The Auckland Writers & Readers Festival 2010
Wednesday 12 May – Sunday 16 May
The tenth annual Auckland Writers & Readers Festival (AWRF) will be held in May 2010 and Random House New Zealand is delighted to again be taking part in this significant cultural event. AWRF is a highlight of Auckland City’s cultural calendar and brings together acclaimed writers and thousands of readers in a long weekend of innovative programming.
In addition to a huge line-up of fantastic New Zealand authors, we're proud to announce that some of our most notable international authors have been invited to appear at this year’s AWRF to discuss their latest novels.
New Zealand Listener Opening Night
One of the most popular events of the festival, the New Zealand Listener Opening Night is a welcoming celebration which introduces you to just a few of this year’s lyrical, luminary and spellbinding writers.
Enjoy the dulcet tones of: Colm Tóibín with his latest bestseller, Brooklyn; Emily Perkins and the 2009 Montana Medal for Fiction winner Novel About My Wife; man of many talents, interests and stories, Thomas Keneally with The People’s Train; bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert with her new book Committed; and William Dalrymple with his latest book, Nine Lives. Join our distinguished guests for an evening of inspired readings.
MC: Mark Sainsbury.
Date: 13 May 2010
Venue: ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Time: 8pm
Tickets:
- Earlybird (pre 12 May): $27.00
- Patron and Festival Club Member: $25.50
- Students: $16.00
- Standard (from 12 May): $32.00
An Hour with Charlotte Grimshaw
Award-winning writer Charlotte Grimshaw turns her unflinching eye on contemporary New Zealand society and politics in her new novel The Night Book (due out 7 May 2010). Full of characteristic insight and observation, the novel is both a meditation on power and politics and an intensely humane look at the choices people make as they struggle to maintain their integrity.
Roza Hallwright leads a quiet, orderly life. She works in publishing and lives in a large, comfortable house she shares with her politician husband David and two stepchildren. An election is looming, and, if the polls are correct, David will become the next Prime Minister. A chance encounter with a party donor sets off a chain of events that disrupts both their lives.
Date: 14 May 2010
Venue: Lower NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 6 - 7pm
Rachael King
Rachael King’s debut novel The Sound of Butterflies (2006) was a historical work tackling modern themes. Her latest novel Magpie Hall (2009) is a multi-layered story; a Gothic novel inside a ghost story, inside a Gothic novel.
Both Rachael King and Paula Morris read from their work, and discuss their interest in different genres, the reality of being a writer today, and the satisfaction that comes with watching a new book venture out into the world.
Chair: Dorothy Vinicombe.
Date: 15 May 2010
Venue: Upper NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 11.30am – 12.30pm
Free Event
Short Takes with Charlotte Grimshaw and Sarah Laing
Relax and listen to some of the best short story writers around as they read extracts from their work: Paula Morris, Charlotte Grimshaw, Sarah Laing, Damien Wilkins, and Yiyun Li.
Date: 16 May 2010
Venue: Upper NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 1-2pm
Free Event
The Good Word Debate 2010
Be part of the audience for The Good Word Debate, filmed live at Auckland’s beautiful St Matthew-in-the-City.
Novelist Emily Perkins (host of TVNZ 7 book series 'The Good Word') is joined by series regulars Finlay Macdonald, Gordon McLauchlan, Steve Braunias, Bill Hastings and Jennifer Ward-Lealand to argue the moot: “Off the Shelf and Into the Hard-drive: the Book is Dead”. Keeping things seemly as moderator is comedian Te Radar.
Enjoy wine and nibbles from 6.30pm, followed by the Debate at 7.30pm.
Date: 12 May 2010
Venue: St Matthews in the City, Cnr Hobson and Wellesley Streets
Time: 6.30-9.00pm
Tickets:
- Earlybird $25
- Patrons and Festival Club Members $20
High Tea with Lauraine Jacobs, Tui Flower, Julie Biuso and Julie Le Clerc
A Treasury of New Zealand Baking brought together a wealth of our best food writers and chefs to share their favourite recipes from generations past for generations to come.
This very special event features Lauraine Jacobs, Tui Flower, Julie Biuso and Julie Le Clerc in a celebration of baking with a traditional “High Tea”.
Enjoy exceptional Dilmah Teas, a selection of sensational dainties, and the wisdom and tales of four of New Zealand’s most popular food writers on the traditions of baking.
