no longer wish to receive our newsletter click here to unsubscribe.

Matariki afternoon tea with Patricia Grace

The Michael King Writers’ Centre is delighted to invite you to a Matariki afternoon tea with author Patricia Grace to celebrate the publication of her latest novel Chappy. Patricia Grace is a huge figure in New Zealand literature and has won accolades around the world for her work as a novelist, short story writer and children’s writer. Chappy is her first published novel in ten years. Patricia Grace is of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent. She began writing while teaching and raising her family of seven children. Her work expresses Māori consciousness and values, featuring the lives of a wide range of Māori and Pakeha. She has won many national and international awards, including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel. In 2007, she was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.  She lives in Plimmerton, near her home marae at Hongoeka Bay. In 2014, she won a major legal battle against the New Zealand Transport Agency to save her ancestral land from being taken for the Kapiti Expressway. She was named as the Honoured New Zealand Writer at the Auckland Writers Festival the same year. She will be in conversation with Michael King Writers' Centre writer-in-residence Mere Whaanga. This special Matariki event will be held on Wednesday June 17 at 3 pm at The Esplanade Hotel, Victoria Road, Devonport. Tickets are $32 each through the Michael King Writers’ Centre or can be purchased on-line through Eventfinda for $34. There are a limited number of tickets. Mere Whaanga is a writer, illustrator, historian and academic, of Ngāti Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Kahungunu decent. She has written several bilingual books for children and a wide range of non-fiction work on aspects of Māori history, Treaty of Waitangi claims and Māori cultural practices. She has a Doctorate from Waikato University on the effect of Māori land law on ahikāroa (long-term occupation). While she holds the Māori Writer's Residency at the Michael King Writers' Centre, she is writing a novel on the theme of Māori spirituality. The ticket includes afternoon tea at the heritage Esplanade Hotel. The event is presented by PaperPlus in partnership with the Michael King Writers’ Centre. When:   Wednesday 17 June @ 3 pm Where:  The Esplanade Hotel, 1 Victoria Rd, Devonport, Auckland Tickets:  $34 each through eventfinda.co.nz Or email  assistant@writerscentre.org.nz