Auckland Writers Festival
Episodes
Of Exile And Home: Sisonke Msimang (2019)
07 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The daughter of a South African freedom fighter and an accountant, the writer Sisonke Msimang was born in exile, and has lived on three continents. Sh...
The Unwritten Rule (2019)
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Despite an unwritten rule that authors shouldn’t install writers as characters in their work, in recent times a surfeit of writers as protagonists h...
To Life: Alexander Chee (2019)
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander Chee is variously described as “masterful” (Roxane Gay), “incendiary” (The New York Times) and “brilliant” (The Washington Post)...
Sisters Brothers Mothers Sons: Patrick deWitt (2019)
18 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Canadian novelist and screenwriter Patrick deWitt is an amusing stylist of the highest order who credits his liking for “inane comedic dialogue”...
2019 Festival Gala Night - True Stories Told Live: At the Crossroads
11 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Eight writers, eight seven-minute true stories, no scripts, no props. Toiling for your entertainment and edification this year, and addressing the loo...
Jobs, Robots And Us: Kinley Salmon (2019)
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From driverless cars to digital assistants, it seems the world of work is on the cusp of a technological revolution that is generating hopes and fears...
Doughnut Economics: Kate Raworth (2019)
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when economic disparity continues to widen and the health of the planet is under severe threat, many question the tenet that growth is the a...
Let's Go: Jeff Tweedy (2019)
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The creative force behind the genre-defying Chicago alt-rock band Wilco, Jeff Tweedy has recently released his first memoir Let’s Go (So We Can Get ...
History Or Gossip? C.K. Stead - The University of Auckland Free Public Lecture (2019)
10 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
More than ever these days, writers’ festivals and literary interviews encourage readers to interest themselves in the lives and thought processes of...
He Kupu Tuku Iho: Tīmoti Kāretu (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I te tai nui o hiakai ki te reo Māori e pari mai ana, arā tētahi kāhui toka tū moana kua roa e oke ana kia ora ai ko te reo, otirā , ko te ahure...
The Heart Of War: Antony Beevor (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The pre-eminent military historian Antony Beevor attended Sandhurst and served in the 11th Hussars before writing four novels and twelve books of non-...
America Is Not the Heart: Elaine Castillo (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Filipino poet and labour organiser Carlos Bulosan, whose family immigrated to America in the Great Depression, entitled his autobiographic novel A...
Everyday Acts Of Racism: The University of Auckland Festival Forum (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last year the film writer and director Taika Waititi sparked debate when he declared New Zealand "racist as f***" and recounted being racially profile...
An Abuse Of History (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The border zone between history and fiction can be dangerous territory. When, if ever, is speculation acceptable? Is invention justified? Can fictiona...
Generation X: Douglas Coupland (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Famed for his 1991 international bestselling novel Generation X which popularised the titular term, the Canadian Douglas Coupland is celebrated both a...
A Life's Work: Anne Michaels (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The novel Fugitive Pieces is a work of art. It brought author Anne Michaels accolades, and the Orange Prize for Fiction. Michaels has not rested on he...
Dead People I Have Known: Shayne Carter(2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A giant of New Zealand music, Shayne Carter writes of the people, places and social forces that have shaped him in his autobiography Dead People I Hav...
Pūrākau: Māori Myths Retold (2019)
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A line-up of Māori writers join forces with multi-instrumentalist Kingsley Melhuish for a night of storytelling interwoven with music, inspired by th...
Other Minds: Peter Godfrey-Smith (2019)
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Godfrey-Smith believes that encountering an octopus is the closest we might ever come to meeting an intelligent alien, with its eight tentacles ...
The Art Of Logic: Eugenia Cheng (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Eugenia Cheng’s mission is to rid the world of maths phobia. She holds a doctorate in pure maths from the University of Cambridge University, teache...
In Search Of Fragrance: Tui Atua Tupua (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Former Samoan Head of State (2007- 2017) and Samoan Prime Minister (1976-1982) Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi is a statesman and philosopher and...
Curing Cancer: Charles Graeber (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Graeber’s critically acclaimed The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer, chronicles the path to what the 2018 Nobel Prize...
Number 15: Marilyn Waring (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 1975 Marilyn Waring was elected to the New Zealand Parliament as the MP for Raglan. Aged just 23 and only the fifteenth woman to enter Parliament, ...
I've Been Meaning To Tell You: David Chariandy (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Firmly situated in the canon of Canadian literature, David Chariandy has written three eloquent books. His first two – Soucouyant: A Novel of Forget...
