Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival

The Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival (8-11 May) offers a stellar line-up of guests, writers and poets to enthral and engage audiences of all ages.

The stimulating and diverse final programme accommodates a wonderfully wide range of interests and genres over the four days of the festival – from politics to poetry, the built environment to handicrafts, and adventuring in nature to reflecting on it.
 
In association with the Auckland Writers Festival, we are delighted to welcome international guest Alexander McCall Smith. With generous support from the Scottish Studies Programme at Otago University we will be entertained by literary frontrunner Janice Galloway and informed by Professor Nigel Leask of the University of Galloway, an expert in Robert Burns’ poetry. We are thrilled to have writers from all around New Zealand such as Tusiata Avia and Kate De Goldi, as well as some well-loved Otago writers including Vanda Symon, Sue Wootton and David Eggleton. For many the highlight of the festival will be recent Man Booker Prize Winner, Eleanor Catton in conversation with Finlay Macdonald.  

We are particularly pleased to include events that encourage participation from younger readers and writers, with the Murder Mystery at the Bookshop event for young adults and The Children’s Room Story-time Train to Port Chalmers. 

Indulge, enjoy, read, connect – and when it’s all too soon over, look forward to another festival of rich pickings next year.