WRITERS & READERS PROGRAMME
Large Print Copy
8–11 March 2018
Wellington
www.festival.co.nz/writers
WELCOME
Piki mai kake mai kaituhi me kaipānui
Welcome on board, writers and readers
Kia ora and welcome to 2018 Writers & Readers, the New Zealand Festival’s long weekend of fast paced, smart conversation from international and local storytellers.
We look forward to entertaining, informing and delighting you in our new, intimate venues set around the beautiful Wellington waterfront. Across our live events, we’ll be plumbing the deep thinking required in this crisis-ridden world, looking for hope and to the stars, devouring visual feasts and poetry, and honouring International Women’s Day. We’ll look to the past, the rapidly changing present and always to the future, through memoir, poetry, polemic, essay, photograph, comics, illustration, speculation and pure literary expression.
Our arms are open to all readers – book-loving regulars and curious newbies – eager to come together, make connections, listen, look, learn and have fun. With more than 75 sessions, special events, free launches and parties to choose from, there is something to tempt every reader. Though be warned: space at some sessions is limited. Book early. Come to our Thursday opening night gala (it will be quite a show) and over the following three days fill your minds, meet like-minded others and revel in the power, joy and sheer fun of words.
MARK CUBEY
Manager, Writers & Readers
YOUR W&R GUIDE
You may have enjoyed Writers & Readers many times before, or this may be your first time. Either way, this handy step-by-step guide will make your Writers & Readers long weekend (8–11 March) a breeze.
STEP 1 - CHOOSE YOUR SESSIONS
Sessions are numbered for easy reference, like this: Session #. There are plenty of launches, parties and other free events to choose from. Writers On the Road may be coming to a town near you. This brochure is just your starting point. You can read more about our guest writers and their sessions online at www.festival.co.nz/writers
STEP 2 - BUY YOUR TICKETS
Tickets are all $19 (plus booking fee) unless noted otherwise. All sessions are General Admission (first there, best seated). If you’re quick, you can pick up a Take 5 Pass for a 20% discount on five sessions. Only until 23 February, while stocks last. Book two sessions or more and you are automatically in the draw to win a relaxing Pacific Island holiday for two. A perfect destination for uninterrupted reading! It’s easy to book online at www.festival.co.nz/writers You can shortlist your favourite sessions, book multiple shows, add them to your calendar and more.
STEP 3 - HAVE FUN
Enjoy our new waterfront location and venues:
MFC RENOUF Michael Fowler Centre and the Renouf Foyer
FESTIVAL CLUB The pop-up spiegeltent Festival Clubat Odlin’s Plaza
CIRCA 1 CIRCA 2 CIRCA FOYER Circa Theatre’s two auditoriums, and newly refurbished foyer.
Stroll from session to session, grab food, coffee and drinks from the café in Circa Theatre, nearby waterfront food trucks or the Festival Club. Hours vary.
STEP 4 - READ, READ, READ
Official Writers & Readers bookseller Unity Books has got your reading needs covered. Books from guest writers are available in store now, and you can browse three onsite Festival bookshops – at Circa Theatre and Renouf foyers and popping up for each session at the Festival Club. Be sure to ask your favourite authors to sign a book for you after their sessions.
STEP 5 - GET SOCIAL
Bring a friend, make a friend and tell your friends all about it:
Twitter / Facebook / Instagram: NZFestival
Twitter: NZFWriters
#NZFestival #NZFWriters
BOOKING TICKETS
BOOKING PERIODS
Take 5 Pass holders and supporters of The Culture Club: from 9am, Thursday 1 February
Public sales: from 9am, Thursday 8 February
HOW TO BOOK
Online: festival.co.nz or ticketmaster.co.nz
Phone: 0800 120 071
In person: at Ticketmaster agencies nationwide
Post: NZ Festival Writers & Readers Booking, c/o Ticketmaster, PO Box 106443, Auckland 1143
Email: To book your tickets by email, fill in the Writers & Readers booking form, scan and email to
Door sales: May be purchased at the venue one hour prior to the show – provided there are still tickets available!
Advance booking is highly recommended as many sessions sell out in advance.
Take 5 Pass holders: You will be emailed a unique booking code to redeem your Take 5 Pass in mid-January 2018 or immediately if you purchase at a later date. You can redeem your pass for tickets via Ticketmaster online, in person or by phone from Thursday 1 February. Your pass is valid for five $19 session tickets in any combination. You cannot gain entry by using your pass, you MUST exchange it for valid entry tickets at the box office.
