Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki launches ambitious, wide-ranging 2025 programme

More than 170 New Zealand writers and close to 50 international participants will appear in the programme, which is bursting with well-known literary powerhouses, global thinkers and fresh new voices.

The programming team is led by Lyndsey Fineran, who came from the world’s longest-running book festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival. The 2024 Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki was her first in Aotearoa New Zealand and ushered in a new era, breaking all prior audience records and seeing book sales increase by 50% on the previous year.

“My co-leader, Catriona Ferguson, and I were blown away by the reception to AWF24 and the incredible excitement for books it generated in those six autumn days in Tāmaki and beyond,” says Lyndsey. “I’m so proud to reveal this year’s ambitious, wide-ranging and creative line-up – the result of a very talented and passionate team’s hard work – that will bring writers from near and far together, and books to life in a whole range of dynamic ways this May.”

Audiences will enjoy the rare opportunity to share a theatre with eminent Irish writer and recent Fiction Laureate Colm Tóibín; 2025 Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey; British actress and author Dame Harriet Walter DBE;major US novelist of Leave the World Behind and Entitlement Rumaan Alam; author of the phenomenally bestselling One Day David Nicholls; Catherine Chidgey in her first event for The Book of Guilt, as well as the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction champion in their first appearance after winning.

Sir Ian Rankin, the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller and creator of John Rebus, will take the stage, as will recent crime writer phenomenon Chris Whitaker. The programme is rich in translated literature too, with leading Latin American horror writer Mariana Enriquez; Japan’s Sayaka Murata, Booker shortlisted author of The Safekeep from The Netherlands, Yael van der Wouden, as well as writers from South Korea, France, Tahiti, Canada and the UAE appearing.

A host of global thinkers are on hand to help make sense of a turbulent landscape: The New York Times diplomatic correspondent Edward Wong; international law specialist Philippe Sands; Australian intellectual and broadcaster Stan Grant, British Zimbabwean The Globalist journalist Georgina Godwin, German political scientist Marcel Dirsus and philosopher A.C. Grayling feature, with panel themes including “Trump: The Next Four Years”; “How Tyrants Fall”; “2025: A Billionaire’s Playground?” and “Making Peace in the Culture Wars”.

They will be joined by local minds, including journalist Anna Fifield and leading Māori scholar Aroha Harris, on issues closer to home, such as Te Tiriti, colonisation and New Zealand’s handling of Covid-19.

A major delegation from the Nordic region includes Sámi journalist Elin Anna Labba and Lars Mytting, author of Norwegian Wood, joined by five other talented writers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Ockham New Zealand Book Award finalist Tina Makereti, and acclaimed novelists Becky Manawatu, Monty Soutar and Carl Shuker appear with their latest novels. Beloved Australian author Trent Dalton returns after a sellout success at last year's Festival and Booker Prize-winning UK writer Alan Hollinghurst will come back to the Festival for the first time in 20 years to discuss landmark LGBTQ+ literature alongside New Zealand’s Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and American Torrey Peters.

Dynamic and fresh formats take Festival goers right through the day. “A New Light” will project speakers’ words around the city each daybreak and nightfall; BAFTA-nominated spoken word poet, activist and performer Lemn Sissay will start Saturday with his rousing “Let the Light Pour In”performance, and evening salons of spoken word, spicy stories and dark tales will keep crowds entertained until late.

Audiences can also create “A Waiata in an Hour” with the legendary Anika Moa;experience a unique live cookery / crime-fiction session with Japanese Butter author Asako Yuzuki and Sam Low or be part of an entirely human powered publishing machine in Aotea Square in The Book Factory.

Art-lovers won’t want to miss sessions on Toi Te Mana or Dick Frizzell on his memoir; sport fans can hear from Tiger Williams’ long-term caddie Steve Williams; TV fans will be glued to Diana Wichtel; nature enthusiasts get a taste of the outdoors with John Connell and Naomi Arnold; history buffs will enjoy Michael Belgrave, Jacinta Ruru and Ben Macintyre (joined in one session by a surviving member of the Iranian Embassy siege) and memoir readers will be moved by stories of Gloriavale leaver Theophila Pratt.

The entirely free PUKAPUKA ADVENTURES will include readings from beloved children’s authors, playtime sessions and workshops for young children alongside their parents. There is also a ticketed family offering, which includes, for the first time, a special gala night just for young bookworms and a chance for children to put their burning questions to author of the eternally popular Treehouse Series Andy Griffiths andMorrigan Crow bestseller Jessica Townsend.

All events are live and in-person except for two digital sessions, which will give attendees the opportunity to hear from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, beaming in from New York to discuss her first novel in a decade, and eminent writer and human rights lawyer Raja Shehadeh who will join from Palestine.

STREETSIDE, the Friday night festival featuring slam poets, readings, performances and more in Britomart, will serve as a pre-Festival opener this year, taking place on the earlier date of Friday 9 May. And KŌRERO CORNER returns in a bigger space with a vibrant range of bitesize and informal free sessions.

The Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki has an outstanding global reputation – it is the biggest festival of its kind (per capita) in the Southern Hemisphere – and brings audiences from all over the country, and the world, to Tāmaki Makaurau in May. It’s one of Aotearoa’s most beloved, and attended, cultural experiences. Last year surpassed all previous Festivals, with record breaking attendances of more than 85,000.

This is just a small snapshot of the full programme available at writersfestival.co.nz. Public tickets are on sale from 9am, Friday 14 March via Ticketmaster or by calling 0800 111 999. The event is designed to be accessible and welcoming, with more than 25% of the festival events free of charge.

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