Nielsen Book Publisher of the Year 2021

Young Publisher of the Year 2020: Paul Stewart

Mākaro Press is an independent award-winning publisher in Aotearoa New Zealand founded in 2013. 

From April 2024 Mākaro Press became an imprint of The Cuba Press, continuing to publish one work of New Zealand literary fiction a year. Mākaro publisher Mary McCallum co-founded The Cuba Press in 2018 and the two publishing houses have worked out of the same offices in Wellington since then, with Mary and publisher Paul Stewart working across both lists. In 2024, it made sense to formally bring them together to share resources. 

Our 2026 title is And How Are Things With You by Pōneke author Mia Farlane, to be released 1 October.

Empathy by Bryan Walpert was published by Mākaro Press in 2025, and longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction. Bryan’s 2021 novel Entanglement was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2022.

Kataraina by Becky Manawatu was published by Mākaro Press in 2024. It is the sequel to award-winning Auē (2019), which won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, the MitoQ Best First Book Award for Fiction 2020 and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and has been published in the US, the UK and Australia by Scribe. Scribe has also published Kataraina in the US, the UK and Australia in 2025.

Auē has been translated into a number of languages including French (Au vent des isles), German (Kröner Verlag), Bulgarian (Aviana), Turkish (New Human), Uruguayan Spanish (Forestera) and Argentinian Spanish. The screen rights have been sold to Caravan Carpark Films.  

Victory Park by Rachel Kerr (2020) won the MitoQ Best First Book Award for Fiction 2021.
The Sound of Breaking Glass by Kirsten Warner (2018) won the MitoQ Best First Book Award for Fiction 2019.

For rights to Mākaro titles please contact our agent High Spot Literary. Our Aotearoa distributors are Bateman Books.

Read the story of Mākaro Press: The rise and triumphant rise of Mākaro Press.