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Auckland Writers Festival

Just a few writers who will appear at Kupu Festival (Image: Archi Banal)
Opinion
27th May, 2022

Kupu Festival will be life-changing for Māori readers and writers

It celebrates some of our greatest writers from the past, present and future, in a space that reminds us of the power of being Māori.
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By Shilo Kino
Guest writer
The audience at the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival (Photo by Patrick Reynolds; photo illustration by Archi Banal)
3rd April, 2022

Fiona Kidman: Why I love literary festivals

We leave behind our books, our signatures, our dirty linen in hotel rooms. We take away a renewed belief in what we are doing.
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By Fiona Kidman
Guest writer
A candid shot from the Auckland Writers Festival (Photo: Patrick Reynolds)
17th May, 2021

All the best zingers (and the odd clanger) from the Auckland Writers Festival

Cracks and quips by our country's best writers.
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By Catherine Woulfe
Books editor
Helen’s father Pat Kelly (far right), along with Hugh McLeod, editorial board chair of People’s Voice, meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong in China, 1967 (Photo: Kelly family collection)
14th May, 2021

Chinese censors refuse publication of NZ union leader Helen Kelly’s story

She is one of the most beloved socialist figures in New Zealand. Chinese printers said: 'We will cancel this title.'
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By Catherine Woulfe
Books editor
Marilynne Robinson (Photo: Alec Soth/Magnum Photo)
9th May, 2021

Deprogramme yourself: Author Marilynne Robinson on seeing beauty in everything

Ahead of her appearance at the Auckland Writers Festival, the much-loved Gilead author talks to Sam Brooks.
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By Sam Brooks
Staff feature writer
(Photo: cunfek via Getty Images)
12th March, 2021

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending March 12

Books for the very best season of all.
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By The Spinoff Review of Books
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The staff of Unity Books Auckland raise a glass to their huge win (Photo: instagram.com/unitybooksauckland)
13th March, 2020

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending March 13

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.
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By The Spinoff Review of Books
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An author searches for her fans (Photo: Temara Chapman)
30th December, 2019

Here’s what happens when no one shows up to your writers festival event

Summer reissue: Madeleine Chapman wrote a book and was asked to speak about it at a writers festival. The problem was, nobody wanted to listen.
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By Madeleine Chapman
Editor
Toby Manhire and Jacinda Ardern at the Aotea Centre for the Auckland Writers Festival
25th May, 2019

Reliving the 2017 election with Jacinda Ardern

In this bonus edition of Gone By Lunchtime, the prime minister talks to Toby Manhire at the Auckland Writers Festival
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By Gone by Lunchtime
A broadcast for iPods
The Papercuts squad with Auckland Writers Festival guest, novelist Elaine Castillo
21st May, 2019

Papercuts podcast: Live on tape from the Auckland Writers Festival

Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.
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By Papercuts Podcast
Guest writer
The New Zealand Wars: acknowledging ‘an almost incomprehensible level of loss’
17th May, 2019

The New Zealand Wars: acknowledging ‘an almost incomprehensible level of loss’

In this startling extract from his new book, The New Zealand Wars Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa, Vincent O'Malley explains how the decimation of Māori in Tūranga "completely eclipsed" the country's losses in Gallipoli. 
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By Vincent O'Malley
Guest writer
An author searches for her fans (Photo: Temara Chapman)
17th May, 2019

Here’s what happens when no one shows up to your writers festival event

Madeleine Chapman wrote a book and was asked to speak about it at a writers festival. The problem was, nobody wanted to listen.
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By Madeleine Chapman
Editor
Akala performs live on stage at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on April 27, 2018 in London, England.  Photo by Ollie Millington/Redferns
16th May, 2019

Auckland teens on racism, misogyny, body image, art, class… and Shakespeare

Sam Brooks has a transcendent experience at the part of the Auckland Writers Festival grown-ups never hear about: the school sessions.
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By Sam Brooks
Staff feature writer
Fig. 26: 19.11.1991. Velvet Crescent, Otara, south Auckland. Fatu Feu‘u. Tufuga tātatau: Su‘a Sulu‘ape Paulo. © Mark Adams
15th May, 2019

Red roses, cartoons and tatau: an extract from a newly-crowned Ockhams winner

Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing won the Illustrated Non-Fiction category at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards last night. Here, authors Sean Mallon and Sebastien Galliot detail how the tattoos of other cultures are bleeding into Sāmoa, and vice versa. 
By Sean Mallon and Sebastien Galliot
Guest writer
How Marilyn Waring became an MP aged 23
11th May, 2019

How Marilyn Waring became an MP aged 23

A saddle sore, a teal bridesmaid's dress and the Ngāruawāhia High School hall: how Marilyn Waring became the National candidate for Raglan. 
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By Marilyn Waring
Guest writer
Supplejack in situ. Photo:  Robert Vennell
8th May, 2019

The misunderstood mongrels of the New Zealand bush

Turns out two of our most-loathed bush dwellers – supplejack and ongaonga – are at once way more annoying and way more fascinating than we gave them credit for. 
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By Robert Vennell
Guest writer
We have 16 seriously covetable NZ books for you, thanks to the Ockham Awards
8th May, 2019

We have 16 seriously covetable NZ books for you, thanks to the Ockham Awards

All of the books shortlisted for the country’s shiniest literary gongs at this year’s Auckland Writers Festival are boxed up in some publicist’s back room, just waiting to be shipped to YOU!!
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By Catherine Woulfe
Books editor
Image: Mark Tock
6th May, 2019

Review: The Library Book is a thrilling tale of fire, loss and renewal

As Wellington and Waikanae face a winter without two beloved libraries, Marion McLeod reviews The Library Book, a hymn to a library that burned. 
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By Marion McLeod
Guest writer
Actor/songwriter/author Val Emmich adapted Dear Evan Hansen from a musical (Photo: Supplied)
5th May, 2019

“The book was a way to confront the trauma I had been ignoring”

Playwright and Spinoff culture editor Sam Brooks talks to Val Emmich, author of Dear Evan Hansen, about the process of adapting a smash Broadway musical into a book.
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By Sam Brooks
Staff feature writer
Embracing the void: a powerhouse writer turns to self-publishing
15th April, 2019

Embracing the void: a powerhouse writer turns to self-publishing

Stephanie Johnson is an acclaimed, multi-award-winning New Zealand author, and also the co-founder of the Auckland Writers Festival. But could she get her latest novel published? Yeah, nah.
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By Stephanie Johnson
Guest writer

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