Podcasts

17 April 2021

Who is Kim Jong Un? In The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un, journalist Anna Fifield presents a captivating portrait of North Korea and its sometimes ridiculous, sometimes deadly leader. Featuring exclusive access to key figures in Kim Jong Un’s life, The Great Successor earned international acclaim for its insight into the world’s oddest and most isolated political regime.

Anna Fifield has recently returned to New Zealand to take up the position of editor at the Dominion Post. Prior to that she was a foreign correspondent for twenty years, for both the Financial Times and the Washington Post, with postings across Asia and the Middle East. Don’t miss this fascinating event, where she will share stories and insights with fellow journalist Jo Malcolm.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Christchurch has arguably undergone more change and upheaval than any other city in New Zealand this century. Just as rocky is the relationship between the city and its people. We ask five writers with connections to the city: How do you feel about Christchurch? Is your relationship to a place different when you are born here than when you choose it as your home? And can we speak honestly about the dark side as well as the light? What would you say if you could address the city directly?

Writing letters to Ōtautahi are Nathan Joe, Juanita Hepi, Lil O’Brien who grew up here, and more recent arrivals Erik Kennedy and Behrouz Boochani. Hosted by Naomi van den Broek.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

New Zealand women have published poetry for over 150 years. In her landmark book Wild Honey, poet Paula Green celebrates and makes connections between 201 of them, from emerging poets and those who are household names, who lived unconventional lives for their art and who gave a poetic voice to resistance, to those who have slipped from public view or were not paid the honour they were due in their lifetimes. Join us for a celebration of these amazing talented women, featuring three generations of poets who will each read from their own work and choose a poem from a woman who has inspired them. Featuring some of our greatest and freshest performers, this will be a moving, engaging and unforgettable festival event. Wild Honey celebrates the many ways in which poems by women deserve a place in the literary canon of Aotearoa. Featuring Jess Fiebig, Bernadette Hall, Cilla McQueen, Selina Tusiatala Marsh, Frankie McMillan and Freya Daly Sadgrove, with Morrin Rout. Unfortunately, Tusiata Avia is not able to appear at this event.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Captain Charles Hazlitt Upham is the only combat soldier ever to win the Victoria Cross twice. His acts of bravery in World War II meant he probably deserved six more.

The mystery of how a reserved, modest, slightly-built farm valuer from New Zealand could be so ferocious and fearless in battle has intrigued and fascinated Tom Scott ever since he read about Charles Upham as a schoolboy. Searching for Charlie is Scott’s epic quest to unravel the ‘real’ Charles Upham. He talks with Christopher Moore about what he learned along the way.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Ralph Hotere was one of Aotearoa’s most significant artists. His life was just as remarkable as his art. Hotere invited the poet, novelist and biographer Vincent O’Sullivan to write his life story in 2005. Now, this book — the result of years of research and many conversations with Hotere and his fellow artists, collaborators, friends and family — provides a nuanced, compelling portrait of Hotere: the man, and the artist. Vincent O’Sullivan is joined by Bill Manhire, Cilla McQueen and Lisa Reihana to discuss the life and work of the man behind the iconic, stand-alone signature: HOTERE. Chaired by Sally Blundell.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Through their own marks about the land and its people, be it in ink or paint, Grahame Sydney, Brian Turner and Owen Marshall offer a love song to the South Island, in particular Central Otago, in their new book Landmarks. Hear the stories behind the words and pictures, chaired by Fiona Farrell.

30 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand is bursting with new works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art created in response to the editors’ questions:

What is New Zealand now, in all its rich variety and contradiction, darkness and light? Who are New Zealanders?

The starting point for the anthology was the statement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after the March Christchurch attacks: ‘Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it…we will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack.’

To celebrate the launch of this important book, published by Otago University Press, we welcome contributors reading from their work alongside special guests from 5pm to 6pm, followed by a reception from 6pm to 7pm.

Featuring Dr Hanif Quazi, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, essa may ranapiri, Donna Miles-Mojab, Mohamed Hassan, David Gregory, E Wen Wong and more. Unfortunately, Tusiata Avia is not able to appear at the event.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

The ongoing containment of the coronavirus pandemic in Aotearoa has been in no small part due to the co-operation of what Jacinda Ardern affectionately calls our ‘team of five million’. It has been a triumph in communication, with clear messaging that New Zealanders have followed. An essential part of this effort is the work of Dr Siouxsie Wiles and cartoonist Toby Morris (The Spinoff), whose comics and animations have gone viral (excuse the pun) around the world. They discuss their strategy and challenges with Noelle McCarthy.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

We bring together two young first generation Iranian New Zealanders to tell their extraordinary stories.

In The Girl from Revolution Road, writer and filmmaker Ghazaleh Golbakhsh speaks powerfully of displacement and living between two worlds. Her essays range from a childhood in war-torn Iran, to learning English and making friends, to dating in the days of COVID-19.

Know Your Place tells Golriz Ghahraman‘s story, with memories of life and resistance in post-revolutionary Iran to making a home in Aotearoa New Zealand; her work as a human rights lawyer, her United Nations missions, and how she became the first refugee to be elected to the New Zealand Parliament.