Date: 12 May 2010
Venue: Crowne Plaza Auckland, The Elliot Rooms
Time: 3.30pm – 5.00pm
Tickets:
A Treasury of New Zealand Baking brought together a wealth of our best food writers and chefs to share their favourite recipes from generations past for generations to come.This very special event features Lauraine Jacobs, Tui Flower, Julie Biuso and Julie Le Clerc in a celebration of baking with a traditional “High Tea”.Enjoy exceptional Dilmah Teas, a selection of sensational dainties, and the wisdom and tales of four of New Zealand’s most popular food writers on the traditions of baking. : 12 May 2010: Crowne Plaza Auckland, The Elliot Rooms: 3.30pm – 5.00pm: - Earlybird: $40.00
- Patrons and Festival Club members: $32.00
Seats are limited to 120, door sales are not available, and all seats must be booked by Monday 10 May.
Dick Frizzell and John Reynolds
A welcome rash of spectacular New Zealand art books have been published in the past year or two, providing a new window into artists’ work.
Two of our wittiest artists talk about their art, their inspiration, the health of visual arts in New Zealand, and what matters to them in the creative process.
Dick Frizzell (Dick Frizzell: The Painter), John Reynolds (Certain Words Drawn) talk with Ian Wedde (Bill Culbert: Making Light Work).
Date: 15 May 2010
Venue: Lower NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 4-5pm
Jennifer Sturm on Anna Kavan
New Zealanders live 'in temporary shacks, uneasily, as reluctant campers too far from home', wrote Anna Kavan in a London magazine in 1943.
Kavan was previously thought to be hostile to New Zealand, but in researching the prize-winning English author of 19 books, Dr Jennifer Sturm uncovered letters and unpublished short stories written during Kavan’s 2-year stay, published for the first time in Anna Kavan's New Zealand (2009), which add weight to the argument that Kavan had a more complex and affectionate response.
Sturm discusses the experimental writer and talented artist - whose life included bouts of depression, heroin addiction and a stream of unconventional love affairs - with Peter Wells, giving us an intriguing insight into both the writer and New Zealand in the 1940s.
Date: 14 May 2010
Venue: Lower NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 3 - 4pm
An Hour with Thomas Keneally
Who can resist the gravelly charms of legendary storyteller Thomas Keneally?
Perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark (he then wrote the screenplay for Stephen Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film 'Schindler’s List'), his novels also include Bring Larks and Heroes, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, The Widow and Her Hero, and – the latest – The People’s Train.
Thomas has also written great histories, including The Great Shame and The Commonwealth of Thieves. Never one to pass up a challenge, he’s just released the first in a three-volume history of Australia. He pauses in his prolific output for a moment to join us for a treasured hour.
Chair: Brian Edwards.
Date: 15 May 2010
Venue: ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Time: 11.30am – 12.30pm
Publishing in the USA (John Freeman and David Levithan)
John Freeman is a former President of the National Book Critics Circle, where he initiated a high-profile and somewhat successful campaign to reinstate newspaper Book Editors. He’s now the editor of Granta.
David Levithan joined Scholastic USA as an intern and is now Editorial Director/VP, and fully in charge of the PUSH imprint.
They talk with Random House New Zealand publisher Nicola Legat about recent trends and developments in the publishing industry in the United States, and beyond.
Date: 15 May 2010
Venue: Upper NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 2.30pm - 3.30pm
Free Event
An Hour with David Levithan
Under 16s are free when accompanied by a ticket holder.
David Levithan is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of young adult books, including Are We There Yet? and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (with Rachel Cohn), recently made into a film. He is the founding editor of the PUSH imprint at Scholastic Books, which is devoted to finding new voices in teen literature.
In Boy Meets Boy, his first novel, he 'set out to write a book about gay teens that doesn't conform to the old norms about gay teens in literature’. His latest collaborative novel, co-written with John Green (author of Paper Towns), is Will Grayson, Will Grayson (May 2010), about which Australian author Melina Marchetta says: ‘This is one of my top three reads of the year. It has everything I devour in a novel: heart, humour and dialogue I'd kill to have written.’
Chair: Paula Morris.
Date: 16 May 2010
Venue: Lower NZI Room, Aotea Centre
Time: 11.30am - 12.30pm