By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Jun 08, 2009

May's 2009 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival was a momentous success. Overall attendance was up 89% on the 2008 Festival. Ticket sales increased by 42%, and audiences numbered over 25,000 for the 63 events over five days. “We are absolutely delighted,” says Festival Director Jill Rawnsley.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, May 04, 2009

Response to the 2009 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival guest speakers and theme – ‘”find out what on Earth is going on” – has been enthusiastic since the full programme was launched on 30 March. “A lunch event with New Yorker writer Judith Thurman has already sold out (Thurman can still be seen in New Yorker Night and An Hour with Judith Thurman), and overall ticket sales are 30% up on 2008. Bookings for the inaugural Schools Programme have exceeded all expectations, and we’ve had an unprecedented number of requests for programmes from outside Auckland this year which is also very encouraging” says Auckland Writers & Readers Festival Director Jill Rawnsley (right).

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, May 04, 2009

Richard Holloway
Richard Holloway is that rare being, a controversialist with a conscience. A former bishop of Edinburgh, Holloway describes himself as a “Christian Agnostic”, a considered position in a world rent by wars of religion and bigotry.

Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is the author of the bestselling science books The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Ancestor’s Tale and The God Delusion.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2009

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Monica Ali
M.T. Anderson
Tash Aw
Richard Dawkins
Kirsty Gunn
Mohammed Hanif
Hendrick Hertzberg
David Malouf
Mal Peet
and more...

Click here to download the full biographical list ...

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Friday, Jan 09, 2009

By Michael Kaiser
Washington Post Monday, December 29, 2008; Page A15

While government bailouts are being offered or considered for financial institutions, the auto industry, homeowners, and so many other needy and worthy sectors, one group is quickly and rather quietly falling apart: our nation's arts organizations. In the past few months, dozens of opera companies, theater companies, dance organizations, museums and symphonies have either closed or suffered major cash crises.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Dec 15, 2008

The two overall winners of the twenty-third annual Commonwealth Writers’ Prize will be announced at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on 16 May 2009.

The Prize, an increasingly valued international award for fiction, is presented by the Commonwealth Foundation. The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize aims to reward the best of Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008

2009 Impac Dublin prize...

2008 Man Asia Literary Prize...

2008 Dylan Thomas prize...

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008

"Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's panoramic 1981 allegory of the birth of modern India, is heading for the big screen. Deepa Mehta is to direct and co-write the adaptation with the author, and the film is expected to start production in 2010, it was announced in New York this month."

Read the whole article at guardian.co.uk...

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008

"When Arrows from the Dark rolled hot off the press in 1909, a publishing phenomenon was born. Sophie Cole's novel marked the birth of Mills & Boon, and started a tradition that has seen the publishing house become a byword for mass-market romantic fiction. Now a collection of books and their evocative cover art has been brought together for the Mills & Boon Centenary Exhibition."

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Thursday, Oct 16, 2008

The Booker Prize

Debut Indian novelist Aravind Adiga on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, with The White Tiger. It was only the third time in the Booker's 40-year history that a first-time writer had claimed the award, and, at 33, Adiga was also one of its youngest winners.