Dame Jacinda Ardern will be missing the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ahead of scheduled promotional appearances in Australia for her new book for teenagers.

The former Prime Minister’s book A Different Kind of Power is nominated for the nonfiction award, but she will not be in attendance at the prestigious event on Wednesday night.

She is guaranteed to win a $3000 cash prize as the only debut author on the shortlist, netting her best first book of nonfiction.

In his newsletter Reading Room, journalist Steve Branuias said he had received confirmation from the book award organisers that Ardern had prior commitments.

“Regrettably, Dame Jacinda Ardern is unable to attend the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards ceremony due to her attending an event in Australia about the release of her guide for teens, titled What If You Could, which was confirmed prior to A Different Kind of Power’s Ockham’s shortlisting.”

Braunias notes that Ardern’s memoir was longlisted for the award on January 29, while the ceremony date had been public since August last year.

A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir, by Dame Jacinda Ardern, was released in June last year. Photo / NZME

The Ockham awards declined to make comment when approached by the Herald.

The 45-year-old former Prime Minister moved to Sydney with her family earlier in the year, telling the Sydney Morning Herald she valued the proximity to her home country.

She was scheduled to promote A Different Kind of Power at the Melbourne Writers Festival over the weekend before returning to New Zealand for the Auckland Writers Festival on Sunday.

There, Ardern will share the stage with Noelle McCarthy to discuss her memoir and time in politics.

Last year, Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Ngāpuhi, Waikato) took home the non-fiction award for her memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery.

Ardern faces off against three other finalists for the 2026 prize, Tina Makeriti’s This Compulsion in Us, Peta Carey’s The Hollows Boys: A Story of Three Brothers & the Fiordland Deer Recovery Era and Naomi Arnold’s Northbound: Four Seasons of Solitude on Te Araroa.

The winner will be announced tomorrow night at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Auckland’s Aotea Centre.