Auckland University Press books are the epitome of quality scholarly publishing and have long been recognised at national book awards.

2023

• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry – Always Italicise: How to write while colonised
• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction – Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand
• 2023 PANZ Book Design Awards – Upstart Press Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book – A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru: A Collection of Narratives about Te Tai Tokerau Tūpuna and Ka Ngangana Tonu a Hineāmaru: He Kōrero Tuku Iho nō Te Tai Tokerau
• BAC Wadsworth Prize for Business History 2023 – Selling Britishness: Commodity Culture, the Dominions, and Empire

2022

• The Laurel Prize 2022 – Best International First Collection – Meat Lovers
• 2022 PANZ Book Design Awards – Upstart Press Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book – A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand

2021

• 2021 AAANZ Art Writing and Publishing Awards – Best Book Prize – Billy Apple®: Life/Work
• 2021 PANZ Book Design Awards – Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand People's Choice Award – Joint Winner – Billy Apple®: Life/Work and Karl Maughan
• 2021 PANZ Book Design Awards – PANZ Award for Best Typography – Billy Apple®: Life/Work

 2020

• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – Poetry Award – How to Live, Helen Rickerby
• Winner – 2020 Storylines Notable Book Award – Storylines Notable Non-fiction (age range from 3 years to 18 years) – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
• New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Winner – 2020 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
• New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Winner – 2020 Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
  
• 2020 PANZ Book Design Awards – Gerard Reid Award for Best Book – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
• 2020 PANZ Book Design Awards – Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
• 2020 PANZ Book Design Awards – Edify Award for Best Educational Book or Series: Secondary/Tertiary – Exploring Society: Sociology for New Zealand Students, 4th Edition
• 2020 PANZ Book Design Awards – Publishers Association of New Zealand People’s Choice Award – Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
• 2020 Whitley Awards – Commended – Best Illustrated Field Guide – Dragonflies & Damselflies of New Zealand
• 2020 Society of Authors’ Heritage Book Awards – Winner te reo Maori category – Haare Williams: Words of a Kaumātua
   

2019

• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – Te Mūrau o te Tuhi - the Māori Language Award – He Kupu Tuku Iho: Ko te Reo Māori te Tatau ki te Ao, Tīmoti Kāretu and Wharehuia Milroy
• Whitley Awards 2019 – Best Field Guide, Reptiles and Amphibians of New Zealand: A Field Guide Dylan van Winkel, Marleen Baling & Rod Hitchmough
• Winner – 2019 Ashton Wylie Mind Body Spirit Book Awards – Book Category – The Infinite Game, Niki Harré 

 

2018

• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – Poetry Award – Night Horse, Elizabeth Smither
• Ernest Scott prize – Dancing with the King: The Rise and Fall of the King Country, 1864–1885, Michael Belgrave
• IASPM-ANZ Rebecca Coyle Prize – Good-bye Maoriland: The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War, Chris Bourke
• PANZ Book Design Awards – Upstart Press Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book – Allen Curnow Biography and Poems Slipcase edition, designed by Katrina Duncan (interior), Sarah Maxey (cover)

 

2017

• Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – The Judith Binney Best First Book Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction – A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830–1930, Ngarino Ellis and photography by Natalie Robertson
• Ngā Kupu Ora Awards: Celebrating Māori Books and Journalism – Art Category – A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830–1930, Ngarino Ellis and photography by Natalie Robertson
• Museums Australia Multimedia & Publication Design Awards – Exhibition Catalogue (Major) – Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand: The Māori Portraits, edited by Ngahiraka Mason and Zara Stanhope

2016

• London Book Fair International Excellence Awards – Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, Chris Tse
• PANZ Book Design Awards – Edify Award for Best Educational Book – See What I Can See: New Zealand Photography for the Young and Curious, Gregory O'Brien and designed by Katrina Duncan (interior), Sarah Maxey (cover)

 