TICKET PRICES AND SEATING
All tickets are general admission. Session tickets are $19 (plus booking fees) unless otherwise noted. Booking is not required for free events unless otherwise noted.
TICKETS FOR NEW ZEALAND FESTIVAL CLUB
Please note that all ticket holders for events at the Festival Club must be over 18 or accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.
TICKETMASTER BOOKING FEES
Ticketmaster booking fees apply to all ticket purchases, including door sales.
Phone, email and postal bookings: $11 per transaction.
Internet bookings: Tickets posted, picked up at a venue or printed at home: $5 per transaction; tickets couriered: $9 per transaction.
Ticketmaster Box Offices: $2 per ticket (in advance at St James Theatre and i-Site at Michael Fowler Centre, and door sales from venue box offices).
Credit cards: A payment processing fee of no more than 2.3% applies to purchases by credit card, debit card or gift card.
ACCESS INFORMATION
Please advise at the time of booking if you have any special seating requirements, including wheelchair and/ or companion seating, to ensure that suitable seating is allocated, or other necessary arrangements made. Go to festival.co.nz/access for more information.
DISCLAIMER / IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Information in this programme is correct at the time of printing. The New Zealand Festival reserves the right to alter without prior notice any advertised schedule of artists or events. All ticket purchases are subject to availability at the time of booking. Tickets are not transferable and there are no refunds or exchanges permitted, except as required under New Zealand consumer law.
Prison Voices
Thursday 8 March
12–4.30pm
Rumataka Prison
$49 via ballot
Inside Rimutaka and Arohata prisons, prisoners are producing extraordinary written work, facilitated by the Write Where You Are Collective. We offer you a unique opportunity to participate with invited guest writers and prisoners in this interactive workshop event and listen to rarely heard voices.
Tickets are limited to 80 places, and are available only by entering the ballot at festival.co.nz/prison, which closes on 7 February. Successful ticket holders will catch the Writers & Readers bus from outside Te Papa to Rimutaka Prison, and attend one of two simultaneous sessions with male or female prisoners, coordinated by Pip Adam, William Brandt, Rajorshi Chakraborti, Gigi Fenster and other members of the Write Where You Are team.
In association with The Write Where You Are Trust, Arts Access Aotearoa and the Department of Corrections
Ticket holders must be aged over 18. Duration includes bus travel to and from Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt.
VUW Launch: Literary Atlas
Thursday 8 March
10.45–11.15am
Festival Club
FREE
Come to the launch and be one of the first to download the Victoria University of Wellington’s Literary Atlas app to your smartphone or tablet and take yourself on a stroll around Wellington’s waterfront in the virtual company of some of Wellington’s favourite writers. Using geo-location tracking and augmented reality, you’ll tap into fascinating facts at each of the waterfront’s word sites, and get to play with writers’ words to create your own poetic masterpiece.
In association with Wai-te-ata Press
VUP Launch Party
Thursday 8 March
5.15–6.45pm
Festival Club
FREE
Victoria University Press warmly invites all writers and readers to its Festival publisher party. It’s a triple celebration: the launch of a new novel by Vincent O’Sullivan, All This by Chance; a memoir by Gigi Fenster, Feverish; and a new collection of poetry by Therese Lloyd, The Facts. To secure your invitation, RSVP to by 2 March.
Women Changing the World
Session 1
Thursday 8 March
7–8.30pm
Michael Fowler Centre
$49
Celebrate words and their power to make change on International Women’s Day – and the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage. Bring a friend or five for a fast-paced night of short, spirited shots from guests from all around the world.
Performer, broadcaster and author Michele A’Court introduces an array of witty, talented and clever women as they deliver a powerhouse mashup of poetry, manifesto, rave, entreaty, revelation and confession – all illustrated live on stage by the playful League of Live Illustrators.
Enjoy the good company of:
• New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh
• broadcaster Kim Hill
• novelist Charlotte Wood
• fantasy champion Charlie Jane Anders
• poet and memoirist Patricia Lockwood
• free-range cook Annabel Langbein
• farmer and falconer Rachel Stewart
• The Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes
• performance poet Harry Giles and others.
And continue the celebration at the pop-up Festival Club from 9.30pm. All welcome.
Lloyd Jones: The Cage
Session 2
Friday 9 March
10-11am
Renouf Foyer, Michael Fowler Centre
$19
Award-winning author Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip, The Book of Fame) is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated and internationally recognised authors. His bestselling novel Mister Pip was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, and won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award and the 2007 Montana Medal for fiction.
