A world premiere performance, the popular Book Market and Poetry Slam, a line-up of leading contemporary writers and a free children’s storytelling day feature as part of Going West Books and Writers Festival 2009.

A world premiere performance, the popular Book Market and Poetry Slam, a line-up of leading contemporary writers and a free children’s storytelling day feature as part of Going West Books and Writers Festival 2009.

Exhibitions, seminars, workshops and the Wordsmiths touring programme in schools also feature in the Festival which takes place in Waitakere City during August and September.

Now in its 14^th year, the Festival celebrates the work of New Zealand writers and wordsmiths.

The Festival has started with the Wordsmiths programme which sends writers into Waitakere schools to talk about their work and inspire students in their own writing. This year, film writer Zia Mandviwalla, fiction and non-fiction writer John Parker, journalist Nick Bollinger and poet Courtney Meredith head into schools for a three week programme which runs until Friday 4 September.

Books of all shapes, sizes, age and condition come to the fore at the Book Market on Saturday 5 September at the Titirangi War Memorial Hall from 9am-2pm. The best second-hand and rare booksellers in the region along with demonstrations and displays, great local music, snacks, espresso and on-the-spot market valuations, and new for 2009 is the Going West Book Auction in association with Bethunes@Webbs.

For those who enjoy the drama of performance, put your rhyme on the line and come and slam with the best at the Sixth Annual Going West Poetry Slam on Saturday 5 September from 7pm at the  Titirangi War Memorial Hall. Too shy to take to the stage, cheer on the contestants – entry is just $10 on the door.

This year’s Going West Literary Weekend ‘By Buy Bye The Book’ is set to be memorable, bringing together leading contemporary New Zealand writers with a premiere of a new poetry/music performance, a FREE afternoon celebrating Waitakere, a one-night-only comedy performance and a special Los Angeles guest!

The literary weekend is the main highlight of Going West Books and Writers Festival and takes place from 11-13 September at the Titirangi War Memorial Hall.

The weekend begins on Friday night at 6.30pm and this year’s keynote speaker is writer, comedian, amateur historian and raconteur Te Radar who is sure to be entertaining and enlightening.

Also on Friday night, Going West Books and Writers Festival is proud to present the world premiere of North:South – inspired by Glenn Colquhoun’s epic poetry cycle of the same name, where the gods and goddesses of Maori and Celtic mythology meet, clash and fall in love. The poet and the combined musical might of Richard Nunns (taonga p?oro) and Bob Bickerton (celtic musician) bring this riotous tale to life.

Going West Books and Writers Festival is the only New Zealand literature festival which focuses solely on New Zealand writers and wordsmiths. Every year the weekend draws leading contemporary writers to discuss, debate and entertain.

At this year’s festival, Dame Anne Salmond provides a sneak preview of her new book Aphrodite’s Island ahead of its publication, and we hear from Kate De Goldi, whose novel The 10pm Question won the NZ Post’s Young Adult Ficition and Book of the Year awards and was runner-up in the Fiction category and won the Readers Choice Award at the 2009 Montana Book Awards.

Distinguished professor of English Brian Boyd shines a light on the origins of storytelling from Homer’s Odyssey to Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, and we gain an insight into the extraordinary life of Dorothy Butler. Poets Bill Manhire, Harry Ricketts, Kevin Ireland and Selina Tusitala Marsh share their work while celebrity chef Richard Till talks about championing th food we grew up on and rustles up something to eat!

On Saturday, a FREE afternoon, Westside Forever, celebrates West Auckland writers and features a behind-the-scenes look at the West’s very own award-winning TV show Outrageous Fortune with co-creators James Griffin and Rachel Lang together with Robyn Malcolm (Cheryl) and Simon Prast.

Plus there’s discussion with the authors of WEST– the history of Waitakere, Ruth Kerr and Finlay Macdonald; Sandra Coney introduces her new book Piha – Guardians of the Iron Sands, tracing the first 75 years of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club and its “proud tradition of (volunteer) guards as tough as its surf”; Titirangi’s Lyn Loates and Michele Powles join critic David Larsen to talk about writing and their first novels, Butterscotch and Weathered Bones respectively; and there’s the launch of the new book The Ironbound Coast – Karekare in the Early Years, edited by Mayor Bob Harvey.

Saturday night features a special one-night-only performance of Te Radar’s Eating The Dog – a comedy show which celebrates the lives of the misfits, the failures and those who died trying. Tickets for Te Radar’s Eating The Dog are sold separately and are $20 each from www.eventfinder.co.nz.

Two very special sessions feature on Sunday: Panther Rapp featuring Polynesian Panther Party members Will ‘Ilolahia and Dr Melani Anae together with special guest Emory Douglas* of the US Black Panther Party (*as part of the Elam Artist in Residence programme at The University of Auckland); and Give Peace a Chance: A celebration of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance with Phil Dadson of From Scratch and the screening of Gregor Nicholas’ Cannes/Midem Visual Music Awards Grand Prix winning film Pacific 321 Zero.

The final main event of Going West Books and Writers Festival 2009 is the annual Storyfest – a free day of events for children held on Saturday 26 September at Kelston Community Centre. This year’s theme is ‘Coastlines – Living at the Edge’.

Going West Books and Writers Festival 2009 runs until the end of September. Tickets for the Literary Weekend ‘By Buy Bye The Book’ are $130 for the full weekend or $30 for Friday, $50 for Saturday (excluding Te Radar’s Eating the Dog) and $85 for Sunday. Concession prices are available and all weekend and day tickets include meals (morning and afternoon teas and lunch). Single session tickets (Saturday and Sunday only) are available on the door or buy four and receive one free. Saturday 2-7pm is FREE to all.