Golbakhsh and Ghahraman appear in conversation with Donna Miles-Mojab to discuss breaking barriers, the daily challenges of prejudice that shape the lives of women and minorities, and finding a place to belong.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

The horrifying events of the March 15 terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques in 2019 must never be forgotten. Husna Ahmed was a victim of the shooting, killed while looking for her husband, who was in a wheelchair. In Husna’s Story, Farid Ahmed accounts his wife’s life, including a tragic account of the shootings. He also outlines his philosophy of forgiveness, which he has travelled the world to convey. His conversation with Raf Manji should not be missed by anyone who was affected by that terrible day in our city.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Not in Narrow Seas is a major contribution by economist Brian Easton to the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. It covers everything from the traditional gift-based Māori economy to the Ardern government’s attempt to deal with the economic challenges of global warming. It is also the first economic history to underline the central role of the environment, beginning with the geological formation of these islands. Easton talks with Geoffrey Rice.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Becky Manawatu exploded onto the literary landscape last year with her book Auē, a story of broken family. Steve Braunias called it the best book of 2019: ‘a deep and powerful work, maybe even the most successfully achieved portrayal of underclass New Zealand life since Once Were Warriors.’ It went on win the 2020 Ockham awards for both best first novel and best novel. Don’t miss this exciting new writer in conversation with Emma Espiner.

30 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

In her new memoir Bella, Annabel Langbein, New Zealand’s most popular cookbook author, writes about her remarkable life and how food has shaped it, highlighting some of the recipes that have resonated most strongly with her over the years.

From her childhood fascination with cooking to a teenage flirtation as a Maoist hippie, to possum trapping and living off the land as a hunter and forager, to travelling and starting her own croissant business in Brazil, Annabel’s life has always been centred on food and nature. Out of this came an obsession with creating cookbooks, introducing a generation of cooks to her simple recipes for delicious, stylish meals.

Don’t miss this intimate evening with a cooking legend. Annabel appears in conversation with Jo Malcolm.

30 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, and librettist, Vincent O’Sullivan is one of our most acclaimed and versatile writers. He was New Zealand’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015 and, in Kirsty Gunn’s words, ‘continues to have a prominent ongoing role in the public literary life of this country, helping us to press at our boundaries, see the close at hand as well as further horizons’. With a rich and rewarding recent novel (All This By Chance) and a volume of selected short stories, as well as a biography of Ralph Hotere and a forthcoming poetry collection, there will be much to talk about with chair Paul Millar.

30 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Presented by Heartland Bank

Our gala night opens the weekend with six of our distinguished writers responding to the shifting world around us. What does it mean to find courage in the face of a global pandemic, race protests, border strife and climate anxiety? Each writer will deliver a short keynote that is sure to provoke both thought and emotion. With Becky Manawatu, Witi Ihimaera, Mohamed Hassan, Laura Jean McKay, Elizabeth Knox and Behrouz Boochani, hosted by John Campbell.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Supported by the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre

A Long Time Coming: The story of Ngāi Tahu’s treaty settlement negotiations tells the extraordinary, complex and compelling story of Ngāi Tahu’s treaty settlement negotiations with the Crown and shines a light, for both Māori and Pākehā, on a crucial part of this country’s history that has not, until now, been widely enough known. Join author Martin Fisher, along with Te Maire Tau, Tā Tipene O’Regan and Chris Finlayson, as they discuss a claim that spanned two centuries.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Presented by Milford Asset Management

Join MC Joe Bennett for this outrageous festival institution guaranteed to entertain and provoke. Is it the end of the world as we know it? Arguing for or against are The Spinoff editor Toby Manhire, satirist Tom Scott, novelist Paula Morris, comedian Guy Williams, scientist Dr Siouxsie Wiles, and te reo expert Dr Hana O’Regan. A raucous night of argument and repartee is guaranteed!

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Presented by Pegasus Health

Matt Calman’s The Longest Day describes how training for the Coast to Coast helped him find a way up the perilous path from rock bottom.

Fellow journalist Jehan Casinader (This Is Not How It Ends) found the power of storytelling helped him to survive.

Both men talk with Ekant Veer about their experiences with depression and their individual roads to mental health.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Presented by Milford Asset Management
Supported by the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship administered by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi

For fifty years, writers have travelled to Menton in the south of France to take up the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship. While there, they work in a studio attached to the Villa Isola Bella, where Katherine Mansfield, arguably New Zealand’s most famous writer, lived and wrote for a time late in her career. We invite five of those writers to write a letter to Mansfield about their time writing by the Mediterranean, or about anything they think Katherine should know about the world in 2020. Featuring Paula Morris, Vincent O’Sullivan, Bill Manhire, Carl Nixon and Fiona Farrell.

29 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival
Presented by Latitude

To open the festival, we are bringing back one of our most popular events!

This year we invite four extraordinary women to tell stories from their adventurous lives and talk about what drives them to take risks, in their life and work. Hear Kaiora Tipene, one half of the fabulous Netflix duo The Casketeers; Selina Tusitala Marsh, fast-talking PI, former Poet Laureate and author of Mophead; Annabel Langbein, celebrity cookbook author and adventurer; and Miriam Lancewood, author of Woman in the Wilderness. Hosted by broadcaster and author Miriama Kamo.

Grab some friends and make a night of it; come away inspired to invite more adventure into your life.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Join one of Aotearoa’s master storytellers, Witi Ihimaera, for a very special evening of myths and music. His new book, Navigating the Stars, is a spellbinding and provocative retelling of traditional Maori myths for the twenty-first century. From Hawaiki to Aotearoa, the ancient navigators brought their myths, while looking to the stars — bright with gods, ancestors and stories — to guide the way.