2015

• W.H. Oliver Award for the best book published on New Zealand History – Entanglements of Empire, Tony Ballanyne
• J.M. Sherrard Award – Making Sheep Country: Mt Peel Station and the Transformation of the Tussock Lands, Robert Peden
• PANZ Book Design Awards – Gerard Reid Award for best Book – Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral, Andrew Barrie, with photographs by Bridgit Anderson and Stephen Goodenough and designed by Jason Chau Alt Group
• PANZ Book Design Awards – best illustrated book – Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral, Andrew Barrie, with photographs by Bridgit Anderson and Stephen Goodenough and designed by Jason Chau Alt Group
• PANZ Book Design Awards – best typography – Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral, Andrew Barrie, with photographs by Bridgit Anderson and Stephen Goodenough and designed by Jason Chau Alt Group

2014

• Ernest Scott prize – Matters of the Heart, Angela Wanhalla
• ARANZ Ian Wards prize – Home in the Howling Wilderness: Settlers and the Environment in Southern New Zealand, Peter Holland
• Designers' Institute of New Zealand Best Awards – Gold Award – Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral, Andrew Barrie, with photographs by Bridgit Anderson and Stephen Goodenough and designed by Alt Group
• iF Design Award – Shigeru Ban: Cardboard Cathedral, Andrew Barrie, with photographs by Bridgit Anderson & Stephen Goodenough

2013

• Most Beautiful Books Australia & New Zealand Award – The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature, edited by Jane Stafford & Mark Williams
• PANZ Book Design Award – Best Cover – The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature, edited by Jane Stafford & Mark Williams
• PANZ Book Design Award – Best Non-Illustrated Book – The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature, edited by Jane Stafford & Mark Williams
• New Zealand Post Book Awards – Poetry – The Darling North, Anne Kennedy
• New Zealand Post Book Awards – People's Choice – Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand, Jarrod Gilbert
  
  

2012

• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards – Honour Award – Digging up the Past: Archaeology for the Young and Curious, David Veart
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Briefcase, John Adams
• New Zealand Post Book Awards – Poetry – Shift, Rhian Gallagher
• Designers' Institute of New Zealand Best Awards – Bronze Award – Athfield Architects, Julia Gatley
• ARANZ Ian Wards Prize – Making Sheep Country: Mt Peel Station and the Transformation of the Tussock Lands, Robert Peden

2011

• New Zealand Post Book Awards – Book of the Year – Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music, 1918-1964, Chris Bourke
• New Zealand Post Book Awards – People's Choice Award – Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music, 1918-1964, Chris Bourke
• New Zealand Post Book Awards – General Non-Fiction – Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music, 1918-1964, Chris Bourke
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Dear Sweet Harry, Lynn Jenner
• New Zealand Society of Authors – E. H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non-Fiction – Whaikōrero: The World of Māori Oratory, Poia Rewi
• PANZ Book Design Awards – Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book – Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music, 1918-1964, Chris Bourke and designed by Katrina Duncan (internal) and Spencer Levine (cover)

2010

• PANZ Book Design Awards – Hachette NZ Award for Best Non-illustrated Book – Mirabile Dictu, Michele Leggott and designed by Katrina Duncan (internal) and Keely O'Shannessy (cover)
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Fast Talking PI, Selina Tusitala Marsh
• Pride in Print Awards, Gold: Book Category – Aloe, Diana Bridge

2009

• Montana New Zealand Book Award – Reference and Anthology – Collected Poems, 1951–2006, C. K. Stead
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Everything Talks, Sam Sampson
• Ngā Kupu Ora Book Awards – Te Reo Māori category – Tāhuhu Kōrero: The Sayings of Taitokerau, Merata Kawharu, with photographs by Krzysztof Pfeiffer
• New Zealand Post Book Award for Children and Young Adults – Non-fiction Prize – Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious, Gregory O’Brien
• ARANZ Ian Wards Prize – Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland, 1800-1945, Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn

2008

• Montana New Zealand Book Award for Poetry – Cold Snack, Janet Charman
• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Incognito, Jessica Le Bas

2007

• Spectrum Design Awards – Best Non-Illustrated Book – Brief Lives, Chris Price and designed by Katrina Duncan (internal) and Sarah Maxey (cover)

