Winners of The Six Pack Two 2007

The winners of The Six Pack Two 2007 (left to right): Charlotte Grimshaw, Jennifer Lane, Elizabeth Smither, Faith Oxenbridge, Tracey Slaughter and Dave Armstrong.

• The judging process
• The judges

The Six Pack is a key element in NZ Book Month's quest to put great new Kiwi writing into the hands of a new generation of readers. As well as being on sale in every bookshop, an extra 15,000 copies of the book are printed and given away – with the help of a grant from the Lion Foundation. Free copies are donated to every secondary school and public library, to Women's Refuge, the Salvation Army, prison libraries, Red Cross' Meals on Wheels, new Kiwis at citizenship ceremonies, and into the hands of every adult literacy student.

We’ve come a long way since the inaugural Six Pack. In 2007 there were a around two hundred entries and this year, 2008, almost 500! Each year we've managed to streamline the judging process, and this year it has run smoothly and efficiently. All manuscripts have remained anonymous as they've passed through the rigorous assessment process but only 10 entries can made it through to this stage, where you, New Zealand, have the chance to cast your vote.

Five of our winners will be chosen by our distinguished panel of judges, and the sixth by you, the readers of NZ, in the online voting poll. The winners will be announced at the launch of NZ Book Month 2008 on Sunday August 31 at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Each of the six winners will receive $5,000 and their writing published in The Six Pack Three, which will be available to buy in all bookshops for just $6. The book will also been gifted to every library and secondary school in the country, and will be available in various formats for the visually impaired as well.

Judging The Six Pack

Judging a competition like this is, as you can imagine, a long and involved process. After much consultation with various experts in their fields, including the NZ Society of Authors, we decided to run it like this:

We gathered a pool of initial assessors from the fields of publishing, bookselling and academia. Every manuscript was read by two assessors from two different fields – for example, by an independent book buyer and a commissioning editor from a publishing company, or a university lecturer and an editor. Each manuscript was graded by each reader. Eventually we got to a long list of thirty.

At that point, every manuscript on the long list was read by a panel of six senior publishing and bookselling executives, who managed to narrow the list down to just ten. We’d like to make it very clear that not a single manuscript had a name on it – all the way through this process the authors were anonymous.

Who will decide which five authors from the shortlist of ten will be in The Six Pack Three? One of the six is, of course, chosen by you, our readers, but we’d like to introduce you to our distinguished panel of celebrity judges, below.

The Six Pack Three Judges – our celebrities

Tamati Coffey
Proclaimed as one of the most exciting young personalities on New Zealand television, Tamati completed an honours degree in Political Studies at Auckland University before his break on iconic kid’s show What Now and proclaims a secret love of libraries.

Graham Beattie
Co-founder of Beattie & Forbes Bookshop in Napier, former Managing Director/Publisher of Penguin Books NZ Ltd., and Scholastic NZ Ltd. Former Books & Poetry Editor, Citymix Magazine. Now works within the publishing industry as a book reviewer, judge of book awards, and as a blogger with his popular daily book blog – beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/

Stacey Morrison
With 16 years television experience and nearly as many in radio, Stacey Morrison (nee Daniels) says she has been hugely influenced by her love of reading. She admires and supports NZ writers, relishing her role as a judge this year.

Dave Armstrong
Perhaps best known for his Television writing, Dave Armstrong also boasts an array of award winning playwright credits including King and Country, The Tutor and Nui Sila. He is also an accomplished author, with a chapter of his new novel The Speechwriter appearing in last year’s Six Pack Two. Dave was the 2007 Writer in Residence at Victoria University.

Carole Beau
Carole has previously been involved with the Litstener Women's Book Festival and for many years was on the Board of Booksellers' New Zealand. Moreover she is the undisputed grand high tea-mistress of the Ladies Litera-Tea, one of the Auckland highlights of NZ Book Month. Carole has owned the award-winning Women's Bookshop in Ponsonby Road for nearly twenty years. She is a passionate reader, runs lots of author events, and is on the Board of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.