BLOODLINES - AT THE AUCKLAND WRITERS & READERS FESTIVAL

New Zealand novelist Maxine Alterio (Ribbons of Grace) must have thought all her Christmases had come at once when she found herself on the ASB Theatre stage seated between two writers currently rated among the world’s hottest contemporary literary talents, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, and 2007 Booker Prize longlister for The Welsh Girl,Peter Ho Davies.

The three of them made an interesting panel for Chair James George (himself a noted Maori writer) to pose the quite difficult question Do Genetics dictate story?
I’m not sure the question was answered in the end, I guess that would have taken more than an hour, but their readings and responses to the questions that followed were interesting and illuminating. The audience of some 400 was the largest at the Festival so far although this will soon be exceeded one imagines by The New Zealand Listener Opening Night.