WHAT THE DICKENS?

News from AWRF 2012

There’s so much to talk about in the programme that it’s hard to know where to begin.

So let’s start with one of our very special events, the New Zealand Listener Gala Night, where we set some internationals off on a true storytelling expedition in the style of the NZ Book Council’s True Stories Told Live.

For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with this wildly entertaining form, participants are given ten minutes to tell a true story about themselves with no props or notes inspired by a theme.

Our inspirational line this year is “What The Dickens?”, it being the 200th anniversary of the great writer’s birth. However, the phrase actually originates from another literature great.  It comes from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor with the term ‘Dickens’ referring to the devil.

On our stage we’re lining up Lemon Andersen, Eoin Colfer, Kate De Goldi, Roddy Doyle, Geoff Dyer, Oliver Jeffers, Anne Kennedy and Jesmyn Ward to do the honours, chaired by the glamorous book ambassador Carol Hirschfeld.
 Read more at our blog - The Festival Frontline
Pictured: top right Lemon Andersen, top left Geoff Dyer.

PUT YOURSELF IN THE FRONT ROW

Put Yourself In the Front Row – join as a Friend of the Festival to get your own dedicated booking line and front row seating at all Aotea Centre events (excluding free events), visit our website for more information.  

Friends joining before 20 April go into the draw to win $100 book token.