The Spinoff Books midwinter quiz
Twenty-three questions to test your level of lit over the long weekend.
Sometimes a person’s love language includes forcing friends and family to take part in a lit quiz over a cosy Matariki weekend. The Spinoff Books midwinter quiz is here to serve! This quiz mixes general knowledge with literary insights and a touch of bookish news, too. All of the answers, pretty much, can be found in the pages of The Spinoff books section so even if your reading has been woefully inadequate so far this year then you can at least study the books pages in advance to sleuth some points.
At the bottom of the list of questions you’ll find where the answers can be revealed; and where your score places you on the lit-o-metre.
1. Name the short story collection that won this year’s Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. (Bonus point if you can also name the author.)
2. Which writer, who passed away in 2025, does Arena Williams consider the greatest New Zealand writer of all time?
3. What is Alice Liddell’s occupation in the novel The Black Monk by Charlotte Grimshaw?
4. In which picture book by Margaret Mahy does Michelle Langstone’s favourite literary mother appear?
5. What is the one memoir that The Spinoff’s Lyric Waiwiri-Smith has reviewed (on The Spinoff) this year?
6. Which novel was considered the “dark horse” of this year’s shortlist for the Jann Medlicott Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026?
7. Name one of the two new indie bookshops opening in Wellington this winter? (Bonus point if you can name them both.)
8. What is the title of Kate Camp’s book version of her 1986 diary?
9. What is the title of Bill Manhire’s latest poetry collection? (Bonus point if you can name one of the authors who published a collection of the same name in 1798.)
10. Which Marian Keyes novel did Madeleine Chapman place in the number one spot in her ranking of all Marian Keyes novels?
11. Which acclaimed Aotearoa poet has watched the TV show Schitt’s Creek more than 40 times?
12. On what date did Wellington’s Te Matapihi library officially re-open?
13. “My name is Roimata Kararaina and I’m married to Hemi Tamihana.” This is the opening sentence of chapter one of which classic Aotearoa novel? (You must also name the author to get the full point.)
14. What is the title of the Asako Yuzuki novel published in English after her hit novel, Butter?
15. Name the writer and associated novel that provides a gothic scaffold for Noelle McCarthy’s memoir, Stakes.
16. What was the name of Elizabeth Knox’s mother’s cat? (Named in her brilliant memoir, Night, Ma)
17. Which New Zealand writer is up for an Ursula K. LeGuin prize for fiction this year? (Bonus if you can also name the novel)
18. “‘I can’t do it,’ is what she says. ‘I simply can’t admit students without prior musical training. My teaching methods, Mrs Henderson, are rather more specific than I think you understand.’” This is the first sentence from the first novel by which acclaimed Aotearoa writer?
19. Which Aotearoa non-fiction book has Toby Manhire named the book of the year?
20. Name the author of the novel that made Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown laugh.
21. Which classic novel did Emerald Fennell ruin with her recent film adaptation? (Bonus point if you can name the author’s pen name under which she published the classic novel)
22. Who is the author of the poem called “I used to be head girl of my high school and now I am a massive cunt”?
23. What recently betrothed singer and reader just opened a library in Porto? (Bonus point if you can give the name of the library and/or the kind of book it offers to readers)
Your score:
0–5: get thee to a reading retreat
6–10: cancel those streaming subs and warm up that library card, just a little bit of lit goes a long way
11 – 15: out of the danger zone, just
16 – 20: head girl territory, baby!
21 – 29 (there are six bonus points to be won): let the people bow down because you are a lit legend