The odds suggest someone from the University of Otago department of history and art history is soon likely to enjoy more prize-winning success.
That is because historians from that department have recently been selected for three of the four places in a shortlist for a new historical prize, the W. H. Oliver Prize.
Awarded by the New Zealand Historical Association, this prize has been established to recognise the best book on New Zealand history, in this case published in the two years ending in March this year.
The three shortlisted Otago academics are: Prof Tony Ballantyne, Entanglements of Empire: Missionaries, Maori, and the Question of the Body (AUP); Prof Tom Brooking, Richard Seddon, King of God's Own: The Life and Times of New Zealand's Longest Serving Prime Minister (Penguin); Dr Angela Wanhalla, Matters of the Heart: A History of Interracial Marriage in New Zealand (AUP).
Dr Melissa Matutina Williams, an Auckland University historian, is also shortlisted for Panguru and the City: Kainga tahi, Kainga rua: An Urban Migration History (Bridget Williams Books).
Prof Brooking said gaining three of the four places on the list was a ''great effort'' which reflected positively on the Otago department and Otago University.
The prizewinner will be announced at the Historical Association's annual meeting on Thursday at the University of Canterbury.
Dunedin historians are making a habit of winning top history awards.
In July, Prof Brooking was named by the Australian Historical Association as co-winner of the Ernest Scott Prize for History, sharing the prize with Australian historian Prof Alan Atkinson.
Dr Wanhalla also won that award last year with ''Matters of the Heart''.
Dunedin writer, novelist and historian Philip Temple won this prize in 2003 with A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields (AUP).
