Friday, August 16, 2013

Eclectic line up at the Nelson Readers & Writers’ programme.

Page & Blackmore Readers and Writers brings top line up to Arts Festival

Lloyd Jones heads an impressive line up of authors in this
year’s Page and Blackmore Readers and Writers, a
popular series of talks and panel discussions staged annually 
as part of the Nelson Arts Festival (Oct 11-28 2013).

Programme coordinator Jacquetta Bell says she’s very 
thrilled to have Jones on the programme, particularly as
his memoir will be newly published.

A History of Silence was sparked by the Christchurch earthquakes, and is about the ‘fault lines’ 
that opened up in Jones understanding of his own family history when he started searching for 
truth about his parents and grandparents,” she said. “And we have a second memoir on the 
menu with Self Portrait by renowned photographer, Marti Friedlander, telling her own story
from her younger years in a London orphanage, through to marrying a Kiwi and moving to a 
New Zealand.”

Fiction is represented in the programme by Emily Perkins, Kate De Goldi, young adult writer 
Karen Healey and the festival’s first international guest, Australian screenwriter turned novelist Graeme Simsion; the environment gets a workout from Sir Alan Mark and Jim Salinger; Rosemary McLeod examines sewing and social change; there’s a new Craig Potton Publishing book on 25 years of WearableArt; Matt Lawrey chairs two dynamic thinking brunches, and the 14 sessions wrap up with poets Jessica Le Bas and Bill Manhire on the lawn at Woollaston Vineyards.

Nelson city councillor Gail Collingwood says she is very excited about the eclectic line up of the Readers & Writers’ programme.

“This is a real opportunity for people who love books to come to events where they can hear some of the wonderful writers that we have in New Zealand today,” she said. “I’m proud to be a member of a council that celebrates the benefits that books bring to our lives and to our community, and to live in a city that can see the value of stimulating debate on issues like arts funding and the environmental crisis.”

Cr Collingwood also acknowledged the support of Page & Blackmore: “Nelson is very fortunate to have a bookshop that has made a long-term commitment to sponsoring this event, and not only that - they are once again officially New Zealand’s independent bookshop of the year.”

A first for this year is writers’ workshops, which have been added by popular request. There are two sessions, from Kate De Goldi and Graeme Simsion (right).

The Nelson Arts Festival runs from October 11-28. The 14 Page & Blackmore Readers and Writers’ sessions are clustered in the three weekends of the festival.

The Nelson Arts Festival is presented by the Nelson City Council as a celebration for locals and an added attraction for visitors.


Bookings and further information at nelsonartsfestival.co.nz

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