Friday 29 September – Saturday 7 October
Roger Hall’s Middle-Age Spread
A comedy, with tragic overtones, about three middle-class, middle-aged New Zealand couples who feel their lives have become routine and predictable. This is an award-winning play which addresses issues we can all recognise.
Venue: Wanganui Repertory Theatre, 4 Ridgway Street
Dates and times: 29 and 30 September 7.30pm, 1 October 2.00pm matinee, 5, 6 and 7 October 7.30pm.
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $25 (Adults), $20 (Members/Seniors/Students), $15 (Children)
Saturday 30 September
Whanganui’s Got (Literary) Talent 6.00 – 8.00pm
Join local authors for a showcase of books released during the past year.
Venue: Whanganui Arts at the Centre, 19 Taupo Quay
Bookings: Not required, but venue seats limited numbers – please come early.
Admission: Free.
Sunday 1 October
Booklovers’ Brunch from 11.30am
Chat with other readers, writers and booklovers over a delicious brunch at the historic Red Lion Inn on the banks of the Whanganui River. Brunch and other refreshments at your own cost.
Venue: Red Lion Inn, 45 Anzac Parade
Bookings: RSVP to the Red Lion, ph. 3484080
Admission: Free
Tuesday 3 October
Pre-loved Poetry 5.30 – 6.30pm
Bring your favourite poem to recite or one that has inspired you. Alternatively, find a cosy spot at second-hand bookshop, The Flying Monkey, and enjoy an hour’s listening. The Rutland Arms Inn is nearby for refreshments afterwards.
Venue: The Flying Monkey, 44 Ridgway Street
Bookings: Not required but venue seats limited numbers – please come early.
Admission: Koha
Tuesday 3 – Wednesday 4 October
Pakohe Papers Letter Press Workshop 9.30am – 4.30pm
In conjunction with the Festival, Marty Vreede and Pakohe Papers Ltd are pleased to offer a workshop in Letterpress printing. You will be able to hand set your own poem or prose and then print an edition of 10 on locally-made Harakeke (flax) paper. Enquiries welcome. For more information see www.pakohe.co.nz & www.writersfest.co.nz
Venue: UCOL Print Workshop, Campbell St, Whanganui
Fee: $350 (this covers all materials, use of equipment and tutoring)
Bookings: info@pakohe.co.nz
Wednesday 4 October
Launch of Annual 2 5.30 – 7.30pm
Whanganui Literary Festival, Paige’s Book Gallery, Whanganui’s own Gavin Mouldey and editors Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi warmly welcome you to the launch of Annual 2, the new publication from the people who brought you Annual – 2016’s ‘hero publication of the year’. Annual 2 is a bumper edition of writing and illustration, from New Zealand’s best writers and artists. Join us for wine and celebrations.
Venue: Sarjeant Gallery, 38 Taupo Quay
Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free
Thursday 5 October
Annual 2 Talk 1.00 – 3.00pm
Editors Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi (aka Annual Ink) will deliver the low-down on the making of Annual 2. How did they wrestle 52 writers and artists into producing 154 pages of original content for New Zealand’s 9-13 year olds? Be among the first to view the knitted digestive system. See if you agree with the final cut for New Zealand’s most revered biscuits and slices. Hear Bic Runga’s Annual song. Discover the back story to New Zealand’s forgotten space programme. And find out why Kate Sheppard is running a sausage sizzle outside the local supermarket.
Venue: Gonville Café Library Community Room, 44 Abbott Street
Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free
Poetry and Songwriting 6.00 – 8.00pm
Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, among other talented singer-songwriters, are as famous for their lyrics as their music. But does songwriting play second fiddle to poetry? What is the art in setting words to music? Join the discussion with Terry Sarten and other local singer songwriters; enjoy hearing them perform selected, original works.
Venue: Delicious Café & Wine Bar, 132 Victoria Avenue
Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free (just buy a coffee)
Friday 6 October
Playwriting Workshop with Roger Hall 1.30 – 3.30pm
Arguably New Zealand’s best-known and best-loved playwright Roger Hall facilitates a two-hour workshop (“a playwriting boot camp”) that will pack in a huge amount of practical advice within the two hours.
Venue: TBC, contact Community Education Service ph. 3454717
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera house (limited numbers)
Admission: $50
Main Events
Friday 6 October
Grand Opening 6.00 – 7.00pm
The evening begins with drinks and nibbles as you mix and mingle with fellow booklovers and authors. The Festival will be officially opened by Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall.
