Pulitzer Prize-winning US novelist Annie Proulx will be a special guest at the biennial Hastings Festival of Writers in April.
Proulx, who will be in New Zealand to promote her new memoir, won the prize in 1994 for her novel, The Shipping News, later made into a successful film, and hershort story, Brokeback Mountain, was adapted for the big screen, going on to win Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards.
She will join some of New Zealand's literary heavyweights, such as New Zealand Poet Laureate Cilla McQueen, short fiction writer and novelist Owen Marshall, and Wellington poet and past laureate Jenny Bornholdt for the April 1-3 event.
Manawatu food writer Hester Guy and Cuisine Magazine's New Zealand wine writer, John Saker, will host the opening event, a food and wine evening with a twist at Clearview Winery, Te Awanga.
Organising committee member and Hastings District Libraries' community liaison and promotions co-ordinator Carla Crosbie was promising something for everyone at this year's festival: "You really don't need to head to a big city to have a top-rate literary experience; it's all going to be right here in April."
Other venues for the festival are the Hawke's Bay Opera House, Havelock North Library, Hastings City Art Gallery and Pipi Restaurant in Havelock North.
Separate from the Poet Laureate Award, which Hastings hosts in alternate years, the festival brings together writers of different genres and styles from throughout the country and overseas to entertain and inspire local audiences.
Several events will have free entry, but for those with a charge, tickets are on sale from TicketDirect from this month.
