Writers' festival will be biennial in future

By GILBERT WONG

The second Auckland Writers' Festival ended successfully last weekend, but administration-weary organisers say the event will have to change in future.

From next year the festival, which has become a highlight on the city's cultural calendar, will take place only every second year, alternating with the Wellington Writers and Readers' Festival which takes place in conjunction with the International Arts Festival.

One of the organisers, novelist Peter Wells, says the burden on what was largely a committee of volunteers is too heavy.

The festival, which attracted 5200 people to the venues at the Hyatt Regency and Old Government House, pays for the work of manager Penny Hansen and organisers Wells and Stephanie Johnson.

Though the payment is welcome, Wells says, in terms of the time put in it is not generous. In the months leading up to the festival organising it approached a fulltime job.

Professional writers find the festival work is cutting into the time they need to write.

"It's been about two months since I've been able to sit down and write. For the past four months the committee has had to meet several times a week to resolve so many issues that come with an event of this size," says Wells.

The committee now feels that "the house has been built.

"When we started the festival it was an unknown. People didn't know if it would work or be supported.

"We have now staged two successful festivals and will run a third next year, but every second year after that."

Wells says part of the problem is financial. The festival receives good support from sponsors but it needs a single major sponsor who would have naming rights to make it viable to produce every year.

A single major sponsor would enable the festival committee to hire a fulltime director.

"We've not lost money so far. But that said, it has been done on the back of a lot of voluntary work by people who have given their time freely."

The biennial festival will alternate with the Wellington event but remain a separate entity. The committee will continue to have an informal agreement to work in conjunction with the Sydney Writers' Festival and, next year, Wells says, it will be possible to time the event so overseas guests can attend both festivals.

Feedback from international guests to the festival has been good. Wells feels that Australians Robert Dessaix and Margaret Wertheim showed the depth of intelligent writers in the antipodes.

* Budding writer David Glynn, of Auckland, partner of National Business Review news editor Deborah Hill, received the Vintage Scholarship worth $10,000 at the Auckland Writers' Festival. The award is for an emerging writer who has yet to be published.

The judge, poet Bill Manhire, said he found Glynn's work compelling.

Glynn will use part of the prize to complete his first novel.

Highlights and low jokes

Naff joke of the festival: Carroll du Chateau at the Frankenfood panel on genetically engineered organisms and food: "What do you get when you cross Dolly with a kangaroo? A woolly jumper by Calvin Clone." Sue Kedgley was not impressed.

Scary revelation No 1:

From a TVNZ journalist, who shall remain nameless, speaking to the Square Eyes panel on the quality of television: "We've got a new chairman who hasn't been in the building long enough to take a pee and a bunch of officials from Treasury rewriting our charter."

Heart of the beast insight: From the Square Eyes panel again: scriptwriter Maxine Fleming describes a pitch to a television network for a new drama series about a small rural town fighting to prevent the planned State Highway 1 bypass: "The production executives said they loved the idea, but had one criticism: 'Could we make it more urban?' they asked."

Best self-deprecating introduction: Geoffrey Robertson, a distinguished Australian QC who has worked in London for most of his career. He was the speaker at the Buddle Findlay Sargeson dinner: "I was born with a speech impediment that meant I did not talk until I was 5. From then on I talked like the BBC. Private Eye calls me an Australian with a voice transplant." Later, Robertson confided that a judge he was appearing before had wondered if he suffered from irritable vowel syndrome.

Next-best self-deprecating introduction: Michael King at the Raw Materials panel on biography: "I am not Mike King, though when he won the Billy T. Comedy award I did receive a lot of his congratulatory mail, including a letter from someone who said they were impressed I was able to do stand-up comedy as well as write biographies."

A good question: Poet and writer Brian Turner at the Art of Sport panel: "Maurice Gee loves sport, Owen Marshall loves sport. Why aren't our finest writers asked to write on what they love? Wouldn't that enhance the quality of our sports writing?" Nobody disagreed.

Not such a good question: Broadcaster and sports-book author Keith Quinn on the same panel: "Why don't the Montana book awards have a separate category for sports books?"

Scary revelation No. 2:

During the Hour with Mary Doria Russell, author of two novels about Jesuit priests encountering extraterrestrials: "The Vatican does have a plan for what they will do when first contact is made. It's been thought up by the Pope's astronomer. Yeah, of course, he has one ... especially after that Galileo thing."

Men are from Mars, Women from Venus prize:

Scientist and author Colin Tudge and author Margaret Wertheim on the Morality of Science. He said the Internet was the greatest tool for the democratisation of information the world has ever seen. She said it is significant to only a third of the world's population. He said computers could be put into every Indian village. She said there wasn't the telecom backbone to do it. He said there was. And so on, and so on.

Civic responsibility award:

Duncan Sarkies. When asked on the Generation XYNZ panel of young and emerging writers if he was upset that his short stories were not part of the high-school syllabus. "Uhh, well, I'd be quite worried if it was. It's sort of strong stuff and I'm not sure I'd feel good about little kids reading it."

Civic responsibility award 2:

The man questioning the value of performance poetry who remarked at the One Love talk between Benjamin Zephaniah and Tandor Nanczos: "I've been to poetry readings and they're full of psychiatric survivors. This can make for an excruciating couple of hours."

Scary revelation no 3:

Performance poet and Rasta Benjamin Zephaniah at the One Love session describing his experience at New Zealand Customs: "They went through my bag and found my garlic. They took my garlic, man. I'm a garlic-smuggler."

Best silliness: Benjamin Zephaniah again: "So the cops come knocking at your door and they say, 'Identify yourself.' I look in the mirror and say, 'That's me, man'."

Best surreal moment:

At the Buddle Findlay Sargeson dinner, Geoffrey Robertson describes standing with Vaclav Havel on the steps of the presidential palace in Prague during the Velvet Revolution. A crowd is singing We shall overcome. Havel whispers in Robertson's ear: "You can always tell who the secret police are. They're the ones who know all the words."