Venue: Pioneer Room, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free
Getting the Language Right 7.30 – 8.30pm
When asked recently by a primary school student what was the best thing about being a writer, C.K. Stead replied, “Getting the language right”. Working in many genres – poetry, essays. short stories, novels and literary criticism – over five decades, he has certainly lived up to that maxim. The stories in his latest collection, The Name on the Door Is Not Mine, are described by Stephen Stratford in The Listener as “The best of Stead, with their light touch, precise observation and sheer brio”. Stead’s many literary awards and honours include the 2009 Prime Minister’s Award for literary achievement in fiction. He is also a Member of the Order of New Zealand, and is New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2015-2017. C.K. Stead will discuss his work with local writer Joan Rosier-Jones.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
Saturday 7 October
“Fifteen Years To Be An Overnight Success” 10.00 – 11.00am
Seventy years a theatregoer; 50 years a writer; 40 years a playwright, New Zealand theatre icon Roger Hall’s first stage play, Glide Time, was produced in 1976. He has been writing a play almost every year since then, along with musicals and pantomimes. Recent plays include Who Wants to be a Hundred (Anyone Who’s 99); Four Flat Whites in Italy; A Short Cut to Happiness; and You Can Always Hand Them Back. He has been awarded a QSO, a CNZM and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Victoria University. He was the first playwright to receive the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.
Roger will tell the little-known story of his early beginnings in New Zealand and provide plenty of laughs along the way.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
Writing, Music and Memoir 11.30am – 12.30pm
Nick Bollinger was introduced to Beethoven, Gilbert & Sullivan and the Fireside Book of Folk Songs as a preschooler. His life changed at the age of five, when he heard the Beatles’ recording of ‘Twist and Shout’. Nick went on to become a bass player, a member of many bands, a writer, critic and broadcaster. He has been a music columnist for The Listener and presents The Sampler on RNZ National. He is the author of How To Listen To Pop Music, 100 Essential New Zealand Albums, and Goneville, which won the Adam Prize for Creative Writing in 2015. Goneville is both a coming-of-age story and an exploration of New Zealand music in the 1970s. Nick will appear in conversation with Rik Jones.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
A Poem for the Queen 1.30 – 2.30pm
Selina Tusitala Marsh writes of her work: “The wondrous thing about a poem is that it’s an ‘ala’ – the proto-Polynesian word for ‘path’. As a ‘Tusitala’ my poems are paths between cultures and world views”. The acclaimed, ‘Fast –Talking PI’ poet and scholar performs a selection of her work and talks about how an ala led to the Sacrarium Steps at Westminister Abbey as part of a wider discussion about the politics of her poetry. She was the first person of Pacific descent to graduate with a PhD in English from the University of Auckland, where she now lectures in creative writing and M?ori and Pacific literary studies. Selina’s first collection of poems, Fast Talking PI, won the 2010 NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry. She was the Commonwealth Poet for 2016.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
Moving Between Forms 3.00 – 4.00pm
Novelist, short fiction writer, playwright and poet Fiona Farrell is well known for her versatility in moving between forms. In 2013, she was awarded the $100,000 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer’s Fellowship to research and write twin books exploring post-quake Christchurch, one fiction and one non-fiction. The result was The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City, a finalist in the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Fiona has won many awards including the Prime Minister’s Award for fiction and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Literature in 2012. She will talk with Mary-Ann Ewing about her work in various forms and life after the fragmentation of the Christchurch earthquake.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
Cocktails and Canapes 5.30 – 7.00pm
Join our writers for a mix and mingle and enjoy conversations with other booklovers. Ticket price includes one drink plus food. Additional drinks available for purchase.