Telling tales from the book and from his latest memoir Native Son, the sequel to his award-winning Māori Boy, Ihimaera will be accompanied by sound artist and musical polymath Kingsley Spargo. This will be a very special evening indeed.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

‘In this landscape we invent as it invents us.’

Dramatic, sublime, fragile, work-a-day, the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand, and in particular the landscape of Te Waipounamu, is all of these, and more. We grow out of the places we live in as organically as any other living thing. How do poets, our most sensitive communicators, perceive and make meaningful the spirit of the places where they reside?

Poet Laureate David Eggleton has invited poets who live in Te Waipounamu — Kay McKenzie Cooke, Bernadette Hall, Cilla McQueen, Owen Marshall and James Norcliffe — to present poems exploring that question.

Supported by the National Library of New Zealand

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

In Laura Jean McKay‘s visceral and eerily topical novel, The Animals in That Country, a pandemic is sweeping Australia. This is no ordinary flu though – the virus enables humans to communicate with animals. But protagonist Jean, ‘hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit’ is no Dr Dolittle. Philip Armstrong‘s debut poetry collection, Sinking Lessons, also features lots of animals, from dogs to eels to hares to leaf-cutter ants, drawing on his academic work in human-animal studies. Both writers appear in conversation with each other about their books and ask: what would the animals say if they could talk to us?

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Pip Adam has writen one of the most talked about novels of 2020, Nothing to See, which follows mysterious doppelgängers Peggy and Greta. Philip Matthews described it as ‘a novel about shame, loneliness, about wanting to do good and hoping for second chances’, ‘a real achievement’ that is ‘deeply affecting’ and ‘[pushes] the traditional limits of fiction.’ Her last book, The New Animals, won the 2018 Acorn Foundation Prize, and the judges called it ‘the book with the most blood on the page.’

She discusses her work, and her unique world view, with fellow novelist Carl Shuker.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Two novels take medical mishaps as a starting point. In Carl Shuker‘s acclaimed A Mistake, surgeon Elizabeth Taylor, a ‘gifted, driven woman excelling in a male-dominated culture’, deals with the fallout from an operation that goes gravely wrong. Eileen Merriman‘s new novel for adults, The Silence of Snow, explores life under pressure for an Anaesthetic Fellow and a first year doctor.

Both authors know their stuff: Shuker is a former editor at the British Medical Journal and Merriman is consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital. They talk to writer, medical student and podcast host Emma Espiner.

30 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

You can’t choose your family, or can you? Two new novels from Christchurch writers explore the bonds of family.

In Carl Nixon‘s gripping thriller The Tally Stick, three children are left stranded in the bush after their parents die in a car accident. In Chloe Lane‘s debut novel, The Swimmers, a daughter is faced with an unimaginable task when her mother, suffering from motor neurone disease decides to take her fate into her own hands. As well as exploring complex themes, the two authors talk with Kirsten McDougall about the craft of writing, and the infinite choices a writer has to make to tell their story well.

1 November 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Elizabeth Knox has one of the most singular voices in New Zealand fiction. In The Absolute Book, she once again pulls off the undefinable, with an urgently relevant novel that is part fantasy, part thriller, and part meditation on books, libraries and the environment. Don’t miss her conversation with Noelle McCarthy in our own library, Tūranga, and witness this incredible mind at work.

31 October 2020 | WORD Christchurch Spring Festival

Bill Manhire is not only one of our leading poets but was a mentor to hundreds through the International Institute of Modern Letters, where he established the MA in Creative Writing, which for a long time was simply known as ‘Bill Manhire’s writing course.’

American writer Teju Cole says of Manhire, ‘… he’s unquestionably world-class. As with Seamus Heaney, you get a sense of someone with a steady hand on the tiller, and both the will and the craft to take your breath away.’

In the title poem of Manhire’s new collection, we hear a baby say Wow to life. Join the poet and his ex-student of Modern Poetry, John Campbell, for readings and conversation, featuring Manhire’s signature wordplay and humour.

26 August 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

In his first book, 'The Other Side of Freedom: Race and justice in a divided America', Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson lays down the intellectual, pragmatic, and political framework for a new liberation movement.

Mckesson places an idea of shared hope for a better future at the core of his activism. He encourages us to take responsibility for imagining, then building, the world we want to live in.

Mckesson appears in conversation with Victor Rodger, followed by audience Q&A, where among other wisdom, he offers advice to white people on how to become a better ally.

Presented in partnership with TEDxChristchurch

5 September 2017 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View in association with Christchurch Arts Festival

When award-winning British journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote a blog post about the way discussions of racism were being led by those not affected by it, her words hit a nerve. Galvanised, she dug into the source of her feelings and kept writing. The result was Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. We invite you to come and listen as Eddo-Lodge discusses, with playwright Victor Rodger, issues such as eradicated black history, whitewashed feminism, and the inextricable link between class and race, while offering a framework to see, acknowledge and counter racism.

Verb Wellington and WORD Christchurch, in association with Amnesty International, present Behrouz Boochani: No Friend but the Mountains.

In December 2019, WORD Christchurch and Verb Wellington joined together to present a very special event in Wellington with Behrouz Boochani and novelist Lloyd Jones, whose novel, The Cage, is a parable inspired by the plight of refugees worldwide.

Boochani’s book, No Friend but the Mountains, laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from Farsi, is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyrical first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile.

