Record Numbers at Auckland Writers Festival

Auckland Writers Festival Opens with Attendance at an All-Time High

Record numbers are expected to attend the country’s biggest festival of words and ideas, the Auckland Writers Festival, which opens today.

Ticket issues for the more than 100 festival events are tracking to match, if not exceed, the 53,500 attendances in 2014.

The Festival features some of the world’s leading scientists, novelists, historians, children’s writers, poets and playwrights including Haruki Murakami who was recently named one of the world’s 100 most influential figures; the biggest UK children’s author to debut this century, David Walliams; every boys’ favourite comical hero Captain Underpants (aka Dav Pilkey); respected New Zealand poet, critic and novelist, C.K. Stead; UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy; globally renowned medical writer and surgeon Atul Gawande; Scottish actor, writer, broadcaster, director, producer and musician Alan Cumming; lauded New Zealand artist and writer Grahame Sydney; Australian National Living TreasureTim Winton; New Zealand’s favourite satirical writer Steve Braunias; British investigative journalist Nick Davies, responsible for uncovering the News of the World phone hacking affair; New Zealand law legend Sir Peter Williams QC; Booker Prize winning novelist and poet Ben Okri; festival co-founder and award-winning novelist Stephanie Johnson; England’s über scientist Philip Ball; internationally-acclaimed NZ singer/songwriter Hollie Fullbrook (aka TINY RUINS); Australia’s biggest-selling non-fiction writer Peter FitzSimons; outspoken Chinese journalist and writer Xinran; multi-award winning New Zealand novelist Witi Ihimaera and New York’s most irresistible literary critic Daniel Mendelsohn.

The Festival, now in its 15th year, runs until 17 May.

Festival director, Anne O’Brien says she is delighted to be offering events of such interest to New Zealanders.

“New Zealanders have always had a strong appetite for books and writing and it is hugely pleasing to see so many choosing to celebrate their love of the written word within the Festival experience, amongst inquisitive fellow book-lovers.”

“We are also thrilled for the authors, 37 of whom have travelled from the Northern Hemisphere to share their books and ideas with us alongside their New Zealand counterparts,” says Ms O’Brien.

The festival offers a huge variety of events including interviews, debates, conversations, poetry, readings, children’s events, workshops, concerts, lunches and soap box stir-ups.

While several of this year’s headline sessions have sold out, there are still tickets available to many events including: An Evening with Alan Cumming, Captain Underpants, Hack Attack, H is for Hawk: Helen Macdonald; The Media Revolution and An Hour with Tim Winton.

There are 39 FREE events in the festival, part of the festival’s commitment to ensuring there is something to appeal to all budgets.

The Festival’s Family Day runs all day Sunday, 17 May. Crafted for 2-10 year olds, some of the country’s favourite children’s writers feature, including: Raymond McGrath, Jenny Palmer, Zak Waipara and Donovan Bixley, who will entertain with cartoon workshops, rhyming, crafting, reading and drawing. Family Day events are FREE, but some are ticketed for capacity so be sure to check the festival website for details.

The Festival Debate returns, with the moot: Everyone Has An Absolute Right to Offend. The New Yorker’s media correspondent Ken Auletta, British investigative journalist Nick Davies, English comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes and novelist and scientist Jaspreet Singh argue the toss, with Linda Clark as Chair to keep the democratic peace.

The Festival’s Gala Night theme is True Stories Told Live: Straight Talking. On Thursday 14 May, Eight writers deliver a seven-minute true story, propless and scriptless. Be entertained by Kiwi comedian and author Michele A’Court, US novelist Amy Bloom, The Good Wife star and memoirist Alan Cumming, Australia’s best-selling non-fiction writer Peter FitzSimons, Waitangi Tribunal member and writer Aroha Harris, Booker Prize-winning novelist Ben Okri, celebrated short-story writer Nic Low and Australian public intellectual Helen Garner.

Join us in what promises to be an insightful and poignant conversation with this year’s Honoured New Zealand Writer – C.K. Stead. Stead’s singular place in the cultural life of this country is celebrated in this FREE session to end the festival on Sunday 17 May at 6pm.

Take part in a giant, public book club celebrating this year’s Great Kiwi Classic: Owls do Cry by Janet Frame on Sunday 17 May at 4.30pm.

The poets are out in force this year with British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy in two events: The World’s Wife performed with Rachel Houseand Fiona Samuel and music by Dave Long and a solo session chaired by our very own John Campbell; Irish poet Vona Groake judges this year’s Sarah Broom Poetry Prize; the slamming sensation that is Poetry Idol is always a great night out; and you can spend an hour discovering a different beat to Singapore with the country’s grand-master poet, Edwin Thumboo.

Solo actress extraordinaire, Rebecca Vaughan returns following a sell-out season of Austen’s Women in Dalloway; an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.

Art, animals and the people who write about them feature in the Festival’s Gallery series. UK scientist Philip Ball talks Colour in Art; Lloyd Spencer Davis reveals all about penguins from his journeys to Antarctica, The Galapagos and Argentina; Greg O’Brien incorporates poems from his latest collection Whale Years in a session infused with the sound and visuals from Phil Dadson; one of New Zealand’s most influential archaeologists, Dave Veart introduces us to the history of New Zealand toys, explaining why boys made butter churns out of meccano instead of buildings in Seriously Fun; Jim Allen, will inspire and challenge in The Skin of Years and anthropologist Helen Leach explains that a lot more happens in the kitchen than just making scones in At The Bench.

The Auckland Writers Festival warmly thanks its Gold Partners: The University of Auckland, Freemasons Foundation, New Zealand Listener, ASB Community Trust, Creative New Zealand and ATEED; and all our Silver, Bronze and Supporting Partners.

We are enormously grateful to our Festival patrons for their enthusiasm and generosity.

Go to www.ticketmaster.co.nz to purchase tickets. For the full 2015 Auckland Writers Festival programme go to www.writersfestival.co.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media