In 2021, Grace was the chief judge for the Sargeson Prize (named after Frank Sargeson), New Zealand's most valuable short-story prize. Awards and honours Grace has won awards for her writing since the outset of her career, with her first book, Waiariki (1975), receiving the Hubert Church Memorial Award for Best First Book of Fiction, awarded by PEN NZ. Potiki (1986) came third in the Wattie Book of the Year Awards in 1986, and won the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction in 1987. In 1994 it received the award in Germany. Her children's book The Kuia and the Spider / Te Kuia me te Pungawerewere (1981) won the Children's Picture Book of the Year Award at the New Zealand Government Publishing Awards, and The Trolley received the Russell Clark Award for children's book illustration in 1994. Baby No-Eyes (1988) was shortlisted for the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize. In the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours, Grace was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order (QSO) for community service. She also received Scholarships in Letters in 1988 and 1992–1993. In 1989, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature (LitD) by Victoria University of Wellington. Dogside Story (2001) won the 2001 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001 and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2003, and was shortlisted in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2002 and for the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize in 2004. Tu (2004) was awarded the Deutz Medal for Fiction and the Montana Award for Fiction at the 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and the 2005 Nielsen Book Data New Zealand Booksellers' Choice Award. Chappy (2015) was a finalist in the fiction category at the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. In the same year, her children's picture book Haka, translated into Māori as Whiti te Rā! by Kawata Teepa, was the recipient of the Te Kura Pounamu Award for the best Māori language work at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2005 Grace received an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, an award bestowed on twenty of New Zealand’s most significant living artists for extraordinary lifetime achievement. In 2006, she was one of three honourees awarded a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, recognising her significant contribution to New Zealand's literature. Helen Clark, then the prime minister of New