It's been a long time between drinks, but Damien Wilkins is back in the winners' circle for the most lucrative award in New Zealand literature.

The Ockham NZ Book Awards gala was held at Tāmaki Makaurau's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on Wednesday night, one of the jewels in the crown for this week's Auckland Writers Festival (13-18 May). Many of the country's leading authors were in attendance, with four main categories contested.

None more the $65,000 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction - claimed this year by Wilkins for his novel Delirious, edging a talented field including former winners Kirsty Gunn (Pretty Ugly) and Laurence Fearnley (At the Grand Glacier Hotel), along with Tina Makereti (The Mires).

The Wellington author and professor has tasted success in this prestigious event before - way back in 1994 with The Miserables - has twice been a runner-up in 2001 (Nineteen Widows Under Ash) and 2007 (The Fainter).

The judges heaped praise on the Arts Laureate's 14th book, with Fiction category convenor of judges Thom Conroy labelling Delirious as an unforgettable work of fiction that navigates momentous themes with elegance and honesty.

"With a gift for crisp, emotionally rich digression, Damien Wilkins immerses readers in Mary and Pete’s grapples with ageing and their contemplations of lost loved ones who still thrive in vivid memories.

"What stood out to the judges was the assured but understated touch of prose as it flows elegantly across decades, threads the intricacies of relationship, and fathoms the ongoing evolution of a couple’s grief.

"Intimate, funny, and, above all, honest, Delirious is an absorbing, inspiring novel, and a damn fine read."

Another of the most coveted awards at the Ockhams - the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry - was claimed by editor, novelist and poet Emma Neale for her collection Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit. 

She joins some of Aotearoa's poetry luminaries like Tuisata Avia, Vincent O'Sullivan and C.K. Stead - who Neale beat in this year's field, along with other finalists Robert Sullivan and Richard von Sturmer.

Poetry category convenor of judges David Eggleton - himself a former winner of the Ockhams poetry prize - states Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit displays an exceptional ability to turn confessional anecdotes into quicksilvery flashes of insight.

"It's a book about fibs and fables; and telling true stories which are perceived by others as tall stories; and the knock-on or flow-on effects of distrust, the scales dropping from one's eyes. It's about power and a sense of powerlessness; it's about belief and the loss of belief, it's about trust and disillusion; it's about disenchantment with fairytales. It's about compassion.

"Emma Neale is a writer fantastically sensitive to figurative language and its possibilities."

An intensive and detailed look into ngā toi Māori has been rewarded, with Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art triumphant in the BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction category.

Comprising of 600 pages from Polynesian voyaging waka to contemporary Māori artists, the comprehensive survey of Māori art from historians Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) has been 12 years in the making.

Illustrated Non-Fiction category convenor of judges Chris Szekely hails their efforts as a book of enduring significance with international reach.

"Toi Te Mana is extensively researched and thoughtfully written, casting a wide inclusive net. The result is a beautifully designed visual tour de force, and a cultural framework that approaches toi mahi with intelligence and insight.

"It is dedicated to the late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kurī), one of the three authors responsible for this magnum opus. Congratulations to Professors Deirdre Brown and Ngarino Ellis for carrying the baton to completion, a herculean task akin to the mahi of Maui himself."

Toi Te Mana overcame fellow finalists Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist (Jill Trevelyan, Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson), Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Rebecca Rice and Michael Fitgerald), and Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer (Athol McCredie).

Another te ao Māori book rounded out the major prizes. 

Curator, critic, activist, and the first female Māori Emeritus Professor from a university Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Waikato) has added another accolade to her astonishing career, winning the General Non-Fiction Award for her memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery.

Fending off challenges from Richard Shaw and first-time authors Flora Feltham and Una Cruickshank (who didn't leave emptyhanded), Hine Toa was described by General Non-Fiction convenor of judges Holly Walker as a rich, stunningly evocative memoir that defies easy categorisation.

"As well as painting a vivid picture of Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku’s early life, from her childhood on 'the pā' at Ōhinemutu to her many creative and academic achievements, it is also a fiery social and political history that chronicles the transformative second half of the 20th century in Aotearoa from a vital queer, Māori, feminist perspective.

"From its extraordinary opening sentence, it weaves Māori and English storytelling traditions: 'Once upon a time there was a pet tuatara named Kiriwhetū; her reptile skin was marked with stars.' Hine Toa is both a personal testimony and a taonga."

The Poetry, Illustrated Non-Fiction and General Non-Fiction award recipients each collected $12,000, while the four Best First Book Award winner took home $3000.

Michelle Rahurahu (Ngāti Rahurahu, Ngāti Tahu–Ngāti Whaoa) collected the Hubert Church Prize for Fiction with Poorhara, Rex Letoa Paget's Manuali’I won the Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry,  Kirsty Baker claimed the Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction with Sight Lines: Women and Art, and The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank locked in the E.H. McCormick Prize for General Non-Fiction.