Jones’s eagerly awaited new novel The Cage – his first in seven years – is a profound and unsettling tale about humanity, dignity and the ease with which we can justify brutality. He talks about his book with Australian author Charlotte Wood (The Natural Way of Things), who has delved into Jones’ work in her collection of interviews The Writer’s Room.
PARTNERED BY NZ Listener
Sarah Glidden & Mimi Pond: Graphically Personal
Session 3
Friday 9 March
10-11am
Circa 1
$19
Two gifted American comics artists mine challenging personal stories in graphic form. Sarah Glidden is at the forefront of a generation of journalists telling important stories through comics with Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq and How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less. Mimi Pond has produced two volumes of a graphic semi-memoir set in the 1970s Oakland sex, drugs ’n’ diner scene: the award-winning bestseller Over Easy and new saga The Customer Is Always Wrong. They discuss the personal and political with local comics creator Sarah Laing.
Francis Spufford: Electric Eclecticism
Session 4
Friday 9 March
11.30am – 12.30pm
Renouf Foyer, Michael Fowler Centre
$19
British author Francis Spufford has written about science, history, politics, theology and technology, and he is now making a name for himself as a novelist with his 2016 debut Golden Hill, which won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, the Costa Book Awards first novel prize and more. His latest book, True Stories & Other Essays, is a career-spanning collection of his book extracts, blog posts, journalism, book reviews, talks and speeches. He talks with writer and academic Ingrid Horrocks about his impressive career.
Jock Serong: All at Sea
Session 5
Friday 9 March
11.30am – 12.30pm
Festival Club
$19
Refugees in desperate flight, surveillance technology and political chicanery – all woven into a novel ripped straight from the headlines. Award-winning Australian crime writer Jock Serong set his explosive new thriller On the Java Ridge on the seas between Australia and Indonesia as well as the more treacherous halls of power in Canberra. It engages with timely issues of liberty, power and realpolitik, which he discusses in more depth with writer Pip Adam.
Running the Numbers
Session 6
Friday 9 March
11.30am – 12.30pm
Circa 1
$19
Self-confessed nerdy data journalist Keith Ng joined the New Zealand Herald in late 2017 to assist investigative business reporter Matt Nippert with his “old-timey artisanal mining” of data. Their task: to scoop up and sieve buckets of numbers for deep analysis, then make it insightful and accessible for readers. Settle in for a jest-packed visual presentation from two experienced journalists who have embraced new ways of reporting, and discover how playing with numbers led to media scoops on tax and Kiwisaver.
Elspeth Sandys & Renée: Looking Back
Session 7
Friday 9 March
11.30am – 12.30pm
Circa 2
$19
Two forwardthinking women look back. Renee started writing at the age of 50. Thirty-eight years, 20 plays and eight novels later, she still teaches workshops on the Kāpiti Coast and was recently awarded the Playmarket Award for her significant contribution to New Zealand theatre. She tells her story in These Two Hands. Another multidisciplinary writer (novels, short stories, plays, adaptations) is Elspeth Sandys, who tells more of her own story in Casting Off, the sequel to her 2014 memoir, What Lies Beneath. They talk to author and publisher Mary McCallum.
Commonwealth Now
Session 8
Friday 9 March
1.15-2.15pm
Renouf Foyer, Michael Fowler Centre
$19
Seventy years since the Commonwealth of Nations was formed to maintain a “free and equal” association between former British colonies, the rise of populism, Brexit and other fast-moving changes have set traditional alliances wavering. Indigenous Australian writer Melissa Lucashenko, Malaysian writer Bernice Chauly and New Zealand poet Selina Tusitala Marsh feature in the new special “Commonwealth” edition of the Australian Griffith Review, and reflect on our common future with Griffith Review editor Julianne Schultz.
PARTNERED BY NZ Listener
Science & Magic
Session 9
Friday 9 March
1.15-2.15pm
Festival Club
$19
Arthur C Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Charlie Jane Anders’s glorious fantasy novel debut, All the Birds in the Sky, features a star-crossed young witch and a genius technologist. Cory Doctorow writes copiously about technology and creates ideas-rich science fiction and graphic novels for young and old. Intan Paramaditha takes inspiration from horror, myths and fairy tales for her tales of sexuality, culture and politics. They talk with local practitioner Darusha Wehm.