Verb Wellington

Overview

Wellington's literary festival LitCrawl was rechristening as Verb Wellington last year, bringing international guests and our own literary legends to the capital for four days. In this twisty-turny year, the annual festival will make its grand return between 6–8 November 2020, featuring a suite of individual events and the famed literary pub crawl on Saturday, 7 November.

Of course, given New Zealand's current border restrictions, this year's festival will be a celebration of Aotearoa writers and the ideas and stories they gift us through their work. The program is bursting at the seams with live events and activations, from conversations around living in the wild and kai Māori, to poetry cabaret and a theatrical lecture on the power of art.

Nine writers will appear at opening night showcase, The Best Letter I Never Received, as they reveal the best letters they never received. Elsewhere, Supper Club: Story of Food will see chef Laura Greenfield offer the dishes that are close to her heart as writers Diane Comer, Sudha Rao and Jessie Bray Sharpin talk about how food has a special place in their books.

Also on the bill: Show Ponies: The Return is poetry with back-up dancers, live music, costumes, a sprinkling of pure magic; Monique Fiso: Hiakai will explore the esteemed chef's sumptuous new book celebrating modern Māori cuisine; plus The Unicorn is an hour of improvised storytelling with performer Derek Flores.

All that plus book launches, bite-sized chats, spontaneous storytelling and the seventh edition of LitCrawl in Wellington's CBD. See the full lineup here.

Image: Vanessa Rushton Photography, Verb Wellington.