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Here's the fantastic line up for the 2019 Festival.  

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Friday 4 October
Grand Opening 6.00 – 7.00 pm
The evening begins with drinks and nibbles
as you mix and mingle with fellow booklovers and authors. The Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall will officially open the main weekend of the Literary Festival.

Venue: Pioneer Room, War Memorial Centre, Watt St Bookings: Not required
Admission: Free

Jo Drayton

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Joanne Drayton Friday 4 October  7.30 – 8.30 pm
The Lives of Others – Being a Biographer
Joanne Drayton is an acclaimed New York Times bestselling author who has published six books and numerous chapters and articles. She has curated exhibitions and publishes in
art history, theory and biography. In 2007, she was awarded a National Library Fellowship, in 2017 the prestigious Logan Fellowship at the Carey Institute in upstate New York and in 2019 the Ockham Book Award for non–fiction for her biography Hudson and Halls: The Food of Love. This is a celebratory year for Joanne. Twenty years ago, in 1999, she was living in Whanganui and working at the Whanganui Polytechnic lecturing in Art History and Theory. That year
she curated her first exhibition and published her first book on the Whanganui artist, Edith Collier. Joanne will talk about that event, about what she learnt, and how those lessons helped shape her future career as a writer, bringing her to her latest publishing success.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt St
Bookings:  Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available. 


Saturday 5 October
Albert Belz

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Saturday 5 October 10.00 – 11.00 am
The Play's the Thing
Yours Truly was written by Albert Belz and performed this year by Amdram Theatre. "I like to know what makes Western society and culture tick. To some extent, Yours Truly is a brief study of this, and in doing so becomes a journey into the dark side of man," Albert says.
An award-winning playwright, his unique voice has crossed many datelines and divides having been performed internationally from London to Paris to New York and Sydney. Issues ranging from class, ethnicity and sexual politics, to Gothic serial killers and religion, resonate through his words. Albert's career began as an actor before he became a writer for stage and screen. He has held residencies in France and three New Zealand universities and was creator and head-writer of the Mäori comedy series Tongue Tied, televised in 2018.

Venue: ​Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.

Ron Palenski

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Saturday 5 October 11.30 – 12.30 pm
A Sporting Chance
Ron Palenski has written many books and is probably best known for rugby and general sports history. His latest book, Murdoch –The All Black Who Never Returned, was written to establish more clearly what led to the player being evicted from the All Back tour of 1972. But more than that, Ron wanted to paint a fuller picture of Murdoch and his times – to understand not just him, but rugby, its importance to two small countries, New Zealand and Wales, and how rugby as it was played in 1972 is not the rugby we know now.

Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings:  Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.


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Fiona Kidman





​Saturday 5 October 1.30 – 2.30 pm
This Mortal BoyFiona Kidman has published over thirty works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her most recent novel This Mortal Boy won the Acorn Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2019. Her awards include the Prime Ministers Award for Fiction and the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. She has been honoured with a DNZM, OBE, and the French Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur). Fiona lives in Wellington and enjoys reading (of course), movies, travelling when she can, and the companionship of friends and family.
Venue:
Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.​


Paul Cleave

Tim Wilson
Saturday 5 October 3.00 – 4.00 pm
Imagining Crime - the Good and the Bad
Paul is an award winning author from Christchurch, where all his previous novels were set. Whatever it Takes, published in July 2019, is set for the first time outside New Zealand. His books are bestsellers that have been translated into twenty languages. He’s won the Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur Book Festival’s Crime Novel of
the Year Award, and has been shortlisted for the Edgar, Barry and Ned Kelly crime writing awards. Paul will discuss his most recent work with Linda Ireton.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt St
Bookings:  Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.



Saturday 5 October
Dinner with the Stars
6.30—9.00pm

An opportunity to mingle and chat with our authors over a buffet dinner.
Numbers limited – bookings essential.
Venue: Oaks Restaurant Café and Bar
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
​Admission: $45 (incl. meal and a glass of wine)​

Sunday 6 October

Corey Mosen

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Corey Mosen & Ajax
Sunday 6 October 10.00–11.00 am

Conserving Our Kea
Together, Corey and Ajax travel through the steep high country through- out the South Island searching out kea nests. Their part in the kea conservation effort is essential and both Ajax and Corey are an inseparable duo. Their heart–warming yarns include how Ajax was trained to be one of the very few kea detection dogs in the world, and tell of his various escapades in the unpredictable wilds of the steep back–country, including flying in helicopters, working in blizzards, heavy rain and dense fog, escaping from angry wasps and sleeping out in the bitter cold. The strong connection between Ajax and Corey has proved vital to their survival and the important work that they do.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.


Tina Makereti

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 Tina Makereti 
Sunday 6 October  11.30 – 12.30 pm
If not Now, then When?
Tina Makereti writes essays, novels and short fiction. Her latest novel is The Imaginary Lives of James Pöneke, a novel that Fiona Kidman described as, "Riveting vision of the world seen from the inside out...a gutsy, searing and totally absorbing read." Tina co-edited Black Marks on the White Page (2017), an anthology that celebrates Mäori and Pasifika writing. In 2016, her story ‘Black Milk’, won the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, Pacific region. Her first novel Where the Rëkohu Bone Singswon the 2014 Ngä Kupu Ora Aotearoa Mäori Book Award for Fiction, also
won by her short story collection, 
Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (2010). 
Sarah Lang talks to the author and creative writing teacher about writing books, teaching writing, and whether she feels she's an activist for Mäori and Pacific literature.

Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.

Leah McFall

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Sunday 6 October  1.30 – 2.30 pm
Confidentially Speaking
Columnist Leah McFall joined Sunday in 2016. Known for her humorous takes on lifestyle trends, middle age and the royal family, she celebrates and defends the over–looked suburban woman in her writing.
Leah won a 2018 Voyager Media Award for General Opinion–Writing and released her first collection, Karori Confidential, last October.
Venue: Concert Chamber, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $15. Door sales available.


Amber Rose

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Sunday 6 October 3.00 – 4.00 pm
Wild Delicious — High Tea with Amber Rose
Chef to celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law, Amber Rose is a food stylist, food writer and cook with a flair
for the tasty and the nutritious. Amber Rose believes a well nourished life is one filled with wholesome, delicious food that is thoughtfully prepared and eaten with delight. In her latest book Wild Delicious 
she returns to her roots, preparing simple, nutritious recipes with ingre- dients gathered from the gardens, orchards, farms and ocean of New Zealand.
Introduced by UCOL cookery lecturer, Gina Guigou, Amber will talk about her passion for whole, fresh food and share some recipes and stories from her career to date.


Venue: Pioneer Room, War Memorial Centre, Watt Street
Bookings: Royal Wanganui Opera House
Admission: $30, numbers limited – bookings essential



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  • Home
  • Meet our Authors 2022
  • Fringe Festival 2022
  • About the Festival
    • With Thanks
    • Our Team
    • History
    • Contact Us
    • Come to Whanganui
  • Tickets
  • 2022 Programme
  • 2019 Gallery
  • News and Media