Venue: Mud Ducks Cafe, 31 Taupo Quay
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $25
Sunday 8 October
Panel discussion: Poetry and Place 10.00 – 11.00am
A well-known Whanganui proverb centres on the statement “Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au / I am the river and the river is me”. Connections to, or relationships with, landscapes of various kinds feature in the work of many writers. Fiona Farrell and Selina Tusitala Marsh join local writers Christodolous Moisa and Terry Sarten in a panel discussion of the significance of place in their work. To what extent does place define who we are as writers? What are the different relationships a writer may have with a particular place, or with the notion of place? Chaired by local poet Airini Beautrais.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
My Father’s Island – Writing Memory 11.30am – 12.30pm
Award-winning journalist Adam Dudding’s first book, My Father’s Island, is a memoir about his father, the New Zealand literary editor Robin Dudding. The Dudding family of Robin, Lois and their six children lived a bohemian existence surrounded by piles of books and numerous chickens. Reviewer Nicholas Reid describes the memoir as “an extraordinarily candid, sad, funny, exhilarating and chastening story”. Steve Braunias writes “No one has ever had a family quite like the Dudding family but everyone can relate to the book’s portrayal of parents and children trying to get along in a Kiwi landscape of school, beach and vegetable garden”. My Father’s Island won Best First Book of General Non-Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Adam will talk about his work with Cass Alexander.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
Love, Ghosts and Making It 1.30 – 2.30pm
Fiction writer and comic artist Sarah Laing is a previous winner of the Sunday Star-Times short story competition, the author of the collection Coming Up Roses, and two novels, Dead People’s Music and The Fall of Light. She is also known for her often humorous, often moving cartoons depicting family life, motherhood and a range of political issues. Her latest book Mansfield and Me is a daring graphic memoir charting her development as a writer alongside a very personal account of the life of one of her literary heroes, Katherine Mansfield.
Sarah will appear in conversation with Carla Donson of the Whanganui Women’s Network to discuss inspiring women, the juggling acts involved in being a creative parent, and the intersections of personal and political.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15 (Friends $12)
High Tea and Etiquette: Elbows off the Table, Please 2.45 – 3.45pm
One of New Zealand’s favourite chefs, Jo Seagar has always looked outside the square, and with her latest book she has combined cooking with table manners. Until the Canterbury earthquakes intervened, she combined cooking with teaching when she opened her café and cooking school in rural Canterbury. She also takes culinary tours overseas and even has her own cooking school in Italy. Jo’s ten cookery books have sold in their thousands and her television shows and magazine columns have appealed to many. The title of her latest book will remind many readers of their parents’ warnings at the dining table: “Elbows off”. But don’t worry, this is no stuffy afternoon tea. Dress in your Sunday best and be prepared for some high jinks at a high tea hosted by Jo.
Decorate and wear a High Tea hat – Gentlemen included.
Venue: Pioneer Room, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $30 (Numbers limited, bookings essential)
Children’s Events
Saturday 30 September
Dress-up Story time 10.30am – 12.30pm
Join children’s librarians Jane and Becky for a special bug-themed story time. Dress up as your favourite invertebrate.
Venue: Davis Library, Queen’s Park
Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free
Monday 2 October
Bookmaking: Make your own paper 1.00 – 2.30pm
In the first of a series of bookmaking workshops, make your own paper to use in the creation of your own book. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Whanganui Regional Museum Classroom, Watt Street
Bookings: Whanganui Regional Museum, ph. 3491110
Admission: Free, koha appreciated
Tuesday 3 October
Pop-up Fun 10.30am – 12.00pm and 1.00 – 2.30pm
Learn how to make your own pop-up book with the education team at the Sarjeant. This activity will run twice, at 10.30am and 1.00pm. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Sarjeant Gallery, 38 Taupo Quay
Bookings: Sarjeant Gallery, ph. 3490506
Admission: Free
Bookmaking: Marbled end-papers 1.00 – 3.00pm
Make your own marbled paper to use as end-papers in your own book. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Whanganui Regional Museum Classroom, Watt Street
Bookings: 3491110
Admission: Free, koha appreciated
Wednesday 4 October
Bookmaking: Printmaking 1.00 – 2.30pm
Use letterpress type to print your own book cover. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Whanganui Regional Museum Classroom, Watt Street
Bookings: 3491110
Admission: Free, koha appreciated
Thursday 5 October
Bookmaking: Bookbinding 1.00 – 2.30pm
Learn how to bind together the cover and pages of your own book. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Whanganui Regional Museum Classroom, Watt Street
Bookings: 3491110
Admission: Free, koha appreciated
Friday 6 October
Bookmaking: Illuminated manuscripts 1.00 – 3.00pm
Learn about the history of illuminated manuscripts and make your own illuminated pages. Bookings essential as numbers are limited.
Venue: Whanganui Regional Museum Classroom, Watt Street
Bookings: 3491110
Admission: Free, koha appreciated