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AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL

11 - 16 MAY 2021

Our 2021 Programme is out and tickets are now on sale. 
As always, the Festival celebrates magnificent New Zealand writers and writing, alongside some of the world's best. Of course, there are a few who can't be here in the flesh this year and will be livestreaming into the venue, but we have plenty of stars on the stage, and we can't wait to see you in the halls from 11 to 16 May!

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"JULIET STEVENSON RAGES 
BETWEEN YOUR EARS" 
The Guardian

We are so delighted that, in partnership with Auckland Live, we will present the Donmar Warehouse production of Blindness as part of Festival week. The adaptation of Nobel Laureate José Saramago’s 1995 novel of the same name is a socially-distanced sound installation and immersive theatre experience direct from the UK. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens and directed by Walter Meierjohann, it was originally staged at London’s Donmar Warehouse and was the first production to be delivered to a paying public following the UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown.
32 performances from Tuesday 11 May - Sunday 16 May, at Auckland Town Hall, tickets on sale now


Did you hear Blindness narrator, actor Juliet Stevenson in a brilliant kōrero with Kim Hill on RNZ's Saturday Morning last weekend? Do have a listen It is a cracker.

NEIL GAIMAN LIVE ON STAGE

Neil Gaiman is much loved around the world for his writing prowess, his imagination and his advocacy for reading and libraries. A reviewer once described him as  "god in the universe of story” - this is no more evident than in the recently published The Neil Gaiman Reader, which brings together 50 of his short stories and novellas, including excerpts from his five novels for adults Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Marlon James says of it, “This collection is [like] the Beatles’ White Album: massive in size and scope, with individually brilliant pieces presented together because the only context they need is how good they are.” Join us for Event 73: The Universe of Story. and spend an hour in the company of the author of an illustrious array of titles from first outing Ghastly Beyond Belief to his very latest, the children’s book Pirate Stew.
Gaiman is also appearing in Event 70: An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer

AUTUMN SALON SERIES

Following the success of our 2020 Winter Series, nine exceptional overseas-based writers join chair Paula Morris on screen, for three live in venue chats in our Autumn Salon Series. They will discuss and read from their latest work and answer your live questions. The line-up includes:
FRIDAY: Chilean literary legend Isabel Allende with The Soul of a Woman, a meditation on power and feminism; UK-based Ockham NZ Book Awards shortlisted poet Mohamed Hassan with his debut collection National Anthem; and Chinese-American writer and teacher Yiyun Li with her brilliant new novel Must I Go.
SATURDAY: Expat Miro Bilbrough with her memoir of a 1970s childhood in a Marlborough Sounds commune In The Time of the Manaroans; US fiction doyenne Marilynne Robinson with latest novel Jack; and Booker prize winning Glaswegian novelist Douglas Stuart with Shuggie Bain.
SUNDAY: Irish actor and memoirist Gabriel Byrne with Walking With Ghosts; Melbourne-based Māori crime writer JP Pomare with latest thriller Tell Me Lies; and the London-based Caribbean Costa Book of the Year author Monique Roffey with The Mermaid of Black Conch. Grab a coffee and join us at the Aotea Centre! 

ORO: CELEBRATING THE MANY WAYS TO BE MĀORI

We are proud to present Oro, a series of four stunning Festival events curated by writer, musician and taonga pūoro practitioner  Ruby Solly.
Oro: to resound, echo, resonate. A tribute not only to our collective oro; our collective voice, but to the many strands that make up who we are, where we come from, and where we are headed. A celebration of how there are as many ways to be Māori, as there are Māori ourselves.
Three of these sessions are free, and the line-up includes Patricia Grace, Becky Manawatu, Tusiata Avia, Ross Calman, Anahera Gildea, Ariana TikaoArihia Latham, Nic Low, Kiri Piahana-Wong, Qiane Matata-Sipu and essa may ranapiri.

Supported by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori | Māori Language Commission.

GARANCÉ DORE NOW LIVESTREAM IN VENUE

Garance Doré's Festival session will now be a LIVESTREAM IN VENUE event.
Once called “the guardian of all style” by New York Times Magazine, Corsican born Garance Doré launched her eponymous blog in 2006. Sharing images of style on the streets, she went on to become one of the most recognised women in the world of fashion, and a singular voice across social media channels. In this exclusive session, Event 35: A Question of Style, Doré will speak with Wendy Petrie about her writing, her personal growth as a woman and an artist, her love for New Zealand, and how to be beautiful inside as well as out. Livestreaming in from Europe to the Aotea Centre. 

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WITH THANKS TO OUR MAJOR FESTIVAL PARTNERS:



                        
                
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