2005

• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Clung, Sonja Yelich
• Montana New Zealand Book Award – Biography – Chronicle of the Unsung, Martin Edmond
• New Zealand Post Book Award for Children and Young Adults, Non-fiction Prize; LIANZA Elsie Locke Award for non-fiction – Welcome to the South Seas, Greg O’Brien

2004

• Montana New Zealand Book Award – Poetry – Sing-song, Anne Kennedy
• Montana New Zealand Book Award – Reference and Anthology – Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English, edited by Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan
• J. M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History – From Tamaki-makau-rau to Auckland, Russell Stone
• ARANZ Ian Wards Prize – Treasury, Malcolm McKinnon

2003

• Montana New Zealand Book Award – Biography; Ernest Scott History Prize; ARANZ Ian Wards Prize – A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields, Philip Temple
• Spectrum Print Book Design Award – Best Cover – Dog, C. K. Stead

2002

• New Zealand Society of Authors – Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry – Husk, Chris Price
• J. M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History – Girls and Women, Men and Boys: Gender in Taradale, Caroline Daley

2001

• Montana Book Award – Poetry – The Bells of St Babel’s, Allen Curnow
• Spectrum Print Book Design Award – Best Cover – A Book in the Hand, edited by Penny Griffith, Alan Loney and Peter Hughes and designed by John Callaghan 
• ARANZ Ian Wards Prize – His Way: A Life of Robert Muldoon, Barry Gustafson

2000

• J. F. Northey Memorial Prize – Waitangi and Indigenous Rights, Jock Brookfield
• Montana Book Award – Poetry – The Lark Quartet, Elizabeth Smither

Earlier

• 1999 Montana Medal for Non-Fiction – The Loving Stitch, Heather Nicholson
• 1998 New Zealand Society of Authors Award for Best First Book of Poetry – All Roads Lead to the Sea, Kapka Kassabova
• 1998 Wallace Award for best book on electoral matters – Voters’ Victory?, edited by Jack Vowles, Peter Aimer, Susan Banducci and Jeffrey Karp 
• 1997 Montana Book of the Year – The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Jessie Munro
• 1997 GP Print Design Award for Typography – The Story of Suzanne Aubert, Jessie Munro
• 1996 Montana Book of the Year – Redemption Songs, Judith Binney
• 1996 Montana Special Honour Award – Nga Iwi o Tainui, Bruce Biggs and Pei Te Hurinui Jones
• 1995 NZ Book Award for Poetry – Dia, Michele Leggott
• 1995 NZ Book Award for Non-fiction – Accidental Life, Phoebe Meikle
• 1993 Wattie Book Award, third place – The Autobiography of my Father, Martin Edmond
• 1991 Best First Book of Poetry – Jazz Waiata, Robert Sullivan
• 1990 NZ Book Award for Poetry – A Pattern of Marching, Elizabeth Smither
• 1989 Dillons Commonwealth Poetry Prize – Continuum, Allen Curnow
• 1988 NZ Book Award for Poetry – All Cretans are Liars, Anne French
• 1988 Best First Book of Poetry – All Cretans are Liars, Anne French
• 1987 Best First Book of Prose – The New Zealand Wars, James Belich
• 1987 NZ Book Award for Poetry – The Loop in Lone Kauri Road, Allen Curnow
• 1987 NZ Book Award for Poetry – Jump, Elizabeth Nannestad
• 1987 Trevor Reese Award for Commonwealth History – The New Zealand Wars, James Belich
• 1986 NZ Book Award for Poetry – Stories about Wooden Keyboards, Kendrick Smithyman
• 1984 NZ Book Award for Book Production – Aggressions of the French, edited by George Pritchard and Paul de Dekker 
• 1983 NZ Book Award for Poetry – You Will Know When You Get There, Allen Curnow
• 1982 NZ Book Award for Book Production – Portrait of Frances Hodgkins, Eric McCormick
• 1980 NZ Book Award for Poetry – An Incorrigible Music, Allen Curnow
• 1978 NZ Book Award for Poetry – Spells for Coming Out, Ian Wedde
• 1977 NZ Book Award for Non-Fiction – Walter Nash, Keith Sinclair
• 1976 NZ Book Award for Fiction – A Glorious Morning Comrade, Maurice Gee