Nailing Down the Ngaios

There appears to be some confusion regarding when an announcement will be made about the winners of New Zealand’s 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards for crime, mystery, and thriller writing. Because it was reported that said announcement would come during an event held “in association with WORD Christchurch,” the annual literary festival—which took place in August—it was presumed that the Ngaio Marsh recipients would be made known then. That didn’t happen.



So when can we expect to hear who won? I asked awards founder Craig Sisterson this morning to set the record straight. His reply:

The Ngaios have been presented in association with [WORD Christchurch, formerly the Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival] since 2010—often at the ‘festival’ proper on those years [before 2021, when the festivities were held biennially], then a standalone event in association with the wider body on the ‘off’ years. Things got really messed up with COVID, and coupled with the fact that often our standalone events seemed to go better anyway (some of our events started to get a little lost in the bigger festival programme), we’re kinda doing a standalone event even in a festival year, this year. Clear as mud? as my dad used to say.

But its still in association with WORD Christchurch (the organisation/body, not its semi-annual festival).

Sisterson explains that the timing of this year’s Ngaio Marsh Awards event is still somewhat up in the air, but that it “is likely to be mid-November.” We’ll bring you the results whenever we get them.

The finalists for the 2023 Ngaios are listed here.