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Story: Awards and prizes

Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement, 2003–2022

Year Fiction Poetry Non-fiction
2003 Janet Frame Hone Tuwhare Michael King
2004 Maurice Gee Kevin Ireland Anne Salmond
2005 Margaret Mahy Alistair Te Ariki Campbell Philip Temple
2006 Patricia Grace Vincent O'Sullivan Judith Binney
2007 Fiona Farrell Bill Manhire Dick Scott
2008 Lloyd Jones Elizabeth Smither W. H. (Bill) Oliver
2009 C. K. Stead Brian Turner Ranginui Walker
2010 Joy Cowley Cilla McQueen James McNeish
2011 Fiona Kidman Peter Bland James Belich
2012 Albert Wendt Sam Hunt Gregory O'Brien
2013 Owen Marshall Michele Leggott Martin Edmond
2014 Jack Lasenby Ian Wedde Jock Phillips
2015 Roger Hall Bernadette Hall Joan Metge
2016 Marilyn Duckworth David Eggleton Atholl Anderson
2017 Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler Paula Green Peter Simpson
2018 Renée Michael Harlow Wystan Curnow
2019 Elizabeth Knox Fleur Adcock Gavin Bishop
2020 Tessa Duder Jenny Bornholdt Timoti Kāretu
2021 David Hill Anne Kennedy Claudia Orange
2022 Stephanie Johnson James Norcliffe Vincent O’Malley

The Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement were inaugurated by Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2003. This is the full list of winners to 2022 – including Te Ara's former general editor, Jock Phillips, who won the award for non-fiction in 2014.

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Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Mark Derby, Awards and prizes – Literary awards, 1950s onwards, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/44683/prime-ministers-awards-for-literary-achievement-2003-2022 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Mark Derby, published 26 March 2014, updated 1 April 2020.