With more than 60,000
seats filled, and an estimated 20 percent increase in ticket issues, the 2015
Auckland Writers Festival has broken all records.
For five days, people
young and old flocked to the festival, which is celebrating its 15th year, to
see more than 150 novelists, playwrights, song writers, scientists, historians,
children’s writers, critics, editors, illustrators and poets from New Zealand
and around the world .
Auckland Writers Festival director
Anne O’Brien says there is no greater sign of the health of this country’s
books and writing culture than this stunning outcome.
“More people came to more
sessions and there were thousands of new faces. This has been the most
astonishing five days. The laughter, energy, ideas, conversations, tears and
joy from the audience and the writers has been remarkable.”
People travelled from as
far away as the US and Australia to see Haruki Murakami’s only Southern
Hemisphere festival appearance and he didn’t disappoint.
“One audience member said
Murakami’s session was ‘life changing’ and another said it was ‘unrivalled in
its inspiration’. We are so honoured that Murakami chose to come to the
Auckland Writers Festival,” says Ms O’Brien.
Children clambered and
hollered in excitement at David Walliams’ and Dav Pilkey (Captain
Underpants’) performances, then queued patiently for more than two hours to get
their books signed. Scottish actor, playwright, cabaret artist and writer Alan
Cumming put on a party to a full house of more than 2,200 people who loved
it as much as he did; the very cool Anthony Horowitz told kids to do
something illegal, so long as they don’t get caught – fitting words for the
writer of the next James Bond work; Sir Peter Williams QC shared his
life’s work as a lawyer in a funny and enlightening session which ended with a
standing ovation and satirists David Slack and Steve Braunias
brought the house down.
We were introduced to new
voices: the beauty and simplicity of Kim Thuy’s session ended with a
lengthy signing queue; novelist Amy Bloom’s compassionate and deep
thinking on the human condition was rapturously received; and Emily St. John
Mandel’s hugely imaginative dystopian work Station Eleven saw
audience members keenly seeking out her back list novels.
Scientist Philip Ball
put the seemingly impossible into plain English; human rights lawyer turned
novelist Zia Haider Rahman revealed some ugly world truths and wonderful
words of hope; Scottish memoirist Damian Barr introduced New Zealand to
a new event genre: the literary salon; everyone’s favourite critic Daniel
Mendelsohn defended correct use of grammar, stating that it ‘encourages a
rigour of thought’; UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy reminded us that
poetry is the music of being human; former Wallaby turned sports commentator
and non-fiction writer Peter FitzSimons proved he was as good at
storytelling as he was at playing rugby.
Students in their
thousands poured into the Aotea Centre for inspiring sessions with writers from
Britain, US, Australia and New Zealand.
“Festival Associate
Director, Eleanor Congreve says the schools programme increases in popularity
each year.
“Next year we hope to
expand the programme, offering even more students an opportunity to see their
literary heroes on stage,” says Ms Congreve.
Awards were given: C.K.
Stead was honoured for his life’s work in writing with a pounamu paper
knife created by Coromandel artist Chris Charteris as the festival’s 2015
Honoured New Zealand Writer; Stephanie de Montalk and Steve
Braunias were presented with the 2015 Nigel Cox Awards; this year’s Sarah
Broom Poetry Prize went to Diana Bridge and the Royal Society of NZ
Science Prize winners for 2015 are Atholl Anderson and Aroha Harris
for their work Tangata Whenua.
Auckland Writers Festival
Board Chair Pip Muir says it remains for her to sincerely thank the many people
who made this year’s extraordinary outcome possible.
“I am enormously grateful
to the authors for their wisdom and discourse, to the audience for their warmth
and applause, to the sponsors and patrons for their generosity and loyal
support and especially to the festival team and volunteers who have worked
tirelessly to make this festival possible,” says Ms Muir.
The Auckland Writers
Festival warmly thanks its Gold Partners: The University of Auckland,
Freemasons Foundation, New Zealand Listener, ASB Community Trust,
Creative New Zealand and ATEED; and all our Silver, Bronze and Supporting
Partners.
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