Auckland Writers Festival announces a triumphant return of international literary giants and 160 in-person events, May 16 - 21
MEDIA RELEASE: March 2023
This year’s festival marks the first time in over three years that international authors will return in an all-live programme on-stage in central Auckland. The week-long celebration of books, authors and ideas will include ticketed and free events in the Aotea Centre and select venues across the city.
This year, double-Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead will join the festival from New York City, alongside three Booker Prize winners, Eleanor Catton, Bernardine Evaristo, and the latest winner, Shehan Karunatilaka. The current TS Eliot prize winner and acclaimed London-based musician Anthony Joseph will round out this star studded literary collective.
From Los Angeles, the most talked about novelist of the year, Gabrielle Zevin will make her New Zealand debut with her mega-bestseller Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, alongside Việt Nam’s most prolific and award-winning writer Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, and New York Times bestseller Pip Williams.
The brightest minds on the latest current affairs include Hong Kong expert and author of the award-winning Indelible City Louisa Lim, leading cultural commentator Jenny Odell on the attention economy, Artificial Intelligence expert Toby Walsh, and Australia’s top broadcaster and acclaimed historian Richard Fidler.
For the first time in the festival’s history, indigenous writers from Canada, Australia and Aotearoa will join in a meaningful exchange about storytelling, language and experiences in the First Nations series.
Four talented guest Curators, Matariki Bennett and Michael Bennett (Māori), Dahlia Malaeulu (Pasifika), and Chris Tse (Asia), have programmed highly creative voices and culturally rich sessions exploring everything from composing a waiata to ‘yellow peril’ racism and storytelling through tapa.
Remarking on the jam-packed programme, 2023 Artistic Curator Bridget van der Zijpp says, “It’s beyond exciting to once again be able to bring in a whole range of distinguished international authors to appear live alongside our local talent. After what has been a hard start to the year this is an unmissable chance to think, to laugh, to distract yourself, to engage your brain, to be surprised, to have your borders expanded, to be confronted by the new and to celebrate the familiar.”
Public tickets are on sale from 9am, Friday 24th March via Ticketmaster or by calling 0800 111 999 or 09 970 9700. For regular updates, follow the Festival on Twitter & Instagram @aklwritersfest, on Facebook @akwrfest. Sign-up to the weekly newsletter via the Festival website.
See the full press release here.
For all media enquiries, including author interviews, imagery and press passes contact Jo Bennett 02102447871
