Going West

Saturday Morning opens with Bob Harvey and Gregory O’Brien talking with Elisabeth Vaneveld about place, people and the connecting power of stories. Elizabeth Knox delves into her latest novel The Absolute Book with Dylan Horrocks.

Tui Gordon, Janet McAllister and Tulia Thompson dissect their collection Living on Volcanoes and the myriad of topics it traverses. Alan Duff joins Guyon Espiner to discuss A Conversation with My Country, his fresh and personal account of where New Zealand has been and where he believes we can go from here.

After an hour lunch break we return to explore what makes for a compelling fictional journey with novelists Rosetta Allan and Craig Cliff with Caroline Baron. Poet and anthologist Paula Green discusses generous new work of creative scholarship, Wild Honey with poets Kiri Piahana-Wong and Sue Wootton.

Witi Ihimaera, in conversation with Sue Orr, revisits a time when to simply be published as a Maori author was a landmark moment. We wrap up our day of literary treats with a focus on beer featuring Garage Project's Pete Gillespie and Mark Easterbrook.

Sunday begins with Death and Dying in New Zealand, with essayists Emma Johnson, Dr Kiri Edge, David Slack and Vana Manasiadis delving into how we deal with the end to life. Two acclaimed New Zealand novelists Carl Shuker and Kirsten Warner join Siobhan Harvey to explore how consequence drives the arc of their stories.

Elspeth Sandys talks with journalist Matt Nippert, about Rewi Alley, his life, and what he means now to New Zealand, and the country he called home - China. Auckland Museum invites five writers – Saraid de Silva Cameron, Mohamed Hassan, Louise Tu’u, To’asavili Tuputala, and Lucy Zee with Dina Jezdic – to investigate the Museum’s documentary heritage collection.

After lunch Owen Gill, Patrick Reynolds and Malcom Paterson examine how Tamaki Makaurau might become a place that is better at telling its stories. Witi Ihimaera elicits insights, experiences and anecdotes on how to get published from three publishers – Harriet Allan, Bridget Williams and Peter Dowling. Jeff Murray and Neville Peat weigh up how we tell the biggest story of our current moment in time, climate change, with Rod Oram. We bring our weekend to a close with Michele A’Court, Paul Horan and Phillip Matthews talking about Funny As, a big, authoritative, hilarious history of New Zealand’s funny men and women.

Purchase a Day Pass for discounted to tickets to all Sunday sessions, or a Multipass for discounted tickets to any four sessions across the weekend!