| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
Canterbury University Press is hoping to make it two in a row at this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
Flight of the Huia: Ecology and conservation of New Zealand's frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals, written by Kerry-Jayne Wilson and published by CUP, has been named as a finalist in the environment category of the national book awards. Last year another CUP book, Deep New Zealand: Blue water, black abyss, by Peter Batson, won the environment category, as did Philip Simpson's Dancing Leaves: The story of New Zealand 's cabage tree, ti kouka in 2001.
Flight of the Huia presents a history of faunal change in New Zealand and reviews the ecology and conservation of our native animals.
CUP Publishing Manager Richard King said he was delighted both for the author and for the Press. “Having another finalist in the environment category indicates the strength of our natural history publishing list and proves that it is possible to combine academic research with popular appeal.”
Senior lecturer in Religious Studies Dr Mike Grimshaw is a finalist in the reference and anthology category. Dr Grimshaw co-edited Spirit Abroad: A Second Selection of New Zealand Spiritual Verse with Professor Paul Morris and Associate Professor Harry Ricketts, both of Victoria University. The anthology of more than 100 poems explores the continuing struggle to articulate the notion of New Zealand identity.
Canterbury University's current Ursula Bethell Writer-in-Residence, Charlotte Randall, has been short-listed in the fiction category for her novel What Happen Then, Mr Bones? Published by Penguin Books, the novel follows the fortunes, both good and bad, of the Montague family, and shows how deeply their lives, and deaths, are affected by achievements and misadventures in medical science.
Randall's earlier novel, The Curative, was joint runner-up in the Deutz Medal for fiction at the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
The winners of the 2005 awards will be announced on 25 July.
For further information please contact:
Maria Hand
Communications Officer
University of Canterbury
Tel: +64 3 364 2072
Fax: +64 3 364 2679
Mob: 027 224 5104
maria.hand@canterbury.ac.nz