Boochani and Jones discussed the craft of writing the book and the extraordinary story of the Australian literary community that rallied around him to secure his freedom.

With special thanks to the National Library of New Zealand | Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, and The Park Hotel for their support of this event.

31 August 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

The New Zealand Wars profoundly shaped the course and direction of our nation’s history. Fought between the Crown and various groups of Māori between 1845 and 1872, remnants and reminders from these conflicts and their aftermath can be found all over the country. The wars are an integral part of the New Zealand story but we have not always cared to remember or acknowledge them. Vincent O’Malley will deliver a lecture related to his latest book on the causes, events and consequences of the New Zealand Wars (Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa).

Supported by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu

13 September 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

To kick off a weekend celebrating the 2019 Ngaio Marsh Awards, we welcome the charismatic Val McDermid, formidable Scottish crime writer. Val’s new book, How the Dead Speak, is a shocking, masterfully plotted novel that will leave both long-time fans and new readers breathless. She talks with crime fiction aficionado, and Bookenz host, Ruth Todd.

31 August 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

Marilyn Waring’s new book The Political Years looks at her extraordinary years in parliament. She tells the story of her journey from being elected as a new National Party MP in a conservative rural seat to being publicly decried by the Robert Muldoon for her ‘feminist anti-nuclear stance’ that threatened to bring down his government. Her tale of life in a male-dominated and relentlessly demanding political world is both uniquely of its time and still of pressing relevance today.

Waring’s other new book, Still Counting, follows up on her ground-breaking work Counting for Nothing, in which she explained, through meticulous economic analysis, how the success of the global economy rests on women’s unpaid work. Today, many people hope that the shift to a wellbeing approach will mean women’s work is finally valued fairly. But what does Marilyn Waring make of it?

In this unmissable session, Waring talks politics, women, and wellbeing economics with Bronwyn Hayward.

13 September 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

From Billy T. James to Rose Matafeo, Fred Dagg to Flight of the Conchords, New Zealanders have made each other laugh in ways distinctive to these islands. The recent documentary series Funny As is a loving and hilarious tribute to the people who have made the scene what it is today. Join its producer Paul Horan and writer Philip Matthews, authors of the companion book Funny As, along with movers and shakers of the New Zealand comedy scene, Madeleine Sami and Justine Smith* to hear the stories, share the laughs, and watch outtakes that for one reason or another didn’t quite make the show.

31 August 2019 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View

Simon Winchester, the distinguished and bestselling author of Pacific, The Map That Changed the World and The Surgeon of Crowthorne among many others, knows how to tell a good story. His latest book, Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World is a magnificent history of the pioneering engineers who developed precision machinery to allow us to see as far as the moon and as close as the Higgs boson. He joins Kim Hill in wide-ranging conversation about his adventurous life and the big ideas that have made an impact on the world as we know it.

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Grab a drink from the bar and head into the Heartland Chamber to warm up for the evening ahead. Five writers who really know how to take a page to the stage are: poet and stand-up comedian Ray Shipley as your MC; Erik Kennedy, with his newly launched collection, There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime; Megan Dunn, with the brilliant memoir, Tinderbox, about working in a failing bookstore while failing to write a novel; Annaleese Jochems, whose novel Baby is about ‘naked, open female want’, and Chris Tse, whose poetry collection He’s So MASC is ‘acerbic, acid-bright, yet unapologetically sentimental’.

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Join two writers whose innate sense of curiosity produces insightful works of fiction and essay. Paula Morris’s accolades include the New Zealand Post Book Award for her novel, Rangatira, and her latest book, False River, gathers a bouquet of internationally acclaimed short stories and essays. Tina Makereti’s first book Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is a favourite of book clubs and her new novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke, like Rangatira, grapples with the challenging subject of Māori exhibited in Victorian England. Both are outspoken and energetic advocates for books and writers, especially Māori and Pasifika writers. They talk to writer Nic Low.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

When the Guardian described Hollie McNish’s award-winning ‘poetic memoir’ Nobody Told Me as ‘diary entries, poems jotted in the dead of night and during nap-times, breathless musings on breastfeeding, sex after giving birth, and the state of the world’, it could have just as easily been describing The Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes’ Rants in the Dark. Both write wryly, honestly and with humour and warmth about pregnancy and motherhood. In a session sure to be full of laughs and a few tears, they read and discuss their books, including the new anthology Is It Bedtime Yet?, with Catherine Robertson, and with a bonus appearance by Brannavan Gnanalingam, giving a glimpse of the view from ‘the other side’.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

In turbulent times, in a fractured society, fiction can provide comfort and escape. But it can also can also fulfil another role. It can shake us out of our complacency, make us think, push us to question the status quo, and open a window onto people and societies different from our own. Recent Ockham award-winner Pip Adam, and Rajorshi Chakraborti, who both teach creative writing to people living in prisons, join Brannavan Gnanalingamto discuss with Julie Hillthe politics of writing fiction, and how it can become a tool to create empathy across divides.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Few write with as much passion and fascination about the sea as British author Philip Hoare, who swims in the ocean every day, regardless of the season. His hugely acclaimed Leviathan, or the Whale won the Samuel Johnson Prize and introduced us to Hoare’s eclectic style of biography, literary criticism, social history and nature writing, which carried through to The Sea Inside. His latest book, RisingTideFallingStar, includes ‘fantastical stories of drowned poets, eccentric artists and magical animals, slipping between species and gender, all bound by the profound ocean’. Philip chats with Kim Hill in a not-to-missed conversation.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

In 2003, Robin Robertson challenged some of the world’s finest writers to open up and share their stories of embarrassment for the collection, Mortification: Writers’ Stories of their Public Shame. The result was both horrifying and hilarious.We gave four New Zealand writers, Jarrod Gilbert, Paula Morris, Steve Braunias and Megan Dunn, the same challenge, and invited them to read their stories aloud, alongside Irvine Welsh* (via prerecorded video), who contributed to the original book. This session will have strong language and is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. We recommend you buy a stiff drink beforehand.

