Stephanie Johnson and Peter Wells will look on proudly as the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival they founded in 1999 celebrates its tenth birthday in May. Since 1999, this major Auckland City event will have put over 700 local writers and more than 160 international guests in front of over 100,000 people.

The focus at this year’s Auckland Writers & Readers Festival is on lives – the well-lived, the well-read, the rich, the tragic, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the quiet and the chaotic, the writer’s life, a life of books, living in times of war or political change, life in India, Iraq and Israel, the life of the art world, life-changing moments and decisions, the ordinary lives of extraordinary and memorable characters, the life of our national sport, the life of the outsider, the rebel and sometimes people who’d rather not be noticed at all.

It’s about the stories we hope will live on (whatever the format), stories that deserve a life of their own, and the people who strive to give them life.

“This is what a festival is all about – the enrichment of lives through a celebration of art,” says Artistic Director Jill Rawnsley.

2010 Authors

International guests confirmed for 2010 include: acclaimed biographer of William Golding, John Carey; renowned travel writer William Dalrymple; Granta Editor John Freeman; controversial author of My Israel Question Antony Loewenstein; The Monthly Editor Ben Neparstek;  journalist and author of Erasing Iraq Michael Otterman; sociologist and author of Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton; and Economist management editor and Schumpeter columnist Adrian Wooldridge.

Fiction writers confirmed to attend are Jill Dawson, Thomas Keneally, Yiyun Li, Lionel Shriver and Colm Tóibín, YA writers Charlie Higson and David Levithan; and performance poets Charlie Dark and Alicia Sometimes.

New Zealand guests set to take the stage include: Tui Flower, Dick Frizzell, Charlotte Grimshaw, Lloyd Jones, Rachael King, Chris Laidlaw, Julie Le Clerc, Warren Maxwell, Gordon McLauchlan, Paula Morris, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Gregor Paul, Emily Perkins, John Reynolds, Anne Salmond, Elizabeth Smither, CK Stead, William Taylor, Tama Waipara, Ian Wedde, Damien Wilkins, Alison Wong and many more.

Special Events

‘Special Events’ include the gala New Zealand Listener Opening Night on Thursday 13 May features Colm Toibin, Emily Perkins, Thomas Keneally, Elizabeth Gilbert and William Dalrymple.

A ‘High Tea’ with guest speakers Tui Flower, Lauraine Jacobs, Julie Biuso and Julie Le Clerc honours the traditional fare in A Treasury of New Zealand Baking; TVNZ 7 will be filming ‘The Good Word Debate’ at St Matthew-in-the-City where Finlay Macdonald and Emily Perkins lead two teams to debate the moot ‘The Book is Dead’ under the watchful eye of Te Radar; and legendary raconteur Rick Gekoski talks with Kim Hill over lunch at Soul in the Viaduct.

Premium evening events feature William Dalrymple (Friday 14 May) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Saturday 15 May). And the ever-popular ‘Poetry Idol’ is on Sunday 16 May. Potential idols should visit the festival website for more information on getting an audition.

All other festival events and the full programme of events is available in print and online.

A range of free events will be available during the festival, including a ‘Rehearsed Reading’ of Dave Armstrong’s new play General Ward, courtesy of the Auckland Theatre Company, and a very special hour with C.K. Stead to celebrate the publication of his new memoir, South-West of Eden, on Saturday 15 May.

2010 Schools Programme

The Schools Programme is designed for intermediate and secondary school students and features YA writers David Levithan and Charlie Higson; John Carey on William Golding and Lord of the Flies; Thomas Keneally and Anne Salmond on early settler times in Australasia; DJ and performance poet Charlie Dark; New Zealand fiction favourites Des Hunt, William Taylor and Anna Mackenzie; Leon Davidson on the First World War, Dave Armstrong on playwriting, and the band ‘Ivy Lies’ on song-writing (that they’ve been doing since they were at school). Students are also being offered the opportunity to take a writing workshop with some of the wonderful writers this year. Schools bookings are open now at www.buytickets.co.nz, and a downloadable Schools Programme is available on the festival website at www.writersfestival.co.nz