Damien Wilkins won the prestigious Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for Delirious, a captivating tale about families and ageing, which follows ex-cop Mary and her husband Pete, a retired librarian, as they navigate life’s big transitions. In the lead up to the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, the novel was universally tipped to win the biggest literary prize in Aotearoa. Come along to find out why. Chaired by Elizabeth Knox.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Damien Wilkins is the author of fifteen books, most recently Delirious, winner of the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and Aspiring, winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award in 2020. His first novel, The Miserables, won the New Zealand Book Award for fiction in 1994, and he has been long-listed three times for the Dublin Literary Award. His fourth novel, Chemistry – first published in 2002 – has just been re-released. In between writing books, he is a professor at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters Te Pūtahi Tui Auaha o Te Ao. As a musician and songwriter, he writes and records as the Close Readers.