Mākaro Press : Nielsen Book Publisher of the Year 2021
Our publisher, Paul Stewart: NZ Young Publisher of the Year 2020

An independent award-winning publisher in Aotearoa New Zealand founded in 2013. From April 2024 Mākaro Press is an imprint of Wellington publisher The Cuba Press. 

Mākaro publisher Mary McCallum co-founded The Cuba Press in 2018 and the two publishing houses have been working out of the same offices in Wellington for six years, with Mary and publisher Paul Stewart working across both lists. In 2024, it made sense to formally bring them together to share staff and resources. 

Mākaro Press will continue to publish one work of New Zealand literary fiction a year. 

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

Our 2026 title is by Wellington author Mia Farlane. And How Are Things With You will be published in September.

Kataraina by Becky Manawatu was published by Mākaro Press on 1 October 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 who have published Kataraina too. Auē has been translated into many languages including French (Au vent des isles), German (Alfred Kröner Verlag), Bulgarian (Aviana), Turkish (New Human), Uruguayan Spanish (Forestera) and Argentinian Spanish. The film/TV rights have been sold to Caravan Carpark Films. 

Read the story of how Mākaro Press came to publish Auē here. 

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 High Spot Literary.
Our distributors are Bateman Books. 

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

Mākaro Press publishers Mary McCallum and
Paul Stewart, December 2023.