A Poet's Life

A stellar line up of four cutting-edge Wellington poets will be discussing “A Poet’s Life” with Radio New Zealand presenter, Lynn Freeman. Featherston Booktown audiences will be familiar with Sam Duckor-Jones, Tayi Tibble, and Jordan Hamel but Helen Rickerby, winner of the Mary and Peter Biggs award for Poetry at the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, with her book "How to Live", will be a new treat:
Women who speak have always been monstrous.
That twisty sphinx, those tempting sirens;
Better plug your ears with wax, boys.

Sam Duckor-Jones, who last year made the complex decision to leave Featherston for Wellington, has been working assiduously on a new collection. We will be honoured to have him back in town to share some of his new work for the first time.

Jordan Hamel is a Poneke-based poet and performer. He grew up in Timaru on a healthy diet of Catholicism and masculine emotional repression. He is a New Zealand Poetry Slam Champion and editor of the Stasis Journal, the hottest lockdown themed literary journal.

Tayi Tibble is a writer, editor, and poet based in Te Whanganui a Tara (Te Whanau a Apanui/Ngāti Porou). She is a staff writer at The Pantograph Punch, a columnist at Re: and was the editor of the literary journal, Sport 47. Her first book, Poūkahangatus was published by Victoria University Press in 2018 and was the winner of the Jessie McKay Prize for First Book of Poetry at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Straight after this event, join us for afternoon tea served by the fabulous Featherston Booktown Country Tea & Cakes team of volunteers. There will be the famous Wendy Campbell cheese scones and home-made baking including a rich fruit cake and gluten-free treats, tea, and coffee.

While you are devouring a cheese scone, Kikorangi, an eight-piece jazz troupe from Kuranui under the guidance of their teacher, Saali Marks, will serenade you in the Anzac Hall. They will keep you in the mood for the next event - Shayne Carter, the cult pioneer of the 1980's Dunedin Sound, in conversation with Richard Langston about his award-winning autobiography, "Dead People I Have Known."