Writers From Around The World Head To Ōtautahi Christchurch This May With WORD Christchurch

WORD Christchurch will present three events in May, featuring award-winning writers from Norway, Scotland, Ireland and Aotearoa New Zealand: Dervla McTiernan, Michael Bennett, Kirsty Gunn, and Lars Mytting. These writers bring tales of crime, haunting stories, historical epics and a very Scandinavian love of firewood to us all this Autumn.

New Zealand loves a good crime story, whether true or fictitious. While bestselling and award-winning Irish crime writer and former lawyer Dervla McTiernan is now based in Australia, her books are still set in her native Ireland. Her much-anticipated new novel in the Cormac Reilly series, The Unquiet Grave is a white-knuckle thriller set in Galway. Michael Bennett’s (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) Carved in Blood is a gritty crime novel which sees the return of tenacious Māori investigator Hana Westerman from his award-winning Better the Blood. McTiernan and Bennett not only write strong and compelling lead characters, their books brim with a powerful sense of place and culture. They come together with Liz Grant to discuss their work.

One of New Zealand’s most strikingly inventive writers and sharpest critics, Scotland-based New Zealand writer Kirsty Gunn is an internationally published and award winning author of short stories, novels and essays. She’s back home with her latest book of short stories Pretty Ugly and joins WORD’s Programme Director Kiran Dass in conversation.

Gunn has a knack for bringing compassion and unease for the human condition in equal measure onto the page. Her haunting novella Rain was adapted into the award-winning film directed by Christine Jeffs. Her majestic novel set in the Scottish Highlands The Big Music won big at the New Zealand Post Book of the Year and the Fiction award at the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards, now her latest collection of short stories Pretty Ugly has been shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Take a break from getting your firewood sorted for the winter and meet a firestacking pro. With over two million books sold in 24 languages, Lars Mytting is one of Norway’s best-selling and celebrated writers, and he joins us for a fireside chat for one night only. His family mystery The Sixteen Trees of the Somme received the Norwegian National Booksellers' Award; his non-fiction book Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Norwegian Way is a fascinating insight into Scandinavian culture and became a phenomenal global sensation. His historical fiction trilogy, The Sister Bells – a spellbinding and epic family drama set in WWII-era Norway – has also been an international bestseller. On the publication of the trilogy’s final instalment The Night of the Scourge, Lars joins Liz Grant for a conversation about his glittering writing life.

Presented in partnership with HarperCollins New Zealand, Otago University Press and Auckland Writers Festival.

WORD Christchurch warmly thanks its major funders Creative New Zealand, Christchurch City Council and the Rātā Foundation.

The WORD Christchurch 2025 Festival programme (27 - 31 August) will be announced on 9 July 2025.

Event details:

An Evening in Crime: Dervla McTiernan (Ireland) and Michael Bennett

Tuesday 13 May

TSB Space, Tūranga

6pm - 7pm

What Lies Beneath: Dark Tales with Kirsty Gunn

Monday 19 May

TSB Space, Tūranga

6.30pm - 7.30pm

Norwegian Woods: An Evening with Lars Mytting

Wednesday 21 May

The Great Hall, The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora

6.30pm - 7.30pm

Tickets to these events are available now via the events section at

wordchristchurch.co.nz

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