The Essex Serpent: Sarah Perry (2019)
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A master of moral complexity, Sarah Perry spent her childhood in a strict Baptist community, removed from contemporary culture and steeped in Old Engl...
Asia's Reckoning: Richard McGregor (2019)
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the power struggle between China and the United States intensifies and questions of Chinese interference in New Zealand and the Pacific are raised ...
Greek To Me: Mary Norris (2019)
27 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Norris’ New York Times bestseller Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen gives an account of the author’s years in The New Yorker’s...
Other Lives: Artemis Cooper (2019)
26 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s a terrible thing being a biographer,” Artemis Cooper has said. “One is such a rat.” A consummate inquisitor of the talented, Cooper’...
The New Zealand Wars: Vincent O'Malley (2019)
23 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
THE MICHAEL KING MEMORIAL LECTURE 2019 Although the New Zealand Wars (1845-1872) have profoundly shaped our country they have been little acknowledged...
Stardust & Substance: Jacinda Ardern (2019)
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The results of the 2017 New Zealand election campaign reverberated around the world, changing the course of this country’s politics and ringing in g...
Bridge Of Clay: Markus Zusak (2019)
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Markus Zusak is one of Australia’s most successful exports, a six-time novelist best known for The Book Thief, an international smash hit also adapt...
Less Is More: Andrew Sean Greer (2019)
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Sean Greer’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less has amassed a legion of fans, among them Ann Patchett, David Sedaris, and Armistead Maupi...
Merchants Of Truth: Jill Abramson (2019)
22 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Convulsive changes in journalism following the advent of the Internet have exposed the editorial/business divide, and spawned ethical dilemmas. Naviga...
The Creative Brain: David Eagleman (2018)
13 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Superstar neuroscientist David Eagleman’s latest book, co-authored with composer Anthony Brandt, is The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remake...
On Song: Moana Maniapoto (2018)
20 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Legendary musician, documentary maker and feature writer Moana Maniapoto (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Tu hourangi-Ngāti Wahiao) joins Tama Waipara in the Hear...
Dear Muriel: Alan Taylor(2018)
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The divine Muriel Spark is one of Scotland’s most revered writers, with legions of fans that include such luminaries as Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall...
The Edge Of Europe (2018)
11 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by NZ expat-Bulgarian Kapka Kassabova is described by the LA Review of Books as “that rarest of things: a tr...
Completely Beside Ourselves: Karen Joy Fowler (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Best-selling author Karen Joy Fowler is a maverick, with novels and short stories spanning science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction, including th...
#WHERETONOW? The University of Auckland Festival Forum (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We live in highly charged times. Since Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by multiple women, the bastion of male priv...
Best Best Showcase (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Returning for another extravaganza of spoken-word performance is Best of the Best, showcasing Aotearoa’s poets, in league with international guests....
The Art Of The Comedy Write (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Comedy crafters par excellence Kura Forrester, Peter Helliar, and Oscar Kightley unpick a jokey script in conversation with Kanoa Lloyd. What’s funn...
Big History: David Christian (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professor David Christian can navigate our complex 13.7 billion year history in just under 18 minutes. Since the 1980s, the US born, Australian-based ...
The Rest Is Noise: Alex Ross (2018)
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The cultural critic Alex Ross is most widely celebrated for his 2007 book The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, a landmark history of...
How Lucky Were We? (2018)
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Bitingly clever satire delivered with a well-timed drollness marked John Clarke’s work which included the black singleted, gumboot-cladded Fred Dagg...
Ponti: Sharlene Teo (2018)
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Singaporean writer Sharlene Teo’s debut novel Ponti won the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writer’s Award and was praised by Ian McEwan for i...
Janesville: Amy Goldstein (2018)
04 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of Barack Obama’s top reads of 2017, Janesville: An American Story, traces the lives of workers and their families, and the response of public a...
Considering the Women: Choman Hardi (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Celebrated poet, teacher and feminist Choman Hardi arrived in Britain in 1993 seeking asylum from Kurdistan. She attended Oxford, London and Kent Univ...
Tightrope: Selina Tusitala Marsh (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The launch of Selina Tusitala Marsh’s third poetry collection Tightrope, longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, coincided with her takin...
Scotland: The Autobiography (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander McCall Smith describes Scotland: The Autobiography, 2000 Years of Scottish History By Those Who saw It Happen as an unqualified triumph. Ros...
Why I am a Hindu: Shashi Tharoor (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In his new and controversial book Why I Am a Hindu, writer, Indian MP and former UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor offers a re-examination of ...
