Auckland Writers Festival: Festival full of praise for women writers

Standing ovations for authors including Keri Hulme and tears for the uplifting Alice Walker.

Oamaru writer Keri Hulme was honoured. Photo / Marcel Tromp

Three important writers, all women over 65, were given separate standing ovations yesterday at the Auckland Writers Festival, where provisional numbers suggest attendance was up 45 per cent to more than 50,000.
At the start of the inaugural Great Kiwi Classic bookclub honouring The Bone People, it seemed Keri Hulmes participation would be limited to an all-too-brief reading in an appealing if slightly muffled voice.
Happily she re-donned her microphone as the audience shyly delivered wonderful tributes. To me the novel is about kaitiakitanga in its deepest sense, said one attendee, referring to the Maori concept of active care and guardianship of people and the land.
Hulme agreed. I loved my characters but I also wanted to show how much damage we do to each other.
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• Arts & Literature
• Auckland Writers & Readers Festival