We’ve scoured the 2026 programme for the most unmissable events.

For readers and writers across Aotearoa the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is book Christmas. Between May 12-17, tens of thousands of punters will fill the halls of Aotea Centre, and beyond, with the sounds of excitable chatter, book buying and coffee-quaffing as they flock to participate in over 170 events with more than 220 writers from Aotearoa and the world.

I gasped when I saw this year’s programme. AWF’s Artistic Director Lyndsey Fineran has at long last delivered on the holy grail of lit programming and gone and nabbed Helen Garner. I know for a fact that Garner has been invited to Aotearoa fifty squillion times but has been famously elusive, until now. Garner has, for want of a better term, gone off in the last 12 months. As one of Australia’s finest writers she’s been big down our way for decades, but with her collected diaries, How to End a Story, winning the Baillie Gifford prize at the end of last year (one of the most prestigious international awards for non-fiction), and her coverage of the infamous mushroom trial and book (The Mushroom Tapes with Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein) there’s been a surge of interest and much of that from readers new to her particular sharpness. I suspect Garner’s event at 7pm, Saturday May 16 (chaired by the one and only Emily Perkins, a perfect match) is going to sell out, and fast. This Mushroom Tapes session, too.

But that’s not all. Below are 10 more unmissable events from a ridiculously stacked programme (with some cheating, because picking just 10 of 170+ events is a fool’s game):

The free events

You don’t need to spend a cent to enjoy the riches of AWF. At least a quarter of the programme is free thanks to funders and sponsors and patrons and all the people who do have money to support (bless and may there be more of you for the rest of the country one day, too). Streetside: Britomart is a one-night-only mini-pre-festival-fest on Friday May 8. The Spinoff’s own Emma Gleason is one of the curators of the “bite-sized” events, experiences and performances (along with the D*List and Matariki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Hinerangi)) that you can just show up to, no registration or tickets needed. Pukapuka Adventures is a free, all-weekend programme of events for kids masterminded by AWF’s resident genius, Gabrielle Vincent (family and schools programmer) and features International Booker Prize winner Deepa Bhasthi reading her picture book Champi and the Fig Tree in English and Kannada, illustrator in residence Ruth Paul, a Dog Man and Cat Kid parade, and much more. Kōrero Corner is a series of drop-in events exploring facets of publishing where you can catch Inangaro Vakaafi discussing Pasifika authors she loves, The Big Idea editor Gabi Lardies interviewing writers on their publishing journeys, and Ockhams-shortlisted author of Hoods Landing Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) talking us through the characters that populate her story.

Patrick Radden Keefe

Another huge get. Radden Keefe is one of the world’s foremost long-form investigative journalists, in his Baillie Gifford prize-winning book Empire of Pain exposing the Sackler family’s role in the opioid crisis, and in his Orwell Prize winning Say Nothing, pulling back the veil on civilian disappearances during The Troubles. The latest book, London Falling, is a remarkable investigation into the death of a teenager at the hands of the rich and how that story leads into a consideration of the river Thames as a symbol of London’s underworld. Jack Tame is the lucky chap to host the conversation with Radden Keefe on Tuesday May 12, 8pm.

Plot Twist

A whole new fest-within-the-fest, Plot Fest takes over Q Theatre on Sunday May 17 and is designed to draw in the under-30s with a programme to “blend genres and break rules”. It features huge names such as RF Kuang, Rachel Smythe (Lore Olympus fame), Nikita Gill, Tusiata Avia, Amber Esau, Dominic Hoey, Mieko Kawakami and loads more (also me – I’ll be doing a tarot for creativity workshop and steering a conversation about Hell). Once you clap eyes on the printed programme you won’t miss it – it’s black and pink and hot.

Dav Pilkey

Wellington kids might not give a shit but Auckland’s little book nerds are going to be squeaking like puppies once they find out that Captain Underpants himself is touching down. On Sunday May 17 at 11.30am Pilkey is on the big stage (Kiri te Kanawa theatre) to take little readers inside the worlds of his bestselling books. The session sounds like it will be beautifully visual with live drawing promised; and a party vibe too with spot prizes and giveaways and trivia.

