I had a wild and wonderful time at Auckland Writers Festival 2017 last weekend. This is the fifth year in a row that I’ve headed to Auckland for the festival, my second time (AWF15 was my first) as part of the programme. The festival gets bigger and better each year, continues to break its own … Read more…
Auckland Writers Festival
‘Family Dynamics’ at Auckland Writers Festival
The programme has been launched for Auckland Writers Festival 2017, which runs from 16 to 21 May. I’ll be there — this’ll be my fifth time attending AWF, my second time as a guest of the festival. I’m in one of the Four for Fifty Readings sessions — fifty-minute events in which four writers read from their recent work. Each session is themed; … Read more…
This festive season
May is my birthday month (thus always a time of celebrations and joy to the world, right?). But this May feels extra-festive, cause for much shimmying, shaking, and leg-kicking, on the beach and elsewhere. The Hope Fault acquired by Aardvark Bureau I’ve been quietly dancing on the ceiling (and everywhere else) about this for a while, so I’m delighted to … Read more…
Lena Gaunt by any other name
Names are funny things, important things, and they fascinate me; indeed, my second novel, The Hope Fault, is at least partly about names and naming. I spend a lot of (aka too much) time mulling over character names in my writing. I love to name my chapters, too, title them rather than just giving them numbers … Read more…
The merry month of May
O, the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! ‘The Merry Month of May’ by Thomas Dekker (1599) The month just past (So frolic. Much gay. Many green. Wow.) would’ve warranted a celebratory skip around the maypole, if it hadn’t been a bit chilly … Read more…
In praise of useless beauty
I’m not sure whether the 2000-odd-seat ASB Theatre was sold out for Tim Winton’s Auckland Writers Festival 2015 (AWF15) session last Sunday morning, but it was certainly close to packed, and there was a lot of love in the room for Winton. I was seated wa-a-aay up in the gods, which felt like an appropriate … Read more…
‘Loss and Love’ at 2015 Auckland Writers Festival
I’m looking forward to heading up to Auckland next month for Auckland Writers Festival. This’ll be my third time heading up to Auckland for the writers festival (I wrote about the 2014 festival here and here), but my first time on the programme. The festival has got bigger and better each year that I’ve been, … Read more…
Good vibrations: Auckland Writers Festival, Saturday
During the week, I wrote about the first few days of Auckland Writers Festival. While it’s still reasonably fresh in my mind — and despite being distracted by a Twitter feed full of #swf2014 — here are my notes and observations from the audience for last Saturday’s sessions at Auckland Writers Festival. Saturday Happy to … Read more…
Auckland Writers Festival – Thursday, Friday
I’m just home in Wellington after another festival for writers and readers, my third in four months (all years should be like this). I’ve written already about Perth Writers Festival (February) and New Zealand Writers Week in Wellington (March). Unlike these first two festivals, I wasn’t ‘performing’ at the most recent one, so it’s from the audience, … Read more…