Writers Week is fast approaching: from 8—13 March you can get your fill of stimulating discussion.
Opening the festival in style – and packing quite some punch – is the Gala Showcase: Fighting Talk
on Thu 10 March. Five writers who have never appeared on stage together before have been busily preparing their personal stories on the theme of ‘rapprochement’ {noun: the development of friendlier relations between countries or groups of people who have been enemies}.Robert Dessaix, Mariko Tamaki, Etgar Keret, Courtney Sina Meredith and Sally Gardner are coming from all corners of the globe to be in Wellington, and each have a tale to tell of conflict, and possibly of resolution.
Dispatches from Continent Seven is a new Awa Press anthology about Antarctica. Rebecca Priestley, Rhian Salmon, Tim Naish and Te Radar are all antarcticans and will discuss life on the frozen continent—including sexually depraved penguins, fish and anti-freeze, and polar sunrises.
Test your own opening lines at Literary Idol with a panel of international authors chaired by Pip Adam. Jamie Curry and Lizzie Marvelly are two new Zealand women who have found their voices – they join US writer Mallory Ortberg to talk about life online. And some of New Zealand’s sharpest thinkers will be talking about our history
and our future.
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run) joins New Zealand ultra athletes Lisa Tamati and Nathan Fa’avae to discuss what it takes to tests the limits with runner Roger Robinson. BBC science presenter and geneticist Adam Rutherford
explores the origins of life, and the changing nature of DNA sequencing. And with the Pacific never far from our hearts and minds, Simon Winchester’s new book Pacific is subject of discussion for Weathering Catastrophe. Listen to how technology is changing our workplace for the better, at Better Together. And of course, don’t miss Henry Marsh at the Michael Fowler Centre.
Internationally acclaimed authors Sally Gardner (Maggot Moon) and Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord) are coming to Wellington after delighting audiences of all ages in Australia. And don’t miss graphic novelist Mariko Tamaki
(tip: an inspiration for the teenagers in your life) or YouTube sensation Jamie Curry in conversation with Mallory Ortberg (US author of Texts from Jane Eyre) and Lizzie Marvelly (Villainesse).
For the wee ones, dress and up and come for a live story telling with Paul Beavis (Mrs Mo’s Monster).
Circa Theatre and Playmarket together with Writers Week have put together Spotlight on Playwrights. The line-up includes Anthony McCarten, Pip Hall, Hone Kouka, Nancy Brunning and many more.
Photobook New Zealand is the first ever festival celebrating indie photography books. From 11—13 March you can see photobooks from the Asia Pacific region as well as from Mexico and New Zealand.
Miranda July wrote Lost Child! when she was seven. Now she is an award-winning film-maker, a writer, and an artist whose work Eleven Heavy Things was presented at the Venice Biennale (2009). And she’s coming to Writers Week!
July’s film Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. Her short-story collection, No One Belongs Here More Than You (2008), won the prestigious Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and is published in 23 countries. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Harper’s, and her debut novel, The First Bad Man, was an immediate New York Times bestseller.
Lost Child! is a New Zealand premiere, and a one-off, just like July.
Students! Use your Student ID to purchase tickets to all Writers Week sessions at the $10 student ticket price. You must buy tickets in person at a Ticketek box office to get the discount (so they can see your ID).
Everyone else! Make the most out of Writers Week by getting yourself a multi-pass. You can get the Friday-off-work Pass and go to 6 sessions on Friday 11 March. You could also go for a Take Five pass, or the ultimate Bookmark pass. For more information and to get a pass, see the website here.
Unity Books Wellington - Proudly committed to local writing and publishing since 1967, and dedicated to keeping a dangerous variety of world literature too. 100% independent and Wellington owned. Come check us out at 57 Willis St and ask the staff for a recommendation - we know our books.