Ready Or Not: Damon Salesa - The Michael King Memorial Lecture (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Island Time Damon Salesa argues that while NZ has passively allowed a tacit segregation to take hold between Pakeha and Pasifika, the future of thi...
The Humanities: A. C. Grayling (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Big thinking philosopher A. C. Grayling has ranged widely in his books to date, among them: Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggle for Liberty a...
Love and Fame: Susie Boyt (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Times has said of Susie Boyt that “she writes with great precision and wisdom about the human heart under duress”. Her six novels include Love...
Sour Heart: Jenny Zhang
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Praised as ingenious by The New Yorker for its “technical artistry with an unfettered emotional directness” Jenny Zhang’s debut short-story coll...
Too Much: Durga Chew-Bose (2018)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Labelled by Vulture as one of the most exciting debuts of 2017, and by Bustle as one of the most anticipated feminist releases of the year – alongsi...
Lab Girl: Hope Jahren (2018)
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Heralded as the Jane Goodall of botany in Science magazine, Hope Jahren is the recipient of three Fulbright scholarships, was named one of TIME’s 10...
Myanmar Tragedy: Francis Wade (2018)
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Freelance journalist Francis Wade has worked extensively in South East Asia and contributed to The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Asia Times Online, th...
Driving To Treblinka: Diana Wichtel (2018)
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ockham New Zealand Book Award shortlisted Driving to Treblinka is the personal and profound story of journalist Diana Wichtel’s search for her lost ...
Foreign Witness (2018)
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The life of the foreign correspondent is a fascinating one – forever on the move, often at the coalface of the news cycle, and witnessing the unfold...
Stage Women: Lisa Dwan (2018)
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Karenina, Antigone and the women of Beckett are just some of the roles that Irish actor Lisa Dwan has fashioned as her own in an illustrious thea...
Fiction And Factions - The University of Auckland Free Public Lecture: Fiona Farrell (2018)
29 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Fiona Farrell’s most recent novel, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, is often referred to as ‘a political novel’. Twin to her highly regarded n...
2018 Honoured New Zealand Writer: Witi Ihimaera
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The writing of Witi Ihimaera (Te Aitanga-a-Mahāki, Tūhoe, Te Wha nau-ā-Apanui) has touchd generations of readers. The first Māori writer to publis...
The Water Will Come: Jeff Goodell (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
By century’s end our landscape will be transformed, and hundreds of millions of people will retreat inland as coasts are inundated. In The Water Wil...
Brain Waves: David Eagleman (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
To The Guardian David Eagleman is “a little bit of a genius”, to The Times he’s “the hottest thing in neuroscience”. He’s an adjunct profe...
Democracy: A. C. Grayling (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy and Its Crisis is the latest book from leading British intellectual A. C. Grayling. In it he traces democracy’s birth in ancient Greece to...
An Evening With Robert Webb (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From Peep Show to Mitchell and Webb, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Cold Feet, Robert Webb’s screen achievements as a creator, writer and actor have s...
Inglorious Empires: Shashi Tharoor (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Indian MP, former diplomat, contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek International and TIME, and author of 16 books that range...
An Evening With Karl Ove Knausgård (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Norwegian literary phenomenon Karl Ove Knausgård leapt to notice with his arresting cycle of six autobiographical novels My Struggle (Min Kamp), desc...
In The Afterlife (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“In the afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence; or you may find the afterlife contains only people w...
Tears Of Rangi: Anne Salmond (2018)
28 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In her most ambitious book to date, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds, Anne Salmond reframes our un...
An Evening with Armando Iannucci (2017)
23 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Emmy-winning Veep, the Bafta-winning The Thick of It, and Little Englander Alan Partridge are just some of the satirical creations of the writer, ...
Women and Power (2017)
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2017 For many women 2016 registered as an annus horribilis, one which made it clear that the battle for sexual equality –...
Known and Strange Things: Teju Cole (2017)
30 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2017 Praised as a ‘sublime’ writer by The Guardian, the Nigerian-American writer, art historian, photographer and champ...
Tick Tock: Lawrence Krauss (2017)
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In January this year the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, creators of the Doomsday Clock, assessed the world to be 30 seconds closer t...
I Love Dick: Chris Kraus (2017)
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2017 Described as radical and gossipy when published 20 years ago, writer and critic Chris Kraus’ novel I Love Dick, s...
