VerbCrawl returns for one night only
Taking to the streets of Pōneke for a high energy, one of a kind literature event.
Verb’s beloved, one-night-only, high-energy literary festival, VerbCrawl, will take over the streets of inner-city Wellington on Saturday 14 November. With untamed events unfolding in the unexpected - across bars, fabric stores, galleries, bookshops and more. Expect a joyous celebration of writing, conversations, books & performance, in unexpected ways and unexpected places.
Twenty-five events will take place between 6pm - 9.15pm, on Saturday November 14th, with all tickets just $10 per event. It’s a fast-paced, vivacious festival with a focus on grassroots literary collectives, indie journals, and emerging voices. Many events blend performance and literature, with inventive new formats, making it a night of experimentation and wild provocations.
Following on from the hugely successful return of Verb Readers & Writers Festival in September 2026, the Verb team are incredibly excited to have another literary celebration to look forward to!
Co-directors Kate McDonald and Gabrielle Vincent say: “Shaping this year’s VerbCrawl programme has been a real joy. We hope audiences can feel the sense of fun, curiosity and sparkling energy that has gone into every part of the curation.”
Directly after the election, journalists Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (The Spinoff), Māni Dunlop (The Post) and Lillian Hanly (Radio New Zealand) join James Nokise for Political Afterthoughts, a post-election debrief.
At Drapers Fabrics, poetry icons Chris Tse and Haro Lee will dissect the songs, shows and pop culture touchstones they love, and read their poetic responses, in Cult Icons.
The volume then goes up as metal collides with poetry, with band FVKVSHIMA joining forces with four poets in a one-of-a-kind live collaboration at Meow.
Dracula queen Noelle McCarthy will lead a gothic salon with authors reading aloud pieces from their most loved gothic literature in the very apt location of St Peter’s on Willis. In contrast, social media star and romance author Ashley Andersen talks about her enemies to lovers fantasy, Malachite.
Daniel Vernon aka YeeHawTheBoys, introduces his brand-new comic book Local Legends, which reimagines three iconic Māori pūrākau through action, horror and romance. At City Gallery Wellington prolific artist and book cover designer Todd Atticus will launch the start of his city-wide visual poem, which will take place over a year.
Fact or fiction? That's for the audience to decide, as five writers share stories that may be completely true or entirely invented. Featuring Joseph Trinidad, Una Cruickshank, Kiri Lightfoot, Jem Yoshioka and Nick Ascroft, and hosted by much loved Jo Randerson.
In Late-Night Fairytales, Melody Thomas, Kasi Valu, Nadine Hura and Tawhi Thomas are challenged to smut up classic fairy tales giving them a decidedly adult twist, hosted by Hugo Grrrl at Peg Gallery.
VerbCrawl favourites Starling, Sweet Mammalian and Tracy Farr’s Bad Diaries Salon will be back once again with a juicy line up of authors and poets.
Two new voices of crime, Molly Crighton and Anthony Lapwood will discuss how they are shaking up the genre by breaking traditional tropes and centring queer voices with Damien Levi at Aurelia Books.
In A Word of Advice at XO Book Co. fantasy, romance and science fiction authors, Ashley Andersen, and Marie Cardno are given the opportunity to write a letter of advice to their leading characters.
Catch this and much more - Full 2026 VerbCrawl programme live and tickets on sale from Wednesday 14 October.