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Auckland Writers Festival

Just a handful of the authors coming to Auckland Writers Festival in May 2025.

Look who’s coming to Auckland Writers Festival 2025

Our picks for this year's most unmissable sessions.
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By Claire Mabey | 12th March, 2025
Books editor
Why are book festivals thriving while the publishing industry is struggling?

Why are book festivals thriving while the publishing industry is struggling?

While record audiences are flocking to festivals, publishers are shrinking and shops are closing down. What’s eating the books sector?
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By Claire Mabey | 24th May, 2024
Books editor
Just some of the many writers in Auckland Writers Festival 2024. (Image: Tina Tiller)

The Auckland Writers Festival 2024 lineup is here, and it’s a belter

Our top picks from the hefty programme that landed this week.
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By Claire Mabey | 15th March, 2024
Books editor
Image: Tina Tiller

‘I wanted everybody to feel uncomfortable’: An interview with Eleanor Catton

From protests to politics; bathwater to Birnam Wood – a behind-the-scenes look at who and what influenced Eleanor Catton’s latest bestseller.
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By Claire Mabey | 5th January, 2024
Books editor
Lyndsey Fineran is the new director of The Auckland Writers Festival (Image: Archi Banal)

‘Mary Beard Wikipedia’d the plot to Medea’: Lyndsey Fineran’s best author encounters

The Auckland Writers Festival's new artistic director on living in the book festival world, and what she's reading right now.
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By The Spinoff Review of Books | 15th November, 2023
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Joshua Whitehead and Essa Ranapiri (Image: Tina Tiller)

Essa Ranapiri and Joshua Whitehead: a kōrero of Indigiqueer proportions

From Keri Hulme to Denny's, writing styles to book recs: settle in for an epic conversation between two poets across land and sea.
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By essa may ranapiri | 17th May, 2023
Guest writer
Image: Tina Tiller

‘I wanted everybody to feel uncomfortable’: An interview with Eleanor Catton

From protests to politics; bathwater to Birnam Wood – a behind-the-scenes look at who and what influenced Eleanor Catton’s latest bestseller.
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By Claire Mabey | 13th May, 2023
Books editor
Bill Hayes takes in millennia of exercising (Image: Archi Banal)

Working up a Sweat: Bill Hayes on tracing the long history of exercise

'How did we end up here in gyms? When did exercising begin?'
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By Shanti Mathias | 30th April, 2023
Contributing writer
(Image: Archi Banal)

What not to miss at the Auckland Writers Festival 2023

Not sure where to start with the bustling festival programme? Here are our top 10 picks.
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By Claire Mabey | 25th March, 2023
Books editor
New Zealand’s literary festivals are constantly evolving (Design: Archi Banal)

Are Aotearoa literary festivals doomed?

Lit festivals need to change, warns a recent Guardian article. But they are, constantly, says one festival organiser.
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By Claire Mabey | 6th September, 2022
Books editor
US writer/filmmaker David Shields is holding a workshop at the Auckland Writers Festival next Saturday. (Photo: supplied; Image: Tina Tiller)

‘Unbelievable nakedness’: Author David Shields’ impossible quest for reality

'I was trying to write and read and teach conventional, realistic, linear fiction. And I was bored out of my mind.'
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By Megan Dunn | 21st August, 2022
Guest writer
Lynda Chanwai-Earle in Kā-Shue, returning to the Auckland Writer’s Festival this month. (Photo: Dianna Thomsen Photography, Image Design: Tina Tiller)

The groundbreaking Kā-Shue returns

The first major New Zealand-Chinese play returns for the Auckland Writers Festival.
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By Sam Brooks | 15th August, 2022
Contributing writer
Just a few writers who will appear at Kupu Festival (Image: Archi Banal)
Opinion

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 | 27th May, 2022
Guest writer
The audience at the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival (Photo by Patrick Reynolds; photo illustration by Archi Banal)

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 | 3rd April, 2022
Guest writer
A candid shot from the Auckland Writers Festival (Photo: Patrick Reynolds)

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 | 17th May, 2021
Contributing writer
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)

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 | 14th May, 2021
Contributing writer
Marilynne Robinson (Photo: Alec Soth/Magnum Photo)

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 | 9th May, 2021
Contributing writer
(Photo: cunfek via Getty Images)

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 | 12th March, 2021
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The staff of Unity Books Auckland raise a glass to their huge win (Photo: instagram.com/unitybooksauckland)

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 | 13th March, 2020
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An author searches for her fans (Photo: Temara Chapman)

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 | 30th December, 2019
Editor

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    The Spinoff is subject to NZ Media Council procedures. A complaint must be first directed in writing, within one month of publication, to info@thespinoff.co.nz. If not satisfied with the response, the complaint may be referred to the online complaint form at www.presscouncil.org.nz along with a link to the relevant story and all correspondence with the publication.

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