Nic Low

Ngāi Tahu

Nic Low 'is an author, contributing editor at New Zealand Geographic and former Programme Director of WORD Christchurch Festival of Books, Writing and Ideas. His writings on wilderness, history, technology and race have been widely published and anthologised on both sides of the Tasman. His first book, polemical sthort story collection Arms Race (Text Publishing, 2014) was an Australian Book Review and New Zealand Listener boom of the year, and shortlisted for the Readings Prize and Queensland Literary Awards. Uprising (Text Publishing, 2021) details nine walking and climbing expeditions exploring the Māori history of Kā Tiritiri-o-moana, the Southern Alps, and won the CLNZ Writers' Award, the Wiley Prize and was runner-up, Non-fiction, in the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards.'

Biographical sources

  • Ngā Kupu Wero. Ed. Witi Ihimaera. New Zealand: Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2023. 354.

    Fiction

  • Arms Race: And Other Stories. Australia: Text Publishing Company, 2014.
  • This collection of short stories was shortlisted 'for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Book Awards and the Readings Prize, and named a Listener and Australian Book Review Book of the Year.' HIWA: Contemporary Māori Short Stories. Ed. Paul Morris; Consulting ed. Darryn Joseph. Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press, 2023.
  • Slick. The Big Issue, 2011. Rpt. in Arms Race: And Other Stories. Australia: Text Publishing, 2014. Rpt. in HIWA: Contemporary Māori Ahort Stories. Ed. Paula Morris. Consulting Ed. Darryn Joseph. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press, 2023.157-162.

  • Non-fiction

  • Uprising: Walking the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Melbourne, Australia: Text Publishing, 2021.
  • Low was awarded the 2018 Copyright Licensing Writers' Award to write this book and he won the Wiley Prize in the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards of 2022 and other Book of the Year awards.
  • Pitopito Kōrero. An extract from Uprising: Walking the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, 2021. Rpt. in Ngā Kupu Wero. Ed. Witi Ihimaera. New Zealand: Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2023. 305.