The prestigious $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards has announced its four finalists:

• Laurence Fearnley ("At the Grand Glacier Hotel") - previous winner of the fiction prize in 2011 for "The Hut Builder"
• Kirsty Gunn ("Pretty Ugly") - whose novel "The Big Music" was judged Book of the Year in 2013
• Damien Wilkins ("Delirious") - winner of the fiction award for "The Miserables" in 1994 and runner-up in 2001 and 2007
• Tina Makereti ("The Mires") - winner of the 2016 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize

Thom Conroy, convenor of judges for the prize, highlighted that this year's fiction shortlist features "dazzling works that address our moment's most urgent concerns: climate change, race relations, mobility, sexism, immigration and ageing." He noted that each finalist evoked "a visceral and often lyrical sense of place," whether set in the Scottish Highlands, Fox Glacier, or the Kāpiti Coast.

The final judging panel will include an international judge, Georgina Godwin, described as an "esteemed literary festival chair, books editor, broadcaster and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature."

The Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction stands out as the most substantial financial award among the Ockham categories, with the winner receiving $65,000 compared to the $12,000 awarded to winners in the other three main categories.

The winner will be announced at a public ceremony on May 14, 2025, during the Auckland Writers Festival, alongside the winners of the other categories and the Mātātuhi Foundation Best First Book Awards.