Fiction
- The New Animals by Pip Adam (Victoria University Press)
- The Beat of the Pendulum by Catherine Chidgey (Victoria University Press)
- The Earth Cries Out by Bonnie Etherington (Penguin Random House)
- Salt Picnic by Patrick Evans (Victoria University Press)
- Sodden Downstream by Brannavan Gnanalingam (Lawrence & Gibson)
- Heloise by Mandy Hager (Penguin Random House)
- Iceland by Dominic Hoey (Steele Roberts)
- Baby by Annaleese Jochems (Victoria University Press)
- Tess by Kirsten McDougall (Victoria University Press)
- Five Strings by Apirana Taylor (Anahera Press)
Illustrated non-fiction
- New China Eyewitness: Roger Duff, Rewi Alley and the Art of Museum Diplomacy edited by James Beattie and Richard Bullen (Canterbury University Press)
- Strangers Arrive: Emigrés and the Arts in New Zealand, 1930-1980 by Leonard Bell (Auckland University Press)
- Good-bye Maoriland: The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War by Chris Bourke (Auckland University Press)
- Teenagers: The Rise of Youth Culture in New Zealand by Chris Brickell (Auckland University Press)
- Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds by Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins (Bridget Williams Books)
- Ten x Ten: Art at Te Papa edited by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)
- Undreamed of … 50 years of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship by Priscilla Pitts and Andrea Hotere (Otago University Press)
- Tōtara: A Natural and Cultural History by Philip Simpson (Auckland University Press)
- Gordon Walters: New Vision by Zara Stanhope (commissioning editor), Lucy Hammonds, Laurence Simmons, Julia Waite (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
- The Face of Nature: An Environmental History of the Otago Peninsula by Jonathan West (Otago University Press)
Poetry
- Flow: Whanganui River Poems by Airini Beautrais (Victoria University Press)
- Anchor Stone by Tony Beyer (Cold Hub Press)
- The Internet of Things by Kate Camp (Victoria University Press)
- The Ones Who Keep Quiet by David Howard (Otago University Press)
- Tightrope by Selina Tusitala Marsh (Auckland University Press)
- Fully Clothed and So Forgetful by Hannah Mettner (Victoria University Press)
- Night Horse by Elizabeth Smither (Auckland University Press)
- What is Left Behind by Tom Weston (Steele Roberts)
- Rāwāhi by Briar Wood (Anahera Press)
- The Yield by Sue Wootton (Otago University Press)
General non-fiction
- Dancing with the King: The Rise and Fall of the King Country, 1864-1885 by Michael Belgrave (Auckland University Press)
- Tāngata Ngāi Tahu / People of Ngai Tahu edited by Helen Brown and Takerei Norton (Te Rūnanga Ngāi Tahu and Bridget Williams Books)
- Fearless: The Extraordinary Untold Story of New Zealand’s Great War Airmen by Adam Claasen (Massey University Press)
- Phoney Wars: New Zealand Society in the Second World War by Stevan Eldred-Grigg and Hugh Eldred-Grigg (Otago University Press)
- The 9th Floor: Conversations with Five New Zealand Prime Ministers by Guyon Espiner and Tim Watkin (Bridget Williams Books)
- Cleansing the Colony: Transporting Convicts from New Zealand to Van Diemen’s Land by Kristyn Harman (Otago University Press)
- Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds by Anne Salmond (Auckland University Press)
- Drawn Out by Tom Scott (Allen & Unwin)
- Driving to Treblinka: A Long Search for a Lost Father by Diana Wichtel (Awa Press)
- A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington by Redmer Yska (Otago University Press)