*Please note that due to personal circumstances, Irvine Welsh will no longer be able to attend WORD Christchurch Festival in person. For more information please see our announcement here.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Spend an hour with one of New Zealand’s favourite figures as he discusses with Michele A’Court his best-selling memoir, Drawn Out. Tom Scott is a political commentator and cartoonist, satirist, scriptwriter, playwright, raconteur and funny man. Famously banned from the Press Gallery by Rob Muldoon, he’s observed David Lange, Mike Moore and Helen Clark. His memoir, which covers his childhood, his university days, his parliamentary career, his work with close friend Ed Hillary and much more, is both multi-layered and a ripping good yarn.

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Lloyd Jones is one of New Zealand’s most internationally successful contemporary writers, perhaps best known for the Booker Prize-shortlisted Mister Pip and his lyrical take on the All Blacks’ 1905 international tour, The Book of Fame. Constantly pushing boundaries, and never one to shy away from difficult subjects, he is back with his first novel in seven years, The Cage, a powerful allegorical tale about humanity and dignity and the ease with which we can justify brutality. Lloyd appears in a wide-ranging discussion with broadcaster John Campbell about his work, the topics that draw him in and what pushes his storytelling buttons.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Hard Brexit? Soft Brexit? Brexit of champions or Brexit of losers? We hope that Scottish crime writer and regular BBC presenter, Denise Mina and former Islamist radical turned anti-extremist Ed Husain can explain to chair, columnist David Slack, and us why more than half of British voters opted to quit the European Union in 2016 and whether it was just a spectacular own goal by David Cameron. And what, if anything, does it mean for the long-term project of Scottish independence that the British voted to leave the EU but Scotland prefers to stay?

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

The judges of the 2018 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards described Driving to Treblinka as ‘not just a beautifully written book, but an important book, too’ and gave it two non-fiction prizes. Readers know Diana Wichtel as a Listener journalist whose TV reviews and interviews are a consistent highlight of the magazine. Driving to Treblinka is a compassionate, wise memoir about her father, a Holocaust survivor who escaped to Canada and whose life remained a mystery to his estranged children. The truth can set you free but there is always a cost. Diana talks to journalist Philip Matthews.

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Supported by the British Council, Creative Scotland and Bloody Scotland

A favourite at literary festivals the world over for her engaging and entertaining conversation, acclaimed and best-selling Glasgow-born author Denise Mina is a must-see for fiction fans of all stripes. Gripping, gritty and superbly written crime novels are her signature, but she has turned her hand to everything from short stories, to comics, to documentaries – and she has always scorned the conventional. Her latest book, the award-winning The Long Drop, is based on the true story of Peter Manuel, a serial killer operating in 1950s Glasgow. Mina talks to journalist Charlotte Graham-McLay.

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Supported by University of Canterbury

In 2011 author, activist and performance poet Sonya Renee Taylor posted a photo of her 105kg big brown queer body in a corset because she believed that no human being should be ashamed of being in a human body. This small unapologetic act was the catalyst for what has become a global company and movement that reaches millions, exploring the intersections of radical self-love and social justice. Sonya discusses her new book and shares some of her extraordinary life and work with us and with poet, performer and guest programmer Tusiata Avia.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

In what may be her most ambitious and fascinating book, Dame Anne Salmond, Distinguished Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland and author of many significant titles, considers New Zealand as a place where multiple worlds meet and collide. Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds begins with close inquiry into early Māori–European encounters, then investigates these with regard to waterways, land, the sea and people. In conversation with Eruera Tarena she explores how concepts of whakapapa and hau, complex networks and reciprocal exchange, may point to new understanding between races, and between humanity and the natural world.

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Supported by Embassy of the United States of America and HarperCollins

‘Your book editor just snagged your spot on the bestseller list,’ was the headline in the New York Times as veteran crime fiction editor and die-hard Ngaio Marsh fan Dan Mallory took out the top place on lists around the world. Written under the pseudonym A.J. Finn, his debut thriller, The Woman in the Window, is a love letter to Alfred Hitchcock that Gillian Flynn called ‘Astounding. Thrilling. Amazing’, and Stephen King deemed ‘unputdownable’. A film directed by Joe Wright (Darkest Hour) and starring Amy Adams is under way. Did his years of editing give him the prefect formula to create a page-turning bestseller? Find out when he talks to writer and actor Michelle Langstone.

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

In the bestselling Diary of a Bookseller, Scottish second-hand book dealer Shaun Bythell charts the highs and lows of a year in the life of a man passionate and knowledgeable about books, struggling to make a living in rural Britain in the age of Amazon. From Wigtown in Scotland, he searches for rare books, strikes deals, tries to manage eccentric staff members and deals with awkward tourists. Shaun chats with fellow book dealer Brian Phillips about life in the trade, and its highs and lows. Can it survive? And really, do all Kindles deserve a bullet?

