“Sold-out shows and thousands of attendees have made this year’s Christchurch writers festival one of the most successful yet, its organiser says. The four-day biennial WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival ended yesterday after about 5000 people attended 57 ticketed events led by 120 speakers from New Zealand and across the world.” Read More.
Archive | September, 2014
‘WORD Festival offers new views on quake city,’ Philip Matthews, The Press, 1 Sept 2014
“People from outside Christchurch can help Cantabrians to see their strange, ruined and hopeful city in new ways.
Writer Elizabeth Knox sees Christchurch as “a city living in memory and expectation, with ghost streets and dream buildings”. It was a typically original view from one of New Zealand’s leading writers, who came to the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival yesterday to deliver the first Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture.
The festival has established the lecture to honour the memory of Mahy, the prolific and much-loved Christchurch writer who died in 2012. Knox’s lecture covered realism and fantasy in writing, illustrated through profound and often moving examples from her own experience.” Read More.
‘Essays reflect on rebuild,’ Philip Matthews, The Press, 31 Aug 2014
“Those who spend a lot of time in central Christchurch will know about its strangeness but it can be hard to identify just what makes it strange.
Ryan Reynolds puts his finger on it in a new essay. Christchurch, he says, is a post city and a pre city. We look back and we look ahead. The present tense is limited to demolishing and tidying up the old while preparing to build the new.” Read More.
‘Hager’s relationship with hacker revealed,’ Abbie Napier, The Press, 30 Aug 2014
“Dirty Politics author Nicky Hager today revealed Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater was hacked because the hacker ‘‘thought he was a p****’’. A packed room at the WORD Christchurch festival was silent as Hager described secretly meeting the hacker and Dirty Politics source in public parks, convincing him not to release his information over Twitter.” Read More.
‘Whistleblower’s author and literary stars draw crowds,’ Cate Broughton, The Press, 30 Aug 2014
“Book lovers and political junkies savoured an evening with fiction and non-fiction writers from New Zealand and overseas at Word Christchurch events last night, with several events sold out.” Read More.
‘Fantasy writer captivates young readers,’ The Press, 29 Aug 2014
“A pink-haired American fantasy writer has enthralled Christchurch students at a literary festival event. Laini Taylor read from her young adult smash-hit Daughter of Smoke and Bone in the Charles Luney Auditorium at St Margaret’s College yesterday. The session was part of the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival’s read aloud schools’ programme.” Read More.
‘WORD Festival a success before it starts,’ Philip Matthews, The Press, 27 Aug 2014
“When you have an inside view of an arts festival, you realise that the planning takes months, even years. For those outside, the excitement or anticipation is condensed into weeks. Either way, the best feeling is when all of that build-up ends and the thing finally starts. The people behind the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival, especially literary director Rachael King and executive director Marianne Hargreaves, will be feeling pretty good today.” Read More.
“Offence ‘a form of political currency,'” Beck Eleven, The Press, 18 Aug 2014
Author Richard King will be in Christchurch this month for the WORD Writers and Readers Festival. He tells Beck Eleven we are offended far too easily. Read More.
