New Zealand Festival presents an evening with Richard Dawkins

A Life in Science: New Zealand Festival presents an evening
with Richard Dawkins

Renowned scientist, vocal atheist, and controversial critic Richard Dawkins will speak about his life and work in Wellington on 4 March.

In a special one-off, New Zealand event at the Michael Fowler Centre, Dawkins will reflect on his eminent career as a scientist, and expand on the themes of inspiration, influence and ideas in his recent memoir, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science.

Evolutionary biologist and emeritus fellow at New College, Oxford, Dawkins is never far from the headlines, and is perhaps best known for his investigation into the biology of selfishness and altruism in The Selfish Gene (1976) and his vociferous rejection of a supernatural creator in The God Delusion (2006).

In conversation with New Zealand writer Bernard Beckett (who chaired the sold-out Writers Week conversation with Dawkins at the Michael Fowler Centre in 2010) Dawkins’ event is a chance to hear from one of the world’s leading contemporary thinkers.

Writers Week Programme Manager Kathryn Carmody says Dawkins appearance in March is an exciting preview ahead of the full Writers Week programme that opens the following week. “Writers week is about bringing articulate people together to celebrate the life of the mind and the world of ideas.  We’re delighted that Professor Richard Dawkins, who has dedicated his life to science, scholarship and debate, is available for what promises to be a very special event,” she says. 

Tickets:

On sale to Culture Club supporters: Monday 30 November
On sale to General Public: Thursday 3 December
Michael Fowler Centre, Friday 4 March, 6-7.15pm
Early Bird tickets $39 (until 29 January 2016)
Book tickets at Ticketek

http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=YDAWKINS16

About Writers Week
Writers Week (8-13 March 2016) will bring some of the smartest, most eloquent and entertaining people from home and abroad to Wellington for six days during New Zealand Festival. Join the conversation as guests talk about their work, their lives, and the world around them. Novelists of every hue, be they literary, graphic, sci-fi or fantasy; children’s writers and illustrators; poets; memoirists; historians; scientists; academics, journalists … there is someone for everyone. The full Writers Week programme, with further announcements, will be launched on Thursday 28 January. Pick up your copy from Unity Books, libraries and other bookshops and outlets nationwide, or visit festival.co.nz.