Lincoln Gould. Pic: NZPA

Booksellers New Zealand, administrators of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards has been advised that Next Magazine have published in their August issue, whom they believe has won the Fiction category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

"The magazine has advised us that they have done this in error, that they do not know who has won the awards and that they became confused in an article which also discussed this year's winner of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. The Next article was written before judges had even decided who the winners were," said Booksellers NZ chief executive officer, Lincoln Gould.

"Any suggestion as to the winner of Montana New Zealand Book Award categories at this stage is purely speculative - guess work.

"There is nothing wrong with people debating and attempting to guess who might be the winner of this prestigious award.

"We will all know on the evening of Monday 27 July when the winners of all the categories will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, to be held at the Auckland Museum," said Mr Gould.

This year's awards are the last to be sponsored by Montana with New Zealand Post taking over the naming rights sponsorship from 2010.