Writers confirmed for Writers' Festival

The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival 2008
July 18, 2008

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME WILL BE RELEASED JULY 23!

4 – 7 SEPTEMBER 2008

Writers confirmed for The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival

International Writers
Robert Fisk (Lebanon/UK), Kate Atkinson (UK), Anya Ulinich (Russia/USA), Marion Halligan (Australia), Mark Billingham (UK), Mark Carthew (Australia), Geoff Page (Australia), Sara Knox (New Zealand/Australia), Dr Norman Doidge (Canada), Arnold Zable (Australia), Kate Mosse (UK), Mark Sarvas (USA), Vanessa Collingridge (UK), Xinran (China/UK), Toby Eady (UK), Francis Spufford (UK), Ben Hills (Australia), Joseph Delaney (UK)

New Zealand Writers
Hamish Campbell, Bernard Beckett, Lloyd Spencer-Davis, Craig Potton, Neville Peat, Steve Braunias, Alison Ballance, Hamish Keith, Maxine Alterio, Penelope Todd, Michele Leggott, Elizabeth Knox, David Veart, Joanne Drayton, Vanda Symon, Jill Trevelyan, Fiona Kidman, Glen Colquhoun, Hinemoana Baker, Karlo Mila, Hana O’Regan, Charlotte Randall, Sam Mahon, Paul Cleave, Kate Fraser, Pat Unger, Joe Bennett, Bernadette Hall, Tusiata Avia, James Norcliffe, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Richard Till, Chris Orsman, Rachael King, Rebecca Priestley, Owen Marshall, Brian Turner, Te Maire Tau, Rhian Gallagher, Felicity Price, Gavin Bishop, Lloyd Jones, Lisa Blaker, Christine Leunens, Tom Weston, Kon Kuiper, Mary McCallum, Jill Marshall, Donna Robertson

The largest number of international writers to ever attend a South Island writers’ festival will read, discuss, debate and entertain with topics as diverse as Cook’s abilities as a cartographer through to modern day migration, Middle East conflict through to women in modern China, the art of science through to the art of painting. There will be sessions and panel discussions at the Christchurch Town Hall, exhibitions at Canterbury Museum and Christchurch Art Gallery, a song-writing panel, a political theatre satire, a visit to Dame Ngaio Marsh’s house and plenty more.

Writers include:
Robert Fisk, bestselling author and journalist based in Beirut as Middle East correspondent of the Independent, Xinran, author and journalist now living in London, whose latest book China Witness unlocks the secret history of modern China, Kate Atkinson who wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and has been an international bestselling author ever since, Kate Mosse, whose historical thriller Labyrinth has been translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries, Norman Doidge, Canadian research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has presented his scientific research at the White House, Vanessa Collingridge, whose book on Captain Cook was made into the prize-winning documentary series Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery, Mark Billingham, UK crime writer, Lloyd Jones, freshly back from his writer’s residency in Menton, Jill Trevelyan whose biography on Rita Angus coincides with a major exhibition on this much-loved New Zealand painter, and many, many more.

Bookings for all sessions and events for The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival 2008 will open July 23 at Christchurch Central Library with the release of the full festival programme.

ENDS

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