By Karen Tay for Localist
It will be Murray Gray’s 16th year at the helm of the popular Going West Books and Writers Festival. But the avid reader and westie, who owns secondhand bookshop Gone West in Titirangi, says that he still enjoys directing the festival.
By Karen Tay for Localist
It will be Murray Gray’s 16th year at the helm of the popular Going West Books and Writers Festival. But the avid reader and westie, who owns secondhand bookshop Gone West in Titirangi, says that he still enjoys directing the festival.
“It’s a real achievement for us that the new Auckland Council is taking [the festival] on board. I enjoy it because I still have the freedom to do what I want with it. It’s quite fun and indulgent, really.”
Murray has been with Going West since its inception - he got the name for the festival off a Maurice Gee book, and loves that it focuses on Kiwi writers, as opposed to the bigger Auckland Readers and Writers Festival, which has a more international flavour.
“The theme for this year is Allen Curnow, as it’s the centennary of his birth."
The programme includes an extended poetry session and commentary, including a reading by poet and writer David Eggleton.
There is a discussion on writing residencies with Allen’s son Wystan Curnow and Whim Wham, a live reading by actor Stuart Devenie of Curnow’s satirical alter ego.
Nineteen sessions with NZ writers and columnists are planned, including a session with Sydney Morning Herald rugby writer and New Zealander Spiros Zavos.
As the festival is also about books, one of the new trends available are ‘flipbooks’. Murray describes them as being about the size of casette tape, read from top to bottom, and printed on special, high-quality thin paper. An entire, full-length novel can be squeezed into one tiny flipbook.
Murray says that it helps to think of the festival as a series of conversations about what fascinates the literary world. He thinks the low-key nature of the festival and its humble, grassroots beginning reflects the laidback culture of West Auckland.
“I read a description about us once that I think is really appropriate. We are the Sundance to Cannes (Auckland Readers and Writers Festival). We don’t have lots of different venues, but you do get fed and there’s full lighting and a PA system.”