Writers & Readers

Overview

Tickets for New Zealand Festival's Writers & Readers sessions go on sale this Thursday, with an outstanding group of local and international writers leading discussions for the 2018 event.

Now in its 33rd year, New Zealand Festival works closely with the literature community to bring a wide array of writers to Wellington for four days of special events, talks, launches and parties.

Paying homage to International Women's Day, the festival kicks off with Women Changing the World. This is a celebration of women, their words and their power to change. Another session will be held in Rimutaka and Arohata Prisons, giving participants the opportunity to listen rarely heard voices with stories to be told.

Prolific novelist, essayist and photography critic for The New York Times, Teju Cole, joins the lineup providing a visual feast of his most thought provoking works and photography he has admired along the way. Cole's Nigerian upbringing frequently influences his books, often implicitly in his outlook. As a recipient of numerous awards, including the inaugural PEN/Jen Stein award for his essay collection, Known and Strange Things, his most recent book Blind Spot is a fusion of his own photography and evocative passages.

Joining Cole is American Patricia Lockwood, described as a "startlingly frank," young poet and memoirist. Lockwood belongs to the new wave of poets that are adjusting the way we interpret poetry. Her verses harness the redeeming qualities of Twitter in the same way that Rupi Kaur uses Instagram as a tool for sharing her musings; she plays to the character limit and her words trickle through the Twittersphere. Most recently she has released Priestdaddy, which The New York Times promptly labelled one of the 10 best books of 2017, telling the tale of returning to her troublesome childhood. Lockwood will be popping up numerous times throughout the week; contributing to the opening evening and discussions throughout the festival.

The themes of equality and literature as a social tool continue over the course of the weekend with thought provoking talks from a variety of backgrounds. The program provides a blurb on all the writers and sessions for the weekend.

Elsewhere on the lineup you'll find a Booker-nominated novelist, a writer of speculative fiction, a slam poet, a non-binary drag artist and performer, The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road, possibly the best children's writer in the world, and "the most exciting new poet in New Zealand letters".

The festival will take place from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 March in a number of venues around Wellington's waterfront. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9am Thursday 8 February. You can purchase them online, or do it old school on a copy of the booking form

There's a whopping list of authors involved in the weekend, so I suggest picking up a brochure from around town, snuggling down with a cup of coffee and dog-earing your wishlist.

Image: Mark Cubey by Anna Briggs.