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

WORD Christchurch proudly continues its celebration of 125 Years of Women’s Suffrage with this very special additional festival event.

Helen Clark became active in politics 47 years ago, and first ran for public office in local elections in 1974. She entered parliament as a 31-year-old in 1981, led the Labour Party to victory in 1999 and was Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years. She then took on a critical international role as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme in New York.

One of her key focuses throughout this time has been the empowerment of women as she has paved the way for women to step up and lead.

In this WORD Christchurch exclusive, Helen Clark appears in conversation with the Mayor of Christchurch Lianne Dalziel about her new book Women, Equality, Power: selected speeches from a life of leadership.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

30 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Milford Asset Management

Share the thrills, the spills and the passion, and find out what drives two extreme New Zealand athletes. As he outlines in his book, Adventurer at Heart, Nathan Fa’avae has been a semi-professional and full-time professional adventure athlete for 20 years, representing New Zealand at four different sports, and competing in 28 countries, all while battling a heart condition. Nathan chats with sports medicine doctor, coach and triathlete of 40 years John Hellemans, whose new book, Never, Ever Give Up?, explores the enduring and compulsive attraction of triathlons.

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Kate Sylvester

Join two of the world’s shining stars of poetry, whose work and performances have attracted widespread attention in both popular and literary circles. Hera Lindsay Bird exploded onto New Zealand’s poetry scene with her self-titled debut collection, and has been travelling the world ever since. Hollie McNish’s funny and sincere poems about babies, sex and politics have attracted millions of views on Youtube, while also winning accolades such as the Ted Hughes Award. They performed together in Edinburgh last year to a sold-out crowd, and now we can see this dynamic pairing downunder. Not to be missed!

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by the University of Canterbury

Building a city – or in Christchurch’s case, rebuilding one – is an enormous and complex challenge. This fascinating and timely session looks at the science that goes into making a metropolis. In conversation with Michelle Dickinson, Ireland’s Laurie Winkless, author of Science and the City, will examine cities in six continents to find out how they deal with the challenges of feeding, housing, powering and connecting more people than ever before. She’ll visit urban pioneers from history, along with today’s experts, and uncover the vital role science has played in shaping the cities where we live.

31 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Pegasus Health

The central event of Chessie Henry’s insightful family memoir, We Can Make a Life, is the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Chessie’s father Chris, a Kaikōura-based doctor, crawled into makeshift tunnels in the collapsed CTV building to rescue the living and look for the dead. In her remarkable book, Chessie interviews her father, considers the psychological cost of heroism and the meaning of home, and asks how a family can make a life in Africa, Tokelau and the shaky South Island. Chessie and Chris Henry appear in conversation with Bronwyn Hayward.

Supported by Trevor Hone Builders

29 August 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Kathmandu

We open the festival with an incredible speaker who perfectly embodies our adventurous theme. At the age of 27, Robyn Davidson walked 2700 kilometres alone across the Australian desert, with a dog and four camels. She became instantly famous and then she wrote Tracks – an international best-seller, published in 20 languages, never out of print and made into a Hollywood feature film in 2013. That success launched an extraordinary career as a writer, explorer, filmmaker and cultural commentator.

Davidson will relive the journey of Tracks, and what she learned from it, in a keynote address accompanied by breath-taking images from Rick Smolan, the National Geographic photographer who followed her on part of the adventure. Be inspired to take a few more risks and invite adventure into your life.

2 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Kathmandu

We close the festival with an inspiring event that brings together our theme of adventure, and our celebration of 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Four extraordinary women tell stories from their adventurous lives and talk about what drives them to take risks, in their life and work. Hear Hollie Woodhouse, extreme sports star and editor of Say Yes to Adventure magazine; Lilia Tarawa, who grew up in Gloriavale and escaped as a teenager; Michelle Dickinson aka Nanogirl, science communicator and adventurer; Margaret Austin, Palmerston North Sunday school teacher turned Paris showgirl. Hosted by broadcaster and author Miriama Kamo.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Presented by Milford Asset Management

Join MC Joe Bennett for this outrageous festival institution guaranteed to entertain and provoke. This year we give you a stellar international line-up, with Scottish crime writer Denise Mina, comedian Michele A’Court and satirist David Slack on one side, and novelist Paula Morris, cartoonist Tom Scott and American thriller writer/editor Daniel Mallory aka A. J. Finn on the other. A raucous night of argument and repartee is guaranteed!

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

2018 Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture

Barbara Else, author of the fantastical Tales of Fontania Quartet, and of Go Girl, this year’s book of true stories about extraordinary New Zealand women, presents the third Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture. Each festival we invite a writer to celebrate and honour Mahy’s extraordinary imagination. After recent discussion about the dearth of children’s stories featuring female protagonists, and in a suffrage celebration year, the time could not be better for Barbara to consider gender and imagination in storytelling, and to explore our need for story and voice. Introduced by Kate de Goldi.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

Proudly supported by the Ministry for Women's Suffrage 125 Community Fund

1 September 2018 | WORD Christchurch Festival

An unashamedly feminist event of readings, ruminations and discussions about human bodies, particularly women’s and gender non-conforming bodies, which over the centuries have been celebrated and reviled, legislated and liberated. We could look at everything from sex, addiction and reproduction to #metoo, #suffrage125, and technology, from feeding our faces to letting our freak flags fly. Featuring fiction, poetry and essay with Annaleese Jochems, Tayi Tibble, Kirsten McDougall, Sonya Renee Taylor, Juno Dawson, Helen Heath, Daisy Speaks and Ray Shipley, all held together by Charlotte Graham-McLay.

