Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Shortlisted Spotlight: Brannavan Gnanalingam
Brannavan Gnanalingam
We talk to Brannavan Gnanalingam, author of Sprigs, and one of four 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards finalists for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
What was the inspiration behind the book?
There were a variety of factors behind the story, but I tend to want to write about something when I want to figure things out. Writing is part of my process to understand the world and I think that sense of trying to understand, keeps the momentum going when the writing process feels like "work". But I started thinking about this book in 2016, and I started writing it in 2017 after Sodden Downstream, so it's been with me for a while.
What was the most challenging thing about telling this story?
It was mostly difficult, unhelpfully! Given the subject matter – a form of toxic masculinity, power, privilege, and sexual violence - this was an extremely difficult book in terms of planning and thinking. I tend to carry my stories around in my head, so it felt heavy to carry around. There were two parts I found particularly challenging – one, writing from Priya's point of view, and knowing that me, an adult man, was attempting to write in a fifteen-year-old girl's voice. I'm conscious that I could easily get it wrong and I have no choice but to accept whatever criticism I receive on that count. Second, mining what was "learned" male behaviour was a confronting thing to do, and I was constantly having to think, 'What would I have done as a teenager?' 'How would I have reacted?' 'How would I have colluded?' etc. Finally, of course, I was writing about a discursive framework (sexual violence) in which I could easily have made so many mistakes (and may well have) – and I have no choice, again, but to accept criticism that may come my way.
What did you learn in the course of writing this book - and was there anything that really surprised you?
One thing I find surprising is that Sprigs is (deliberately) a weird book structurally, yet it seemed to hold together for me while writing, and now, it seems to hold together for readers. There's a 75 page rugby scene that's pretty much a McGuffin, there are no chapters, there are over a hundred speaking characters, two third acts, and it ends with a long monologue. You can't control how an audience will react, but it's nice seeing people aren't necessarily put off by an unconventional structure. I think that's been something really cool about all of the finalists, they are all unusual books formally. Yet people seem to have responded to them in spite (or because?) of that.
What would be the most important thing about winning the award for you? What would it mean to you?
To be honest, the thing that's the most nice about being longlisted, and then a finalist, is most of all, I get to hang out on a list with some really cool writers with books I really admire. It's quite gratifying to know you've written a book that the judges reckon is comparable to those books. Secondly, it's really great knowing that judges of that calibre think your book is good too. I've never been motivated by the idea of winning prizes as I write for myself and to feel part of a community. I think if I didn't win, that doesn't mean (a) the judges suddenly hate the book and (b) my book wasn't worth the effort. It just means the judges happened to like another book more, and that's all good with me.
What do you see as the significance of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for writers/publishers in New Zealand?
I know it's important first-hand, after seeing how much Sodden Downstream was languishing in sales i.e. it had sold a few dozen in its first few months, before it got longlisted and then shortlisted. That book would have been a hard sell, being about a refugee cleaner, and it proved to be the case until it got 'anointed' by the awards. So I know how important awards can be in giving attention to books that may otherwise not get much attention. However, there are always questions that need to be asked (and I think it's healthy) about what's being judged, who's judging, how much sway do awards have over a literary landscape, and whether our publishing industry (and awards) are truly inclusive and diverse (both formally and demographically).
The 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted works are:
Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
Bug Week by Airini Beautrais (Victoria University Press)
Nothing to See by Pip Adam (Victoria University Press)
Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press)
Sprigs by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson)
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry
Funkhaus by Hinemoana Baker (Victoria University Press)
Magnolia by Nina Mingya Powles (Seraph Press)
National Anthem by Mohamed Hassan (Dead Bird Books)
The Savage Coloniser Book by Tusiata Avia (Victoria University Press)
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
An Exquisite Legacy: The Life and Work of New Zealand Naturalist G.V. Hudson by George Gibbs (Potton & Burton)
Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists by Leonard Bell (Auckland University Press)
Nature — Stilled by Jane Ussher (Te Papa Press)
Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine by Monique Fiso (Godwit, Penguin Random House)
General Non-Fiction Award
Specimen: Personal Essays by Madison Hamill (Victoria University Press)
Te Hāhi Mihinare |The Māori Anglican Church by Hirini Kaa (Bridget Williams Books)
The Dark is Light Enough: Ralph Hotere a Biographical Portrait by Vincent O’Sullivan (Penguin, Penguin Random House)
This Pākehā Life: An Unsettled Memoir by Alison Jones (Bridget Williams Books)
MEDIA
For interview opportunities, author images and further information please contact: Penny Hartill, director, hPR 021 721 424, penny@hartillpr.co.nz #theockhams
*Image(s) via New Zealand Book Awards Trust
THE OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS
Important Dates
The winners of the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, including the four MitoQ Best First Book award winners, will be announced at a ceremony on 12 May as a public event during the 2021 Auckland Writers Festival.
Judges
The Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, which offers $57,000 to the winner in 2021, will be judged by writer and reviewer Kiran Dass; books editor and award-winning feature writer Paul Little; and writer Claire Finlayson, former Programme Director of the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival. They will be joined by an international judge, whose identity will be revealed in March 2021, to decide the ultimate winner from their shortlist of four.
Finalists and the ultimate winner in the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry will be selected by writer, poet, academic and 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards finalist Briar Wood (Te Hikutu ki Hokianga, Ngāpuhi Nui); teacher and award-winning poet and novelist Anne Kennedy; and professor of English at the University of Otago Jacob Edmond.
The Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction will be judged by Dale Cousens (Ngāruahine) of the National Library of New Zealand; bookseller and former publisher Brian Phillips; and writer, multi-award-winning graphic designer and magazine art director Jenny Nicholls.
The General Non-Fiction Award will be judged by editor and associate professor of English at the University of Waikato Sarah Shieff; filmmaker and lecturer in Māori history at Victoria University Wellington Arini Loader (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Whakaue); and Dunedin bookseller Michael Yeomans.
About the Awards
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders. First established in 1968 as the Wattie Book Awards (later the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards), they have also been known as the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Awards are given for Fiction (the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction), Poetry (the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry) Illustrated Non-Fiction (the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction) and General Non-Fiction. There are also four awards for first-time authors (The MitoQ Best First Book awards) and, at the judges’ discretion, Te Mūrau o te Tuhi, a Māori Language Award. The awards are governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust (a registered charity). Current members of the Trust are Nicola Legat, Karen Ferns, Paula Morris, Jenna Todd, Anne Morgan, Melanee Winder, Melinda Szymanik and Richard Pamatatau. The Trust also governs the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day.
Award Supporters
The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are supported by Ockham Residential, Creative New Zealand, Jann Medlicott and the Acorn Foundation, Mary and Peter Biggs CNZM, MitoQ, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand and the Auckland Writers Festival.
Ockham Residential is Auckland’s most ardent developer. Through creating elegant and enduring buildings that are well-loved by those who make them home, Ockham hopes to enhance Auckland – and to contribute to its many communities. Founded in 2009 by Mark Todd and Benjamin Preston, Ockham supports a number of organisations in arts, science and education. These include the Ockham Collective, their creative and educational charity, the acclaimed BWB Texts series, the People’s Choice Award in New Zealand Geographic’s Photographer of the Year Award, and Ponsonby’s Objectspace gallery. But their principal sponsorship of the New Zealand Book Awards, a relationship now in its seventh year, is perhaps their most visible contribution. Says Mark Todd: “Our communities would be drab, grey and much poorer places without art, without words, without science – without critical thought. That’s why our partnership with the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards means the world to us.”
Creative New Zealand has been a sustaining partner of New Zealand’s book awards for decades. The national arts development agency of the New Zealand government encourages, promotes and supports the arts in New Zealand for the benefit of all New Zealanders through funding, capability building, an international programme, and advocacy. Creative New Zealand provides a wide range of support to New Zealand literature, including funding for writers and publishers, residencies, literary festivals and awards, and supports organisations which work to increase the readership and sales of New Zealand literature at home and internationally.
The Acorn Foundation is a community foundation based in the Western Bay of Plenty, which encourages people to leave a gift in their wills and/or their lifetimes to support their local community forever. Donations are pooled and invested, and the investment income is used to make donations to local charities, in accordance with the donors’ wishes. The capital remains intact. Since it was established in 2003, Acorn has distributed over $$8.6 million. Donors may choose which organisations are to benefit each year, or they may decide to leave it to the trustees’ discretion. Community foundations are the fastest growing form of philanthropy worldwide, and there are now 17 throughout New Zealand, with more in the early stages. The Prize for Fiction has been provided through the generosity of one of the Foundation’s donors Jann Medlicott, and will be awarded to the top fiction work each year, in perpetuity. Its base figure of $50,000 in 2016 is adjusted each year, to reflect wage inflation.
Mary and Peter Biggs CNZM are long-time arts advocates and patrons – particularly of literature, theatre and music. They have funded the Biggs Family Prize in Poetry at Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters since 2006, along with the Alex Scobie Research Prize in Classical Studies, Latin and Greek. They have been consistent supporters of the International Festival of the Arts, the Auckland Writers Festival, Wellington’s Circa Theatre, the New Zealand Arts Foundation, Featherston Booktown, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (formerly the New Zealand Book Council), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Featherston Sculpture Trust and the Kokomai Arts Festival in the Wairarapa. Peter was Chair of Creative New Zealand from 1999 to 2006. He led the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce in 2010 and the New Zealand Professional Orchestra Sector Review in 2012. Peter was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for arts governance and philanthropy in 2013.
Founded in 1921, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand is the membership association for bookshops in New Zealand. This national not-for-profit trade organisation works to help independently owned and chain bookstores to grow and succeed. Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand provides education, information, business products, and services; creates relevant programmes; and engages in public policy and industry advocacy. The association is governed by a volunteer board of booksellers.
MitoQ is one of New Zealand’s newest global success stories. Founded on breakthrough cellular research undertaken at the University of Otago, MitoQ® is the only product to directly target the mitochondria, which are responsible for producing the body’s energy. Over 400 reviews and studies have to date been published on the positive benefits of MitoQ® to health and athletic performance. MitoQ’s success has placed the company in the exciting position of being able to put back into its communities through sponsorship, particularly in the arts, which it sees as essential to the wellbeing of society. The company is delighted to support the enrichment of New Zealand literature through the MitoQ Best First Book awards.
The Auckland Writers Festival | Waituhi o Tāmaki is the largest literary event in New Zealand and the largest presenter of Aotearoa literature in the world. Established in 1999, this annual festival hosts more than 200 writers for six days of discussion, conversation, reading, debate, performance, schools, family and free events ranging across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music, theatre, culture, art and more. Audience attendance in 2019 exceeded 83,000. 11-16 May 2021.
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