The Sunday sessions include bibliophiles Ruth Shaw, Deborah Coddington and Olivia Spooner.
The Sunday sessions include bibliophiles Ruth Shaw, Deborah Coddington and Olivia Spooner.
Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival programme directors Catherine Robertson and Louise Ward say they have taken great delight in putting this year’s line-up together.
Both avid readers, writers and bookshop owners, they are ideally placed to create something that offers balance and accessibility.
The Readers and Writers Festival kicksoff on Friday, October 27 with a weekend of Aotearoa’s finest writers speaking about a fascinating range of topics.
There are 10 sessions, with topics ranging from the weird and wonderful critters of Aotearoa to the ineffable charm of a good bookshop. You’ll recognise some local names, and some famous faces from further around the motu.
“Our kaupapa is to give people the opportunity to attend sessions that will inspire and excite them, that will introduce new ideas or ways of thinking. Most importantly, it has to be available to everyone, which is why this year’s early-bird tickets were priced at only $5,” Robertson said.
So what’s on offer? Friday night hits the ground running with Ockham New Zealand Book Award finalists Dr Monty Soutar ONZM (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngā Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Kahungunu) and Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) in conversation with award-winning Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui and Pākehā), discussing the importance of adding many and varied voices and stories, ancient and modern, to our literary canon.
Noelle McCarthy will be sitting down with Dr Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) to talk about her memoir, medicine and mothers at the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival on Friday, October 27.
Hang around, because straight after that, Noelle McCarthy will be sitting down with Dr Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) to talk about her memoir, medicine and mothers.
Saturday morning will see Lizzie Russell in the auspicious company of Jane Ussher MNZM, New Zealand’s rockstar photographer, and Deborah Coddington, journalist and writer of dazzling books for our coffee tables. If you love beautiful interiors, design and all things artfully arranged, this is the session for you.
Saturday continues with what else but food? Cookbook fanatic Nigel Olsen will tease out of Pip Cameron and Helen Lehndorf how to forage, eat seasonally and create beautiful meals for ravenous families. After that, RNZ regular Nicola Toki will meet her host Jesse Mulligan for a rare face-to-face chat about our nation’s fauna.
If you love beautiful interiors, design and all things artfully arranged don't miss Lizzie Russell, Jane Ussher and Deborah Coddington's session on next Saturday morning at the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival ,
The afternoon will see a line-up of award-winners lauded as some of the brightest voices in literature: Josie Shapiro, Airana Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui) and Nafanua Kersel (Faleālupo, Malaelā, Mosula, Satufia, Tuaefu), followed by Monty Soutar and Ockham New Zealand Book Award finalist Cristina Sanders spinning the stories of old for today’s readers.
The Sunday sessions include bibliophiles Ruth Shaw, Deborah Coddington and Olivia Spooner trying to pin down the essence and importance of a bookshop, followed by this year’s Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction winner, Catherine Chidgey, in conversation with magpie-mad Marty Smith. The last session of the festival features Sir Roger Hall and Joe Bennett, doyens of observational humour in its many literary forms.
The Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers team urge you to be intrepid: come to everything and find a new passion, or be inspired to write something of your own.
