Several of the WORD Writers are finalists in this year’s NZSA New Zealand Heritage Literary Awards. (THURSDAY 29TH 7PM).The Awards bring together writers and publishers from all over the country to celebrate historical writing in diverse categories including fiction and non-fiction, short prose, poetry, children’s books and te reo Māori.
And you can catch some of the winners, along with local writers Joanna Orwin and AJ Fitzwater, in Heritage: Historical Writing at 11.30am on the Friday morning of the festival.
WORD LETTERS
Three events at WORD Christchurch feature unique responses to our landscape: Landmarks: Sydney, Marshall & Turner will be an opportunity to hear three of New Zealand’s foremost artists in conversation. Poet Brian Turner, artist Grahame Sydney and writer Owen Marshall join Fiona Farrell to offer their unique love songs to the South Island. In Letters to Ōtautahi, Lil O’Brien, Nathan Joe, Juanita Hepi, Erik Kennedy and Behrouz Boochani write letters to the city in which they have chosen to live and the connection they feel to it. And in Poet Laureate’s Choice,David Eggleton invites five poets to respond to the landscape of Te Waipounamu. These events offer a personal and unique perspective from some of our best writers, artists, and creative thinkers and you won’t want to miss them. Book your tickets now.
HALLOWEEN AT WORD!
American author Shirley Jackson is the perfect slightly spooky author to feature as the subject of the WORD Halloween Book Club. Jackson had a fleet of admirers, including Vladimir Nabokov who gave her short story The Lottery an A in the New Yorker Anthology. This story, along with others, will be discussed by Elizabeth Knox, Jonathan King, Erin Harrington and Noelle McCarthy. If you like your entertainment a little offbeat and unpredictable, then the WORD Up Cabaretis the event for you. Join your inimitable host, The Unicorn as he escorts you through a literary evening of poetry, prose, and a smorgasbord of sumptuous supernatural storytellers, including a doyenne of New Zealand crime, Vanda Symon. The WORD Up Cabaret and the Halloween Book Club will both be held atLittleAndromeda, along with Bedtime Stories for Anxious Adults, Ray Shipley’s Late Night Poetry HourandFrom Page to Stage and Screen. We are thrilled that this amazing venue is back in action in time for WORD. We are excited that our events will be the first shows to be held in the new space, so a big congratulations to the team, and we can’t wait to see you there!
WORD WRITERS IN THE MEDIA
it’s been another busy week for WORD writers in the media.
Jehan Casinader appeared in Stuff talking about how the power of storytelling lifted him up from breaking point. You can read his story here. He also appeared in the NZ Herald.
Novelist Pip Adam was a guest on RNZ’s Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan show talking about the importance of writing. You can listen to her here.
Poet Mohamed Hassan appeared on Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show on RNZ speaking about ‘Islamaphobia, Aotearoa and Me’ – you can listen here.
It was great to see two of our WORD Chairs, John Campbell and Emma Espiner, in Saturday’s election coverage on TVNZ. You can watch the whole thing here!
