Auckland Writers Festival

Overview

It was about this time last year when Twitter was going crazy with quotes from legendary author Haruki Murakami's talk here in Auckland. It seemed like you couldn't scroll through your news feed without stumbling across a fan. You may remember seeing him yourself or perhaps you all you remember is that you felt like you were missing out on one of the best things to happen to Auckland.

For the past fifteen years, the Auckland Writers Festival has brought together national and international writers and intellectuals, for five days of conversation, storytelling and sharing of ideas. This year it's back and your chance to get in on the action.

With 111 events on offer, you may need to take the week off work to really soak up all the festival has to offer - maybe just don't plan to call in sick, your cover will be blown when you start bragging about all of the amazing events you went to.

There's some big names heading to our shores, including the 2015 Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James who will be speaking a number of times including giving a talk on his award-winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. The novel explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and its aftermath.

Another big name heading our way is Gloria Steinem - one of the twentieth century's most influential feminists and once a Playboy bunny who exposed the exploitative conditions the bunnies endured. She also protested the Vietnam War, the apartheid system in South Africa, the Gulf War and recently campaigned for disarmament in Korea. The American journalist and activist is clearly a big deal, her event has already sold out and she is one of the most talked about speakers at the festival.

Poets such as Australia's Maxine Beneba Clarke and leading Pacific poet Tusiata Avia are also on the lineup and there'll even be an emergency poet, parked up across Auckland in her vintage ambulance, prescribing poems for every condition.

You can even learn how to write scripts, poetry, reviews and non-fiction at one of the workshops on offer. This is a feast.