NZ Book Council presents - New Zealand Festival Writers Week Showcase — special edition

The New Zealand Festival Writers Week kicks off today and will see journalists, playwrights, novelists, screenwriters, illustrators, historians, critics, poets, translators, biographers and more gather in Wellington to share stories about their craft, their lives and the world around us. Here's a Writers Week taster, featuring interviews and more with several exciting Writers Week guests on Booknotes Unbound.

Mansfield Questionnaire: Terry Castle

Write a prelude to your life in one sentence: My very pregnant mother sat down for a rest on a vibrating 'massage chair' — in a furniture showroom in San Diego, California, in October 1953 — and I arrived very shortly thereafter, full of spleen and recrimination. Read on here.

Five Easy Questions with Adrian Kinnaird

1. How do New Zealand cartoonists compare to others around the world — do we have a distinct cartooning flavour? I think the really interesting thing about the work of New Zealand cartoonists is there isn't any one defining flavour. Our cartoonists have been influenced by a wide variety of international comics and popular culture over the years... Read on here.

Sebastian Hampson's Debut Novel: An Excerpt and Q&A

Sebastian Hampson’s debut novel The Train to Paris is described as ‘a surprising and compelling love story’ and will be launched at the New Zealand Festival Writers Week. We share an excerpt from The Train to Paris, which charts the adventures of characters, Lawrence and Élodie, with an introductory Q&A with the author. Read on here.

Writers Week Recommended Reading List And just in case you missed it, the festival kindly put together a recommended reading list so you can hit the ground running when Writers Week opens on 7th March. As you'll see, the 2014 New Zealand Festival Writers Week programme offers a ‘lively mix of the new and the familiar’. Read on here.

The Book Council Recommends... The 2014 New Zealand Book Council Lecture with Man Booker Prize winning author Eleanor Catton takes place on March 10, 4.45pm at the Embassy Theatre. A reminder that Book Council members can purchase discounted tickets. The Member price is $15 - the usual ticket price is $18. You can book online through Ticketek. For more information, please email reception@bookcouncil.org.nz. The Pacific Highways event takes place on March 12 at 9.15 at the Embassy Theatre. The latest edition of the Griffith Review, Pacific Highways, features contributions from a number of New Zealand writers and explores recent shifts in New Zealand’s identity. Founding editor Julianne Schultz and co-editor Lloyd Jones will be in conversation with six of the contributors. The 2014 Janet Frame Memorial Lecture will be delivered by much-loved children’s author, illustrator and Book Council board member Gavin Bishop (ONZM). He will be introduced by the Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Everyone is welcome to attend the lecture at the Adam Auditorium, City Gallery Wellington 6.15pm on March 10th. Doors open at 5.45pm, admission is free.