Auckland Writers Festival Wrap Up

Attending the Auckland Writers Festival is always such a great privilege. To have this many authors from around the world bustling amongst our incredible local writers is truly something to behold. The Festival Team does a phenomenal job of putting on such a seamless event and although I'm sure that behind the scenes it’s quite stressful, it's never noticed by the thousands of punters flowing through the venues, full credit to them.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand to chat with me. I absolutely loved hearing your shared passion for great stories and your highlights from the festival. Here's a few of mine:

Under Miriana McDowell’s masterful direction, the opening Gala Night treated us to a spectacular raft of authors from all different genres. Each storyteller contributed a unique flair, offering profound insights that bridged continents, touched the human heart, and resonated deeply throughout the room.

In a truly special moment with Witi Ihimaera, we were taken on a journey back to the roots of Waituhi. As a Gisborne girl myself, his stories of small-town life, moving away, and the long road to finding yourself again hit very close to home. In a beautiful moment of reconnection, he ended his segment by reintroducing himself to the audience as Witi Ihimaera Smiler.

One of the absolute standouts of the entire festival weekend was the brilliantly macabre and witty panel, The Dead Speak. Chaired by Steve Braunias, the session brought together a stellar lineup of two local forensics writers to discuss the grittier side of mortality. It was fascinating, dark, and definitely kept the audience on the very edge of their seats. This is easily the session I've talked about the most since the weekend ended.

The festival isn't just for adults, either. I took the family along to see the legendary Dav Pilkey, which resulted in laughs coming from the entire audience. It absolutely warmed my heart to see so many little smiling faces in the crowd. Not to mention the many parents who also took great joy in attending the event.

We were also incredibly lucky enough to be invited to an exclusive meet-and-greet event with R.F. Kuang, who is just as lovely, warm, and brilliant in person as she looks in her photos.

The festival is always a wonderful excuse for the literary industry to unite, and I loved bumping into so many familiar faces in the crowd. We snapped local crime writer Michael Bennett, who was attending with his incredibly talented daughter, the slam poet and filmmaker Matariki Bennett.

It was also fantastic to see such a massive turnout from the publishing world this year. It went far beyond the publicists we usually expect to see (though a massive shout-out to Rebecca and Holly whom I saw buzzing through the crowds on more than one occasion), with editors, marketing, and a great number of sales teams from across multiple publishers out in full force to support their authors.

It was a weekend filled with inspiration, connection, and a potent reminder of why we love the world of books so much. Until next year.