Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki offers a sneak-peek of the 2025 programme

Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki is thrilled to reveal the first five names for the 2025 Festival, ahead of the full programme announcement on Wednesday 12 March.

Esteemed author and illustrator Gavin Bishop O.N.Z.M. (Tainui, Ngāti Awa) is the Festival’s 2025 Honoured Writer. In his rich career he has published 70 books; written for television, stage and ballet; and been garlanded with a host of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top cultural honours.

Bishop will be joined by four global superstars: Kaliane Bradley, British-Cambodian author of bestselling debut The Ministry of Time, Asako Yuzuki author of the cult Japanese bestseller Butter, Yael van der Wouden from the Netherlands, Booker Prize shortlisted author of The Safekeep, and multimillion-copy bestselling author, historian and Times columnist Ben Macintyre.

This year’s Festival takes place at the Aotea Centre from 13 – 18 May and will feature over 200 writers from Aotearoa and abroad. It promises a rich and diverse programme bursting with well-known literary powerhouses, global thinkers and fresh new voices.

“I know it’s a complete tease to say these five names are just the (excellent) tip of the iceberg, but they really are,” says Artistic Director Lyndsey Fineran.

“Every Festival two things are true: I don’t want to keep all the brilliant writers poised to join us to myself and AWF attendees tell me they need more reading time ahead of the event. So here’s your chance – a sneak-peak at our 2025 Honoured Writer selection and the authors of four of some the most talked-about international books of the year who are set to join us.”

Fineran urges the nation’s bookworms to ensure they are signed up to the Auckland Writers Festival newsletter and social media channels to get the full lineup when it is revealed on Wednesday 12 March.

The Festival’s Managing Director Catriona Ferguson says the team has been working hard to build on the success of last year's event, which broke all attendance records and ushered in a bold and exciting new era for the Southern Hemisphere’s largest literary festival.

Auckland Writers Festival brings audiences from all over the country, and the world, to Tāmaki Makaurau in May and is one of Aotearoa’s most beloved, and attended, cultural experiences.

The full programme will be released on Wednesday 12 March at midday. Sign up for the Festival newsletter for updates. Tickets go on sale on Friday 14 March 2025 and the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki runs from 13 – 18 May at the Aotea Centre and surrounding venues.

AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2025 – FIRST NAMES:

Gavin Bishop (Aotearoa) 2025 Honoured Writer: Gavin Bishop O.N.Z.M. (Tainui, Ngāti Awa) is a highly acclaimed children’s author and illustrator of more than 70 books. He has won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award a record five times. Other major awards include the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, Te Waka Toi Ngā Tohu ā Tā Kingi Ihaka/Sir Kingi Ihaka Award recognising his lifetime contribution to strengthening Māori art and culture through his children’s books and The Arts Foundation’s Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award. He was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for lifetime achievement and his distinguished contribution to children’s literature in Aotearoa New Zealand, and nominated for the Hans Christian Anderson Award, the world’s highest award for children’s literature. Gavin was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013, and President of Honour of the NZ Society of Authors. Latest book: The Gavin Bishop Treasury

Kaliane Bradley (UK): Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor. Her debut novel, The Ministry of Time, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, was named one of the Observer’s best new novels for 2024, and sold in 27 languages. The novel has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature (among other prizes) and was the Dymocks Book of the Year. She won the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize and the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize. Her fiction has appeared in Catapult, Electric Literature and Extra Teeth, among others. She works in publishing and lives in London with her husband. Latest book: The Ministry of Time

Asako Yuzuki (Japan): Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. She won the All Yomimono Award for New Writers for her story, Forget Me, Not Blue, which appeared in her debut, Shuuten No Anoko, published in 2010. She won the Yamamoto Shūgorō Award in 2015 for Nile Perch No Joshikai. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film. Latest book: Butter

Yael van der Wouden (the Netherlands): Yael van der Wouden was born in 1987 and lives and works in The Netherlands. The Safekeep, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. It was also longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Wingate Prize, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. She lectures in creative writing and comparative literature. Latest book: The Safekeep

Ben Macintyre (UK): Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS: Rogue Heroes. Latest book: The Siege