Find out more about Dame Fiona Kidman
Find out more about previous Pānui

Read NZ Te Pou Muramura is delighted to announce Dame Fiona Kidman as the author that will deliver its 2022 address The heart of the matter.

Marking the 50^th birthday of the organisation, Dame Fiona’s Pānui spans her own personal reading journey to her job as founding secretary of the then New Zealand Book Council, a career as a celebrated author, and her lifelong love of the written word.

The heart of the matter will take the listener on a journey from Dame Fiona’s childhood where she learned to read in a Kawakawa hospital, to her instrumental and often hilarious accounts of early Book Council days, where she helped set up the programmes, like Writers in Schools, that continue to make their mark on the literary landscape of this country.

The heart of the matter is a celebration, a history lesson, and most of all, a passionate statement for the importance of reading and how it can transform our lives.

Dame Fiona is a fiction writer and poet whose first novel A Breed of Women was published in 1979. Since then she has published a wide range of novels, short story collections, poetry and memoir, often exploring women’s lives and themes of social justice.