September 5 to 7 sees more than 60 NZ and international writers in Christchurch for The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival.
Some big names have been confirmed: British journalist and author Robert Fisk, authors Xinran Xue and Kate Atkinson.
Robert Fisk is a British journalist renowned for his intelligent coverage of events in Northern Ireland and Lebanon.
Kate Atkinson came to fame with the success of her deliciously engaging novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which won the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1995, overcoming stalwarts such as Salman Rushdie.
Xinran Xue is a writer as well as a journalist and broadcaster. Her talk show led to the publication of her critically acclaimed book The Good Women of China in which she compiled stories from her listeners.
Bookings will open at Ticketek on July 16 and the full programme will be released then.
29 May 2008 at 12:04 pm
I am madly looking forward to the festival this year, it’s an exceptional line-up featuring a few of my personal favourites. Marion Halligan is a great Australian writer I discovered when I was in Canberra a few years ago. Her book The Point was on sale in the National Museum bookshop. Set in Canberra it captures the feel of that slightly strange place while telling a cracking story. I’ve seen Mark Billingham before and his other life as a stand-up comic makes him a very entertaining turn at literary festivals, surely creating bitterness among the other writers as he performs, seemingly effortlessly, rather than pontificates.