Thank
you
to all those who attended the Whanganui Literary Festival – we
appreciate your support! It was a fantastic event, with most
sessions at capacity or sold out, and the eclectic mix of writers
appealing to a wide audience.
We really appreciate
all those who filled out a feedback form. We will consider your
great suggestions for the next event. Watch this space for our next
festival in 2013!
Again, thanks for your support – we couldn’t have done it without
you!
Please post a comment on our
Facebook
page if you enjoyed the festival. We look forward to reading,
and appreciate, your comments.
The Wanganui Literary
Festival is a vibrant writers and readers festival
with a lifestyle theme, now in its fourth edition and directed by
Joan Rosier-Jones. As a 'boutique'
festival, attending a reading or lecture by one of our guest writers
is an up close experience, giving you the personal contact with
writers that the larger festivals don't. Click this link to view the
full programme for this
year's festival.
For those who enjoy
the off-beat there will be literary events under the auspices of the
Fringe Festival running 09 -11 September 2011.
A
Children’s Festival
will be held As part of the 2011 Fringe Festival, from 09 -11 September.
This three-day event will include readings by children’s authors,
lyric writing, art and drama workshops and is designed to offer activities for tots to teens.
Check out the information on Capital E's shows on Friday the 9th
September.
In line with past
festivals, 2011 will offer an eclectic and fascinating variety of
readings, lectures and theatre. Bookings for individual sessions
will be available from the Whanganui Opera House.
Here's what people said about the last festival:
"What a wonderful job you did. I very much enjoyed
all events I went to, and I know scarcely anyone who
didn't attend at least one event. What a menu to choose
from! Inspiring and well organised." Megan Orme-Whitlock
"Thank you for a fabulous weekend full of tall tales
and true! (The tall tales were being told at dinner!)
Well done and looking forward to the next event."
Susan Wylie, Napier
The following writers will be
appearing this year:
Elizabeth Smither
Elizabeth Smither is a poet, novelist and short story writer. Her
numerous collections of poetry have been published alongside several
novels and short story collections. Of her poems she writes, ‘you
have to use all your senses to crack them open.’ As well as
receiving numerous other awards, Elizabeth Smither was named the
2002 Te Mata Poet Laureate. Smither's collection of short stories
The Girl Who Proposed (Cape Catley Ltd, 2008) was on the longlist
for the 2008 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
In 2007, Smither released two collections of poetry, The Year of
Adverbs (Auckland University Press), and Horse Playing the Accordion
(Ahadada books). In 2008, Elizabeth Smither was awarded the Prime
Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, worth $60,000.
Her most recent work is Lola, published by Penguin in 2010. Find out
MORE about Elizabeth Smither...
Bill
Manhire
Award-winning poet, Bill Manhire has a number of fellowships to his
name and was the 1997/1998 New Zealand Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate.
Manhire was also honoured with the 2007 Prime Minister's Award for
Literary Achievement. He is the director of the International
Institute of Modern Letters for Creative Writing at Victoria
University, and has edited several bestselling anthologies of poetry
and fiction. He is our guest poet for the literary lunch at the
Sarjeant Gallery. Find out MORE about
Bill Manhire...
Brett
McGregor
New Zealand’s first Master
Chef, Brett McGregor, needs no introduction. As a school teacher, he
was catapulted into fame when he won the competition last year.
Since then he has published his cookbook, Taste of a Traveller,
and has been busy fronting advertisements for New World
supermarkets. We are delighted that he has the time to come to
Whanganui and at the festival he will talk about his experiences in
the Master Chef kitchen and his busy life ever since. Read MORE
about Brett McGregor
and his book...
Elizabeth
Knox
Elizabeth Knox is a pre-eminent
New Zealand author. She has penned many novels, most notably The
Vintner’s Luck which has been acclaimed worldwide, and we are
delighted to have her as the keynote speaker at the grand festival
opening. She will discuss her life and work for her Whanganui
audience.
Read MORE about
Elizabeth Knox...
Jenny
Robin Jones
Jenny Robin Jones refers to
herself as a ‘feral historian’, and as such her talk at the festival
will appeal to those interested in history and genealogy. He latest
book No Simple Passage recently published by Random House
concerns the voyage of the emigrant ship, The London in 1842
and the subsequent lives of those on board once they made landfall
in New Zealand. Find out MORE about
Jenny Robin Jones
and her work as a chronicler of New Zealand’s history.
Douglas
Lloyd Jenkins
Douglas Lloyd Jenkins has been a columnist for the
New Zealand
Herald, and the Listener and currently contributes to
many prestigious magazines. In 2005, his book At Home: A Century
of New Zealand Design won the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction and
the Montana Award for History. It was the first book to look at the
history of the style and interior design of the New Zealand house.