Time Travel: James Gleick (2017)
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2017 According to science writer and polymathic thinker James Gleick, H.G. Wells was the first to combine the words ‘time’...
A Book For The People (2017)
20 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Lloyd Geering and A.N. Wilson both know The Bible inside out. Geering is widely recognised as one of this country’s leading biblical scholars, and W...
Gatherings: Anne Enright (2017)
19 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ireland’s Fiction Laureate Anne Enright writes unsentimentally on the family unit, and the tidal pull it exerts. Her latest book The Green Road is a...
Tomboy Survival Guide: Ivan Coyote (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The hit of the WORD Christchurch Writers Festival in 2016, Canadian performer, writer and filmmaker Ivan Coyote is one of the funniest and provocative...
Portholes To The Past: Lloyd Geering (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
At 99 years of age, theologian Lloyd Geering has lived a full and engaged life which has shaped beliefs that range across life after death, the fallib...
Talking To My Country: Stan Grant (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Stan Grant wrote Talking to My Country in the wake of fans’ abuse of Aboriginal Sydney Swans’ footballer Adam Goodes in 2015. His book is a person...
Michael King Memorial Lecture: A New Politics For New Zealand, Max Harris (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
New Zealander Max Harris is on the ascendant: a Rhodes Scholar who, while studying public policy and law at Oxford University earned an All Souls Fell...
Old Guard New Guard: Bird and Manhire (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Writer Hera Lindsay Bird burst onto the literary scene with her 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted eponymous poetry collection. Bill Manh...
The Memory Stones: Caroline Brothers (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Paris-based Australian author Caroline Brothers bears witness to the cost of human conflict. A former foreign correspondent, she has written War and P...
Thank You For Being Late: Thomas Friedman (2017)
18 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Three times Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman is a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, and the author of From Beirut to ...
The Truth About Language: Michael Corballis (2017)
15 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Auckland University emeritus psychology professor and Rutherford Medal recipient Michael Corballis has spent a career researching the human mind. In h...
Capital Times: John Lanchester (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A novelist, memoirist and journalist “who writes sagely and elegantly about food, family, culture, technology and money” (The New York Times) John...
Our Shakespeare: James Shapiro (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pre-eminent Shakespearean scholar, Columbia University professor James Shapiro convinces that Shakespeare matters. His books include 1606: William Sha...
In The Darkroom: Susan Faludi (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of the groundbreaking Backlash Susan Faludi has now produced a memoir. In 2004, she received an email –...
In The Bardo: George Saunders (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Lincoln in the Bardo is the long-awaited genre-busting first novel from Syracuse University professor George Saunders, a multi-faceted writer with a b...
Three Empires: Miranda Carter (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the years before the First World War, the great European powers Britain, Germany and Russia were ruled by three cousins: George V; Wilhelm II; and ...
Street of Eternal Happiness: Rob Schmitz (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
NPR Shanghai correspondent Rob Schmitz has created an unforgettable portrait of modern China through the eyes of an array of real-life people living a...
2017 Honoured New Zealand Writer: Fiona Kidman
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As a writer and advocate Dame Fiona Kidman has contributed an astonishing amount to NZ literature. Born in Hawera in 1940, she has published more than...
The Book of Forgiving: Mpho Tutu van Furth (2017)
09 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The singer Annie Lennox praised The Book of Forgiving for its “groundbreaking insights as to how we resolve our lifelong burdens”. Mpho Tutu van F...
The Wish Child: Catherine Chidgey (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Wish Child – ‘a brilliant, brilliant novel…a masterpiece’ (Radio NZ) – is the long-awaited fourth book of Catherine Chidgey. Set in Nazi...
Difficult Women: Roxane Gay (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A must-read cultural critic, Roxane Gay’s writing is marked by directness, intelligence and wit. She followed her best-selling essay collection Bad ...
The Human And The Historical: A. N. Wilson (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The British biographer, historian, novelist, journalist, essayist A.N. Wilson has an all-encompassing temporal and spiritual beat – from Jesus, Paul...
The Sellout: Paul Beatty (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Paul Beatty’s Man Booker Prizewinning novel, The Sellout, the hero – a grower of artisanal marijuana and water melons – attempts to reintrodu...
An Evening With Ian Rankin (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 30 years since the hard-boiled Inspector Rebus was given his first airing in Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin; twenty-one installments later Rebus...
Festival Gala Night: True Stories Told Live: The Heart Of The Matter (2017)
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Festival gala once again showcases the story-telling chops of eight writers who deliver a seven-minute true story, propless and scriptless, inspir...