NEW ZEALAND ANNOUNCES 160 AUTHORS AND PERFORMERS FOR GERMANY

MANATŪ TAONGA/MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE
PRESS RELEASE, June 18, 2012


More than 60 New Zealand authors and 100 performers will be in Germany showcasing Kiwi artistic talents leading up to and during October’s Frankfurt Book Fair where New Zealand is this year’s Guest of Honour.
New Zealand Frankfurt Book Fair director Tanea Heke revealed the literary and cultural programme at a press conference in Germany overnight.
Tanea Heke told media and guests that New Zealand’s diverse creative talents will be on show in an exciting and innovative programme of art, music, dance and storytelling at venues across Germany.
She said the programme spans the centuries from traditional Māori storytelling techniques through to state-of-the-art transmedia.


The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s biggest book and media trade fair with about 7600 exhibitors from 110 countries and about 300,000 visitors annually.
The New Zealand Guest of Honour pavilion will be centre stage. It is a 2300sq m space that has been designed by internationally renowned architects Pattersons and specialist events company Inside Out Produtions. Tanea Heke describes it as “like being inside a person’s imagination”.
“Our pavilion will be an amazing, immersive visitor experience – from the beauty of its design to the rich and varied writers’ and cultural programme. For five magical days we will be bringing the best of New Zealand creativity and innovation to Germany.”
Outside the fair several festivals will showcase New Zealand cultural talent starting with the Museumsuferfest in late August featuring contemporary and traditional artists.
New Zealand writers will be showcased at many events in cities and towns across Germany, including the prestigious Berlin International Literature Festival in September.
Award winning NZ writer Kate De Goldi will appear at the festival in Berlin as will Lloyd Jones, author of the multi-award-winning novel Mr Pip, now being made into a film starring Hugh Laurie. A highlight event of the festival will be A Long Night of Māori Stories featuring, amongst others, internationally acclaimed writers Alan Duff, Witi Ihimaera and Paula Morris and Māori orator, Joe Harawira.
In Frankfurt, up-and-coming writers Hamish Clayton and Tina Makereti will take up a brand new writer’s residency at The Weltkulturen Museum before joining their Kiwi contemporaries at the book fair.
Many of our poets will also be in Germany – Bill Manhire, recognised as the finest New Zealand poet of his generation plays host to the Transit of Venus poets exchange with partners the Goethe-Institut and Literaturwerkstatt. Glenn Colquhoun, Chris Price and Hinemoana Baker create new works especially for Frankfurt alongside German counterparts Uwe Kolbe, Brigitte Oleschinski and Ulrike Almut Sandig. Different rythyms and cadence will be heard through Māori and Pacific poets like Robert Sullivan and Tusiata Avia.
New Zealand children’s and young adult writers like internationally renowned children’s authors Joy Cowley, Bernard Beckett and Brian Falkner will be working with German schools and libraries during the book fair.
Our contemporary crime writers Paul Cleave, Paddy Richardson and Alix Bosco will thrill and chill audiences with scenes of suspense from the dark side of New Zealand fiction.
An expose on New Zealand’s world-class educational publishers will show the world how future thinking from down under influences global trends in the classroom.


Internationally successful New Zealand comic artists Roger Langridge, The Muppets, Colin Wilson, Star Wars and Blueberry, Greg Broadmore, Dr Grordbort’s and Dylan Horrocks, Hicksville, will appear in the Comics Zone at the Frankfurt Book Fair as well as in book stores and comics festivals across Germany, Italy and Belgium.


Celebrity chefs and cook book authors Al Brown, Robert Oliver, Charles Royal, Peter Gordon and Annabel Langbein will delight the world with delicious dishes of New Zealand kai.
Global film industry special effects maestro and multi-Oscar award-winner Richard Taylor alongside colleagues Martin Baynton and Greg Broadmore will present a keynote speech at the Storydrive conference.
And great New Zealand hospitality will also be to the fore as Al Brown, Peter Gordon, Robert Oliver, Charles Royal and Annabel Langbein showcase the best in New Zealand food and wine at Frankfurt’s Margarete restaurant.


The economic benefits for New Zealand are already apparent with a record-breaking number of New Zealand book rights being sold into Germany since we became Guest of Honour. Some 76 book titles are being translated and published in Germany this year, giving Kiwi authors unprecedented international exposure. The average for the past decade has been 10 translations into German a year.
“New Zealand has been attending the Frankfurt Book Fair for more than 20 years but Guest of Honour status this year has increased our German sales by at least 600 percent. This is a standout year in New Zealand publishing history and is a fantastic platform for a country of just over 4 million people. Doors have opened for New Zealand writers and this is our big moment to shine the light on the enormous wealth of talent coming out of such a small country” says Kevin Chapman, president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ).
Guest Country of Honour status offers the most comprehensive opportunity we have seen in many decades to strengthen New Zealand/German ties in culture, business, tourism, diplomacy and education.
Together, government agencies have committed about $5.3m of baseline funding to the project. Additional funding from the Publishers Association of New Zealand, and key sponsors Victoria University of Wellington, the New Zealand German Business Association, Māori Tourism, Massey University, Icebreaker, Oceanbridge, Copyright Licensing Ltd, 1010 Printing, Everbest and Hamburg Süd, is enabling us to expand the programme and further leverage our Guest of Honour status.
For more information and a list of the writers and performers in Germany as part of the Guest of Honour programme see: www.nzatfrankfurt.govt.nz