Witi Ihimaera: Swimming Home

A major free event with national taonga, matua Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ira, Ngāti Porou), dives into a forthcoming memoir of learning te reo Māori at the age of 80, Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer: I te Ao o te Reo. Te Kaikaukau relates Ihimaera’s year in a full-immersion course: “an odyssey of profound self-discovery – of loss and shame, of reconnection and wairua, of fathers and teachers, kuia and friends.” With Stacey Morrison (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu) chairing and with Ihimaera’s long-time collaborator for live events, musician Kingsley Spargo, also on stage this is sure to be a moving and essential hour.

Karen Hao

Karen Hao is a leading AI journalist and author of ground-breaking book Empire of AI, in which she uncovers OpenAI and the cataclysmic impact of that company on our minds, environment, workforce and more. Anyone remotely interested in the impact of AI on our lives needs to be at this event on Saturday May 16 at 11.30am (in the big theatre); and at a panel session the day before which also features Catherine Chidgey (whose novels were scraped by Anthropic) and Copyright Licensing New Zealand’s Sam Irvine who, with myself, will discuss the impact of AI on the publishing sector and on creativity at large.

A Shaken World Order?

It’s not the Auckland Writers Festival without a hard-hitting conversation about the state of the world. This year’s offering features three fascinating thinkers, Amitav Ghosh (major author from South East Asia), David Moscrop (Canadian political commentator and author of Too Dumb for Democracy?) and collapse risk expert Luke Kemp (author of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse). Susie Ferguson will helm the conversation which promises to grapple with the question of why the world is currently having to deal with the rise in authoritarianism, and the destabilisation of pretty much everything from the environment to the technological world we thought we could predict.

Big night out for little bookworms

Last year’s inaugural big night out for little bookworms (like a gala night for kids) sold out and was a huge success so Gabrielle Vincent (family and schools programmer) is doing it all again at 6pm, Friday May 15 with a fresh line-up of antics with children’s writers and illustrators including: an epic illustration battle between Toby Morris and Zac Waipara (Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ruapani, Ngāti Kahungunu), a kid-versus-adult book quiz, a brand new story created live with the audience’s ideas, a scene from forthcoming children’s show based on a story by Bill Manhire called Betsy Balloon, and all wrangled by queen Johanna Cosgrove.

Louise Erdrich

Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction and one of American’s greatest writers, Louise Erdrich (Objiwe) has brought indigenous storytelling to the world for decades through novels and poetry and short stories, but also through her work as owner of Birchbark books in Minneapolis. Given where she lives Erdrich is uniquely positioned to tell AWF audiences exactly what life has been like in Trump’s reign of ICE as well as look back on a remarkable and waymaking career. Erdrich is talking with Paula Morris in the afternoon on Sunday May 17, but also appears with The Spinoff’s own Toby Manhire in a panel conversation called “Writing in Today’s America”, and with Hēmi Kelly and David A. Robertson (Canada) in a panel called “Ngā reo taketake, te whakamāori me te tikanga / Indigenous languages, translation and meaning”.

Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au / I am the land and the land is me

Having just been to a fantastic kōrero in Te Whanganui-a-tara featuring Dr Jessica Hutchings called “Me aro koe ki te hā o Hineahuone – Pay heed to the dignity of our soils” I am urging everyone to go to this session at AWF. Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati) is author of Pātaka Kai: Growing Kai Sovereignty and will be joined in this panel conversation by Conservationist Tame Malcolm (Te Arawa, Ngāti Ruanui), maramataka practitioner Rikki Solomon (Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa) to discuss how disconnection from whenua, te taiao and food systems shape contemporary crises; and how reconnection might offer healing and healthier living for future generations. Chaired by Mandy Kupenga (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga a Mate) this is an urgent conversation for everyone (on Sunday May 17, 4pm).

Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki, including an epic schools programme, takes place between May 17-21. The full programme is online here from midday, March 11.