Dunedin poet Vincent O'Sullivan has won a major prize in this year's New Zealand Post Book of the Year Awards.

O'Sullivan - the current New Zealand Poet Laureate - won $10,000 for his work titled ''Us, then''.

He claimed the top poetry prize in the awards, which were also dominated by Eleanor Catton who won the fiction and people's choice awards for ''The Luminaries''.

But the main prize, of Book of the Year, went to author Jill Trevelyan for her work titled ''Peter McLeavey: The life and times of a New Zealand art dealer''.

That book also won the non-fiction category.

The awards were announced late last night at a ceremony in Wellington.