#suffrage125 #WhakatuWahine #SuffrageDay

Supported by the New Zealand Book Council and the Ministry for Women's Suffrage 125 Community Fund.

7 March 2018 | WORD Christchurch in association with New Zealand Festival Writers & Readers

Join us for a special evening with Francis Spufford, one of Britain’s most diverse and acclaimed authors, of whom the New Yorker said, ‘intellectually he resembles a many-armed Hindu deity, able to pluck fruit and butterflies from anywhere on earth’s most robust tall trees’. Spufford’s seven books range in subject matter from science and history to theology and politics. 'The Child That Books Built' was a love letter to literature; Unapologetic argued that ‘despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense’; and in 2016 his first foray into fiction, 'Golden Hill', was a triumph, scooping numerous prizes, including the Costa Award for Best First Novel. A rollicking, suspenseful tale set in mid-18th century Manhattan, the novel pays loving tribute to the literature of that era. He appears in robust, wide-ranging conversation with Chris Moore.

Warning: contains strong language and reference to sexual abuse

3 September 2017 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View in association with Christchurch Arts Festival

Join Australia’s online sensation, fearless feminist heroine and scourge of trolls and misogynists everywhere Clementine Ford as she outlines her essential manifesto for feminists new, old and soon-to-be, and exposes just how unequal the world continues to be for women. Her incendiary debut Fight Like A Girl is a call to arms for all women to rediscover the fury that has been suppressed by a society that still considers feminism a threat. It will make you laugh, cry and scream, and fight for a world in which women have real equality. Introduced by journalist Beck Eleven.

1 September 2017 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View 2017 in association with Christchurch Arts Festival

‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’ Samuel Beckett

Join us for a night of stories in the beautiful Great Hall as six speakers share tales of failure and its role in their lives and careers. Whether it’s a building block to creative success as Beckett asserts, a sorry rock-bottom tale, or a philosophical pondering on the nature of failure itself, is it safe to fail? And can we ever fail better?

Featuring Australian feminist writer Clementine Ford, esteemed author Witi Ihimaera, storyteller and corporate warrior Hana O’Regan, everyone’s favourite poet/doctor Glenn Colquhoun, Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel, and playwright Victor Rodger.

17 May 2017 | Presented as part of the WORD Christchurch Autumn Season in association with Auckland Writers Festival

We were delighted to close the Autumn Season with one of the most electrifying novelists writing in English today. Anne Enright, who won the Booker Prize in 2007 for The Gathering, writes about Irish families with great lyricism and black humour. In 2015 she became the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction, a three-year appointment. Her latest novel, The Green Road (longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker), set in a small town on Ireland’s Atlantic coast and spanning 30 years, is a tale of family and fracture, compassion and selfishness – a shattering exploration of the gaps in the human heart and how we strive to fill them. Anne Enright appeared in conversation with Morrin Rout.

16 May 2017 | Presented as part of the WORD Christchurch Autumn Season in association with Auckland Writers Festival

When Stephen Hawking once famously held a cocktail party for time travellers and nobody showed up, he said it proved time travel was not possible. But is it? If you have a lifelong fascination with time travel, or even just a passing curiosity about it, this event is for you. James Gleick, leading science communicator and author of Time Travel: A History, gives a mind-bending exploration of this fascinating subject: its subversive origins, its evolution in literature and science, and its influence on our understanding of time itself. From H.G. Wells to Doctor Who, from pulp fiction to modern physics, Gleick explores as many facets of time travel as possible in just one hour. Chaired by San Francisco State University Professor Daniel Bernardi, visiting University of Canterbury film and media studies scholar, science fiction expert and documentary filmmaker.

15 May 2017 | Presented as part of the WORD Christchurch Autumn Season in association with Auckland Writers Festival

Stella Duffy has the great distinction of being asked to complete Dame Ngaio Marsh’s unfinished novel Money in the Morgue, and she is well qualified for the task. New Zealand-raised, London-based Duffy has distinguished herself as a writer of crime fiction, with two Crime Writers’ Association Dagger awards under her belt, and of historical and literary fiction. Like Marsh, she is also immersed in the theatrical world. As the co-director of Fun Palaces, she was recently awarded an OBE for Services to the Arts. Duffy talks with writer and editor Liz Grant about her latest books — crime novel The Hidden Room and historical novel London Lies Beneath – as well her creative life and her pursuit of one of the original Queens of Crime, Dame Ngaio Marsh.

6 September 2017 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View in association with Christchurch Arts Festival

Following a performance of Jane Eyre: An Autobiography with Rebecca Vaughan, sit back and enjoy dark tales of gothic houses, damaged men, plucky heroines and secrets lurking in attics. What is the enduring appeal of the gothic women of literature? Who are the forgotten women, and the doppelgangers? An actor, a novelist and a librarian share their views, their favourite heroines, and improvise their own tales of women with great hair fleeing gothic houses. Rebecca is joined by Karen Healey and Moata Tamaira, chaired by Rachael King.

