The New Zealand Festival to host Booker prize winner Eleanor Catton at 2014 Writers Week

 16 October 2013

The New Zealand Festival is delighted to announce that Eleanor Catton, today named the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize for her outstanding novel, The Luminaries, will participate in Writers Week in Wellington in March 2014.

Eleanor, a Cantabrian who has an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University and teaches at the Manukau Institute of Technology, is confirmed to deliver The New Zealand Book Council Lecture during Writers Week. The topic she has selected to speak on is ‘change’ as it reveals itself in fiction: as a change of heart, a change of mind or a change of state.

Book Council Chief Executive Catriona Ferguson and the Festival’s Writers Week Programme Manager Kathryn Carmody said they were delighted when Eleanor accepted the invitation to participate in the 2014 Festival.  “The New Zealand Book Council lecture offers New Zealand’s finest writers – and Eleanor has certainly proved herself to be one of our finest writers -  the chance to talk about something close to their heart,” says Catriona.  Previous guest lecturers include Albert Wendt and Elizabeth Knox.

Kathryn says the New Zealand Festival (formerly New Zealand’s International Arts Festival) is excited about Eleanor participating in Writers Week for the third time. “At the 2008 and 2012 Festivals Eleanor took part in Writers Weeks as an emerging writer – in 2014 we welcome her back as the recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards.  We are thrilled for her, and what this means for her career,” Kathryn said.

The New Zealand Festival announces its programme, including a taste of Writers Week, on 23 October.  The full Writers Week programme will be released on 30 January 2014.  The dates for Writers Week are Friday 7-Wednesday 12 March. 

Writers Week is supported by Asia New Zealand, Australia Council for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, Creative New Zealand, Flemish Literature Fund, Goethe-Institut, Institut Ramo Llull, Lion Foundation, Museum Art Hotel, National Library of New Zealand, New Zealand Book Council, New Zealand Listener, Royal Society of New Zealand, Swedish Arts Council, Unity Books and Victoria University of Wellington.