photo: Tracy Grant Beautrais won the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction with a book that convenor of judges Kiran Dass described as a knockout from start to finish. "Casting a devastating and witty ey...

In a surprise win, Airini Beautrais took home the largest-ever purse.

Author, who usually writes poetry, beat two previous winners to the prestigious NZ$57,000 book award

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News from Ockham Book Awards Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her book Bug Week – the first person to take out the category for a collection of short stories in more than a decade. Beautrais is well-known as a poet, but this is her first book of fiction, published by Victoria University Press. She received the prize ahead of acclaimed novelists Catherine Chidgey and Pip Adam, both previ...

‘Knockout’ short story collection wins country’s richest writing prize Whanganui writer Airini Beautrais has won the $57,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her book Bug Week – the first person ...