Auckland Writers Festival

Every year the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi O Tāmaki sets the cultural agenda in Aotearoa, as the world’s best writers and thinkers arrive in Auckland for one week only, in a series of public events to inspire, entertain and challenge the status quo.

Festivalgoers will hear from outstanding fiction and non-fiction authors, musicians, scientists, artists, historians, innovators, and food and art critics from New Zealand and around the world. They’ll experience exclusive insights and debate on significant global issues – from climate change to gender identity, wild food foraging, Indigenous perspectives, the downsides of social media, breaking female sport stereotypes, and whether writers can be replaced by chatbots.

This year, double-Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead will join 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, 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 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.Popular returning events include the beloved Festival Gala Night, featuring eight writers sharing a true and personal tale around the theme ‘In Real Life’. STREETSIDE: Britomart is held on the Festival’s Friday night, providing a literary takeover of venues around the Britomart Precinct with poets, writers and musicians in live performances and storytelling. Free children’s programme Pukapuka Adventures will run on Saturday and Sunday of Festival weekend, providing even the littlest bookworms with a chance to have fun and explore their creativity.

Public tickets are on sale from 9am, Friday 24th March via Ticketmaster or by calling 0800 111 999 or 09 970 9700.