On Wednesday, the Auckland Writers Festival released the highly-anticipated programme for this year's festival events. The 2025 Auckland Writers Festival runs from 13-18 May in Aotea Centre, Auckland.
And the line-up is spectacular!
An Evening With Trent Dalton
Trent Dalton will be the opening act of the festival, as he returns for one night only to reprise his highly successful event from 2024. Join him as he chronicles his career from early journalism to the critically acclaimed debut Boy Swallows Universe, and all his latest novels, alongside the stage and Netflix adaptations of them.
2024 Book Prize Winner Samantha Harvey
A huge drawcard for this year's event is 2024 Booker Prize-winning author Samantha Harvey, whose space nature-writing novel Orbital offers a philosophical question from the points of view of sixteen astronauts over a twenty-four hour period on the international space station. This short book evokes the hard-hitting questions such as what is life without earth, and what is earth without humanity?
Samantha Harvey will be on two panels discussing Orbital, Event 91 which centres on the novel as the 2024 Booker Prize Winner, and a discussion with Kiwi author Pip Adam for Event 43, Space: Nature Writing's New Frontier?
Of course we have some major Kiwi authors making an appearance!
2025 Honoured Writer Gavin Bishop
The 2025 Honoured Writer is Gavin Bishop, an author and illustrator of 70 magical and mythical children's books in his career to date. He has also written for the stage as well as television and has received, among many other accolades, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for lifetime achievement.
Life at the End of the World
The incredible Ruth Shaw, author of international bestseller The Bookseller at the End of the World will be promoting her upcoming novel in Event 14, Ruth Shaw: A Life At The End of the World. Her life has been a roller-coaster of sailing through the pirate-filled Pacific, working amongst those with addiction in Kings Cross, Sydney and running three small bookshops in the remote south of New Zealand.
Remote Festival Experience: BookHero Online Specials
For those of you unable to travel to Auckland for the festival don't worry! We will be hosting daily flash sales over the duration of the festival, with discounts on the titles of authors attending the festival.
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