The book led to a highly successful television documentary series,
New Zealand At Home, presented by him. His talk at the
festival will appeal to design students and anyone interested in the
history of design in New Zealand. Read More about
Douglas Lloyd
Jenkins...
Vanda Symon
Rising star of New Zealand crime fiction, Vanda Symon, will attend
this year’s
festival. Her first novel,
Overkill, was published in March 2007 by
Penguin Books. It introduces series heroine Sam Shephard, and
centres on the looks-like suicide death of a young mother in a small
rural town in New Zealand. Since then Vanda Symon has written three
more gripping novels featuring Sam Shephard, and she has had
international success with German translations of her work. The
fourth novel in the series, Bound, has recently been
released. Vanda Symons also features on National Radio as a literary
critic and is an active member of the New Zealand Society of
Authors. You can read the first chapter of all her novels at her
website
http://www.vandasymon.com/
Peter Wells
Peter Wells, a writer of fiction and nonfiction, and a
writer/director in film, has
just been awarded the Michael King Writers'
Fellowship, one of New Zealand's largest.
His fiction looks at a world of secrets,
identity, subterfuge and illusion, frequently using the lens of a
gay narrator. He has been the recipient of many awards including
the
Randell Cottage Residency in 2002, and the Waikato University
Writer in Residence in 2006. The same year he was made a Member of
the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature and film.
In 2009 he received the
Copyright Licensing Ltd Writer's Award, established to provide
financial support for New Zealand writers of non-fiction books. This
enabled him to devote time to writing and researching his
forthcoming work, The Hungry Heart: The Enquiring Mind, a
book of biographical essays on William Colenso. Amongst other
things, Peter Wells will discuss this latest work at the festival.
Read more about Peter Wells...
Joseph Romanos
Not to be left out of the Rugby World Cup fever the festival
organisers
have invited sports writer, Joseph Romanos, to speak at the
festival. Romanos’ broad sports knowledge sees him pen sports
opinion pieces for many of the countries newspapers and appear as a
regular guest speaker on National Radio. He is also a founding
owner of publishing company Trio Books. Romanos has published
several sport-themed books with the most recent being Our Olympic
Century the story of New Zealand’s first 100 years at the Olympic
Games. He is also well-known for his commentaries on cricket and,
significantly in 2011, rugby. He will talk about his life and times
as a sports writer. Find out MORE about
Joseph Romanos...
Accommodation
The following accommodation is available to festival patrons 16 – 18
September.
Riverside Motel
30 Somme Parade
Wanganui
Tel: 06 345 2448
Freephone: 0800 85 33 33
Email:
riverside.motel@xtra.co.nz
www.riversidemotel.net.nz
The motel’s usual rates for one-two
people range from $98 per night for a studio, up to $130 for a
two-bedroom unit (incl GST) per night. Visitors for all festival
events will be given a special 25 percent reduction off the total
price per unit.
To receive this discount,
please contact Graeme and Helen directly and mention that you are
attending a festival event.
Anndion Lodge
143 Anzac Pde
Wanganui
Tel: (06) 343 3593
www.anndionlodge.co.nz
Accommodation from $88 share twin per night.
Lodge Room share facilities $88
Suites fully self-contained from $120 – 140 per night
Contact direct. Mention that you are attending the Literary Festival
151 On London
151 London Street
Wanganui
Tel: (06) 345 8668
E-mail: stay@151onlondon.co.nz
www.151onlondon.co.nz
Studio, share twin/double $140
Contact direct. Mention that you are attending the Literary Festival
and they will give you their corporate rate.
Friends
of the
Festival
We have established a
Friends of the festival and
invite you to join. An individual membership is $15 per annum and a family $25.
Friends will receive
preferential booking for events at the festival.
To join the Friends
of the Whanganui Literary Festival visit the
'Friends of the Festival' page
and fill in the form.
Facebook
Page
Click this button to
'Like' the Wanganui Literary Festival page on Facebook.
Festival Newsletter
If you're
interested in being added to the mailing list for the Wanganui
Literary Festival Newsletter, which keeps you up to date with
progress as the festival is programmed and lets you know about other
events leading up to the festival, send a an email with your name to epublish (at) artmedia.net.nz with 'subscribe Lit Fest News' in the
subject line.
Check out the
2011 Festival
Programme or go to the Writers
Bios 2011 page to read the profiles of the authors.
Find more information on the
Fringe events including the Children's Festival.
Go to the
News page for the latest updates on the
festival or find background on the festival director,
Joan Rosier-Jones. On this site you
can also find the programme from the 2009
Literary Festival and the 2007 Literary
Festival.
The Wanganui Literary Festival and Fringe Festival is being held in
conjunction with the REAL Whanganui Festival and full details of our
events can be found at www.realwhanganui.co.nz
The Wanganui
Literary Festival Trust wishes to thank their sponsors. Without them
the festival would not happen. Please support them.
