HB A Hot Bed Of Literary Talent

Move over Hawke’s Bay’s reputation for wine and fruit growing, the region is fast becoming a hotbed of literary talent with four local authors launching new fiction between late July and early August.

Catherine Robertson, author of bestselling novel Gabriel’s Bay, is first off the block with the first two titles of her new contemporary rom-com series, Corkscrew You and You’re so Vine in bookshops on 3rd July and officially launched on 23rd July. A week later Cristina Sanders, author of Ockham finalist Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant, presents Ōkiwi Brown – a historic murder set in Wellington with links to a grisly past. The next day Charity Norman, 2023 Ngaio Marsh award winner with Remember Me, offers her new novel, Home Truths, about a family torn apart by misinformation and lies. Two weeks later Wardini bookshop owners Louise and Gareth Ward reveal Dead Girl Gone, the first of their fledgling series The Bookshop Detectives, set in a bookshop a bit like Wardini’s, in a place a bit like Havelock North – but where murders abound.

Also to note, in May upcoming local writer Shelley Burne-Field launched her middle-grade (for 7-11 year-olds) novel Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie and Mary-anne Scott has a new book The Mess of Our Lives, also for young readers, coming later in the year.

“Hawke’s Bay is home to a ridiculously large number of popular and successful New Zealand writers, working in all genres: romance, crime and thriller, historical fiction, memoir, poetry, and books for young readers,” says Catherine Robertson, chair of the Hawke’s Bay Readers & Writers Trust.

“It’s not often we have so many launches in such a short space of time. It will be a fun and busy few weeks!”

And that’s not all. The Bay’s first writers’ residency at Rush Cottage in the heart of Black Barn vineyards was announced recently – with inaugural winner Sonia Yoshioka Braid. Then in October (18 -20), the annual Readers & Writers Festival, cementing its home in Havelock North, features most of the above local authors alongside national names such as Gavin Bishop, Rachael King and Monty Soutar.

“Sunshine, wine, festivals, no wonder authors find Hawke’s Bay such an engaging place to live and write,” says Cristina Sanders. She urges locals and book lovers from across the country to attend the four local launches (see listed below).

“Come and celebrate these regional writers who are putting Hawke’s Bay at the top of the list of ‘Great Places To Write a Book’.”

Launches:

Catherine Robertson: Corkscrew You and You’re so Vine, Tuesday 23 July, 5.30pm. Smith and Sheth Wine Bar.

Cristina Sanders: Ōkiwi Brown, Tuesday 30 July, 5.30pm. Duart House.

Charity Norman: HomeTruths, Wednesday 31st July, 5pm. Creative Arts Napier.

Gareth and Louise Ward: The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone Saturday 17th August, 7pm. Havelock North Function Centre.

www.hbreadersandwriters.co.nz

https://www.hbreadersandwriters.co.nz/rush-cottage-writers-residency

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