Ōtautahi’s annual writers festival returns in September with something for everyone. Books editor Claire Mabey seeks out the highlights.

Amid bleak news associated with the latest round of Creative New Zealand funding – particularly that the South Island received only 10% of the pūtea (paywalled) – last week’s programme launch of one of Aotearoa’s longest-running writers festivals was a ray of sunlight slicing through storm clouds.

WORD Christchurch has a reputation for presenting a dynamic range of events and these days largely with local writers. Once upon a time when funding was more fruitful, regional writers festivals had the capacity to welcome more international guests to our fair shores. Now it’s mostly homegrown talent filling the programme booklet, and this edition of WORD proves that can lead to punchy, inventive curation – and the return of the Covid-era digital event, too.

Here are 10 events not to miss.

Green Sea by John Summers, 5.30pm, Wednesday 2 September

I’m very excited for this book. John Summers is one of our best essayists and I’ve been hearing tantalising tidbits about this idea – to explore John’s great fear of being lost in the wilderness – for a while now and have been growing impatient for the results. This special launch event is free (but please RSVP) and where you can squeeze in to be among the first hear all about it and buy it up, too.

The Silver Book: Art & Desire in Italy with Olivia Laing, 6pm, Thursday 3 September

The Silver Book was one of my favourite novels of 2025: a beautiful, painful story set in 1970s Italy where Fellini and Pasolini are making spectacular cinema. Laing will be beaming in from their home in the UK and speaking with Kiran Dass, WORD’s programme director and long-time Laing fan. I’m predicting the steady return of these Covid-era digital events over the next few years as the cost of travel fluffs budgets and arts funding remains woefully inadequate (I hope I’m wrong but we’ve been saying this for 20 plus years). But digital events can be fantastic: intimate, large-scale, and smooth so long as the tech holds up. Fingers crossed.

The Crash: Sally Wenley, 12pm, Friday 4 September

Sally Wenley’s memoir, The Crash, is as phenomenal as Sally herself. In 1987 a terrible school bus crash made Wenley, a highly active, athletic student, a paraplegic: her life changed instantly and irrevocably. She’s a brilliant speaker and this is bound to be a riveting hour in great company.

Cabinet of Curiosities: Tiny Lectures on the Weird and Wonderful, 6.30pm, Friday 4 September

This is one of my favourite events full stop. It was masterminded by former WORD director Rachael King and is such a hit that it’s still a festival staple. The idea is that six writers give a mini-lecture on something they’re obsessed with. That premise gives rise to the strange and the ridiculous, the sublime and the stunning. It’s a sure-fire good time and you’ll definitely learn something fresh about your fellow humans.

Leather & Chains Live!, 8.30pm, Friday 4 September

No-brainer. Wherever Kate Camp and her diary are so you must be. Leather & Chains is the name of the book edition of Camp’s hilarious, serious, marvellous 1986 diary and when Camp reads from it the whole world tilts to attention. Just go.

Reading for Pleasure Book Salon, 10am, Saturday 5 September

I genuinely believe we all need to take care of our minds in the way we’re being bullied into taking care of our protein needs. There is nothing better for the brain than reading for pleasure: it’s both a holiday and a workout. Get that longform goodness into your neurons and stave off the phone addiction; a book a week keeps back the bleak, or something (I’ll work on it). This salon is full of book nerds who just want to help (including me, maverick author Charlotte Grimshaw, gorgeous writer Shariff Burke and the high priestess of Aotearoa books, Kate De Goldi). We’ll be talking about three books that have inspired our latest publications and probably more beyond that, too.

Small Press, Big Impact, 10.30, Saturday 5 September

Sometimes to get things done you have to do it yourself. In Aotearoa we have an amazing network of indie presses who are filling the gaps in the mainstream publishing lists and earning some huge wins while they’re at it. This event brings Murdoch Stephens (Lawrence & Gibson, a publishing collective that turns 21 this year), Damien Levi of Āporo Press (publisher of Laura Vincent’s award-winning Hoods Landing), and Laura Borrowdale (ngā pukapuka pekapeka who are about to publish a thrilling looking collection from poet Rebecca Hawkes) together to discuss the publishing eco-system and how they’re changing it for the better.

Elizabeth Knox & Charlotte Grimshaw with Noelle McCarthy, 4pm, Saturday 5 September

What a lineup. Three of the best writers in Aotearoa all in one go. Knox’s Night, Ma and McCarthy’s Stakes are two of the best memoirs I’ve read in a very long time. Grimshaw is of course the author of The Mirror Book, the memoir that started this wave of brilliance, and is author of the novel The Black Monk which plays with that same material through a fictional lens. I would not be missing this one fellas. This is envy-making programming and will make for a fascinating insight into how three brilliant, but very different, writers go about arranging their own lives on the page.

Secret Art Powers with Jo Randerson, 6.30pm, Saturday 5 September

Theatre maker and writer Jo Randerson is uniquely placed to evangelise about art and convert us all to the benefits of bringing art into our daily lives (Important side note: Randerson’s company Barbarian Productions was one of the arts organisations subject to a significant decrease in CNZ funding in the recent round: decreased by two-thirds in fact. You can read their elegantly-worded statement about it on Barbarian’s Facebook page). Secret Arts Powers, the book and the live lectures, is personal, political, funny and visionary. Randerson is a force of nature and I highly recommend spending time in their world. You’ll be all the better for it.

Dave Dobbyn, 4pm, Sunday 6 September

What inspired ‘Outlook for Thursday’? What’s Dobbyn’s own favourite song? What’s a favourite album that’s not one of his? Has Dobbyn ever been peer pressured into playing the ‘Loyal’ drinking game? These are the basic questions I hope get asked of Sir Dave at this lovely event celebrating one of the best songwriters in the land.

There’s plenty more folks, see the full programme online here.