The final day of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival was bookended by standing ovations for two of New Zealand's ground-breaking writers of the past 50 years.

JK Rowling's own copy of the first edition of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', adorned with her illustrations and comments, is to go under the hammer.

The big issue with writers' festivals is that you can't be at three or four events at once. So the rich array of offerings presented the ongoing dilemma of which writer to see.

Some natures are drawn to hazard: to explore the familiar from a vertiginously different perspective.

Abigail Tarttelin has written a dramatic and emotionally authentic story. An unusual sexual secret gives this novel raw power, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

I am fortunate enough to spend more time in my happy place than anywhere else. My happy place is my office/library. It's on the ground floor of our three-level townhouse in Ponsonby.

New Zealand’s Poet Laureate, Ian Wedde, has written two of my all-time favourite poetry collections: The Commonplace Odes and Three Regrets And A Hymn To Beauty.

Wellingtonian Emma Martin won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize with the title story of this first collection.

The city of Auckland was named after "a dud ex-colonial mediocrity who stuffed up on a quite spectacular scale", says British historian William Dalrymple.

Dan Brown sees the world a little differently than the average person.

Former Apple chief evangelist and now entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki says he wants to help New Zealand be even more enchanting on his upcoming visit here on Wednesday.

Nicky Pellegrino is captivated by a 'how-to' with a plot.

Graham Reid talks to Australian writer Wayne Macauley about food porn and creativity.

Tired? Stressed? Unhappy and pressed for time? Well broadcaster Wallace Chapman has some words of advice for you, writes Greg Dixon.

Far from becoming irrelevant in the digital age, libraries are adapting to become more like youth clubs, finds Danielle Wright.

Danielle Wright finds a busy kids' book club in Mangere Bridge that's about a lot more than reading and writing.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon tells Stephen Jewell why he likes visiting bookstores and supermarkets.

Sherry Turkle shows up begging for a latte. She's left her wallet in her hotel room. She's exhausted, she says, and could do with a coffee.

Dominic Corry went behind the scenes on Baz Luhrmann's extravagant film adaptation of classic novel The Great Gatsby.

New Zealand nature expert Gerard Hutching has pulled together some of the quirkiest Kiwi questions in his new book, Why can't Kiwis fly? Here's five of our favourite head-scratchers:

The 25-year-old former porn superstar has reinvented herself as a novelist, and her first book, The Juliette Society, revolves around a woman's introduction to a highly secretive sex club.

Nicky Pellegrino delves into a harrowing tale of survival that's also a story about love.

Peter Hayden - nature history filmmaker and author, and actor.

A running regime that would defy most of us is soul food to Malcolm Law, writes Andy Kenworthy.

People write - or want to write - for many reasons. For some, it is a compulsion, an itch that must be scratched. For others, it has more to do with the narcissistic conviction that the world wants to know what they're thinking and feeling.