New Zealand’s most prestigious literary prize, The Ockhams, has caused controversy after one of the country’s most popular writers was left off its shortlist.

The exclusion of Elizabeth Knox, best-selling author of The Vintner’s Luck and The Absolute Book, has generated confusion and dismay among literary commentators, with many wondering if the fantasy elements of her novel put off the judges.

Knox’s The Absolute Book has proven a summer hit in New Zealand since being published in September, and has topped local bestseller lists as well as breaking into the sought-after American market after a rave review in Slate.

Despite being heavily favoured to win the fiction category, Knox was left off the shortlist for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, announced on Wednesday.

Past winners of The Ockhams include literary heavyweights such as Dame Fiona Kidman, Catherine Chidgey and Witi Ihimaera.

This year, the four novels that have made the 2020 fiction shortlist are Auē by Becky Manawatu, Pearly Gates by Owen Marshall, A Mistake by Carl Shuker, and Halibut on the Moon by David Vann.

Those on the non-fiction shortlist include Dead People I Have Known by Straitjacket Fitz musician Shayne Carter, Shirley Smith: An Examined Life by Sarah Gaitanos,
Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, by Paula Green, and Towards the Mountain: A Story of Grief and Hope Forty Years on from Erebus by Sarah Myles.

The Absolute Book is a fantasy novel, and Newsroom’s literary editor Steve Braunias speculated that this may have turned-off the judges.

“Very, very surprisingly, Elizabeth Knox is not among that [Ockham shortlist] elite,” Braunias wrote. “Maybe judges were put off by its genrey-ness; it’s a fantasy novel, with demons and talking birds. And yet two of our best and most serious critics – Charlotte Grimshaw and Jane Stafford… regarded it as a brilliant work of literary fiction.”

The Spinoff’s Catherine Woulfe wrote that she “will never understand”the decision, while novelist and awards trustee Paula Morris told RNZ that some people were “shocked or surprised” at Knox’s snub.

In January, Slate gave the book a rave review in America, under the headline “This New Zealand Fantasy Masterpiece Needs to Be Published in America, Like, Now”.

Following Slate’s review, US publisher Viking purchased US rights to the novel for a reported six-figure sum. According to Knox’s publisher, Victoria University Press, discussions are also underway to adapt the book to film or television.

The Ockham winners will be announced on 12 May.

Elizabeth Knox and the Ockham organisers have been contacted for comment.

• This article was amended on 5 March 2020. An earlier version misspelled Witi Ihimaera’s last name as Ihaemaera, and misnamed Elizabeth Knox’s book The Vintner’s Luck, as The Vitner’s Luck. This has been corrected.