5 September 2017 | WORD Christchurch Shifting Points of View in association with Christchurch Arts Festival

When award-winning British journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote a blog post about the way discussions of racism were being led by those not affected by it, her words hit a nerve. Galvanised, she dug into the source of her feelings and kept writing. The result was Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. We invite you to come and listen as Eddo-Lodge discusses, with playwright Victor Rodger, issues such as eradicated black history, whitewashed feminism, and the inextricable link between class and race, while offering a framework to see, acknowledge and counter racism.

28 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Christchurch/Ōtautahi is a sister to many cities around the world, and we have invited writers from two of them — Adelaide and Seattle — to talk with Ngāi Tahu writer Nic Low about their acclaimed work and about the challenges and opportunities facing indigenous writers. As an Aboriginal descended from the Yankunytjatjara language group, Ali Cobby Eckermann’s chief concern is to express what she sees as the untold truth of Aboriginal people. Her most recent books include a verse novel, Ruby Moonlight, and a memoir, Too Afraid to Cry. Elissa Washuta is member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and a writer of personal essays and memoir, with two books, Starvation Mode and My Body Is a Book of Rules.

Supported by: Christchurch City Council Sister City Programme

28 August, 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

We welcome Caitlin Doughty, author, mortician, death positive advocate, and presenter of the smart, funny and informative ‘Ask a Mortician’ web series. According to the Guardian, Doughty’s memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematorium, which charts her early years in the funeral business, is ‘a hilarious, poignant and impassioned plea to revolutionise our attitudes to death’. Doughty explodes taboos with wit, wisdom and insight, and tells it straight in matters of death and dying. With Christchurch coroner Marcus Elliott.

Presented by Kate Sylvester

28 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

In the words of one newspaper, Ivan E. Coyote ‘is to Canadian literature what K.D. Lang is to country music: a beautifully odd fixture’. A seasoned performer and audience favourite at festivals worldwide, Ivan often grapples with the complex and intensely personal issues of gender identity, as well as family, class, social justice and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, a quick wit and the nuanced and finely honed timing of a gifted raconteur. In this session, Ivan shares stories and chats with poet and comedian Sophie Rea.

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

28 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Be transported to Antarctica, the world’s last great wilderness, with tales of adventures on icy land and sea. ITV science broadcaster Alok Jha was recently trapped in the Antarctic ice aboard a Russian research ship that became the focus of an international row; Rebecca Priestley’s new Antarctic science anthology, Dispatches from Continent Seven, tells tales of scientific derring-do old and new; Matt Vance’s Ocean Notorioustracks stories of the Southern Ocean, from obsessive Southern explorers of the heroic era to solo sailors in tiny yachts. Chaired by Metro’s editor-at-large Simon Wilson.

Presented by Antarctica New Zealand
Supported by The Royal Society of New Zealand

28 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Listen in on a conversation between two extraordinary poets and performers, to celebrate the release of Tusiata Avia’s recent collection, Fale Aitu | Spirit House, which contains poems that are confessional and confrontational, gentle and funny. Set in Samoa, Christchurch, Gaza and New York, her poetry combines stories from myth and the everyday. Tusiata is joined by Selina Tusitala Marsh – who, among many achievements, recently performed her poem ‘Unity’ for the Queen – to talk about their work and their world views, and to share their poems.

27 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Why do true crime stories hold so much fascination for readers and viewers? Two recent books, Steve Braunias’s The Scene of the Crime, and Michael Bennett’s In Dark Places, examine high-profile New Zealand murder cases and trials. And the Serial podcast and Making a Murderer television series have made armchair jurors of us all. Jarrod Gilbert talks to Steve Braunias and Tim McKinnel, the investigator behind the Teina Pora case, about false confessions, and the nature and characteristics of homicide.

27 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Few issues right now are as topical as water: who owns it, what it’s worth and how we can keep it clean. But what do we really know about water and where it comes from? In The Water Book, journalist and ITV science correspondent Alok Jha gets to the bottom of this extraordinary yet everyday substance, in a fascinating story that takes us back to the beginning of the universe. He joins Simon Morton from RNZ’s This Way Upprogramme to talk about the wet stuff.

Presented by Environment Canterbury
Supported by The Royal Society of New Zealand

27 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

Lecretia Seales’ fight for agency over her own death went all the way to the High Court and gripped a nation. In Lecretia’s Choice, her husband Matt Vickers tells her story and makes a case for the legalisation of assisted dying. He is joined by death positivity advocate Caitlin Doughty and the University of Canterbury’s Ruth McManus to examine society’s attitudes to death and dying, including the argument for euthanasia. Chaired by journalist Cate Brett.

26 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

What a time to be a teenager. An award-winning New Zealand novel, Into the River, which depicts the reality of teen sex, faces outcry and a temporary ban, yet there is infinite access to often unrealistic and misogynistic online pornography. YA novelists Ted Dawe and Karen Healey, and sexual therapist Frances Young, with chair Mandy Hager, discuss what young adults can handle and gain from sex in literature. Do books with sexual themes promote empathy and provide a safe space for teens to explore dangerous situations? Or are we sending our kids straight to hell?

26 August 2016 | WORD Christchurch Festival

With migration and war so much in the news, and questions being asked about our own refugee quota, we discover the real faces behind the headlines. Meet just a few of the many people to whom Christchurch has opened its doors, and hear their stories. How did they come to be here? What situation in their own country drove them away? With special guests Dr Hassan Ibrahim and Abbas Nazari, and input from Murdoch Stephens of Doing Our Bit, in conversation with Donna Miles-Mojab.

Supported by All Right.