Exclusive to Auckland, Murakami will feature in one
session only at the festival, on Saturday 16 May at 7.30pm.
Festival director Anne O’Brien says Murakami’s acceptance
is a huge honour.
“Haruki Murakami is a literary superstar and someone
continually invited to Festivals around the world but little seen. His
attendance is a wonderful coup for Auckland and New Zealand.”
Known for his surrealist writing, Murakami’s popularity
saw fans queuing outside Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly, London last
August from 5pm for an event that began at 11am the following day.
Now in its 15th year, the Auckland Writers
Festival plays host to more than 150 writers over five days of ideas, readings,
debates, stand-up poetry, literary theatre, children’s writers and free family
events. The Festival saw a 45 percent increase in ticket sales last year, with
more than 55, 000 attendees and many sessions sold out.
The biggest UK children’s author to debut this century, David Walliams
of Little Britain and QI fame, and Dav Pilkey aka
Captain Underpants will also appear the Festival.
Ms O’Brien says programming Walliams and Pilkey
symbolises the festival’s commitment to encouraging a love of books and reading
in people of all ages.
“David Walliams and Dav Pilkey are funny, irreverent,
clever and, above all else, brilliant writers. We have made both of these
events FREE for children under 12 years of age,” says Ms O’Brien.
They join a heady line-up of novelists, poets, thinkers,
scientists, historians, playwrights and children’s literary stars including:
one of the world’s most influential medical writers Atul Gawande who
will talk about his most recent work Being Mortal: Medicine and What Happens
in the End; the Festival’s
2015 Honoured New Zealand writer C.K. Stead; Helen Macdonald,
winner of the Costa Book of the Year Award 2014 with her stunning Memoir H
is for Hawk; actor,
writer, broadcaster, director, producer and musician Alan Cumming;
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy; internationally-acclaimed NZ
singer/songwriter Hollie Fullbrook (aka TINY RUINS); journalist
and media critic for The New Yorker Ken Auletta whose books
include Googled: The End of the World as We Know It; multi-award-winning
New Zealand poet and art historian Gregory O’Brien; much-loved Australian
food writer Stephanie Alexander; globally renowned Kiwi visual
artist and writer Grahame Sydney; Australian National Living Treasure Tim
Winton; British investigative journalist Nick Davies, responsible
for uncovering the News of the World phone hacking affair; New Zealand’s
favourite satirical writer Steve Braunias; multi-award winning
novelist David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks);
Booker Prize winning novelist and poet Ben Okri; England’s insatiable
scientist Philip Ball who has written on just about everything - from
how music works to his most recent book: Serving the Reich: The Struggle for
the Soul of Physics Under Hitler; Australia’s biggest-selling non-fiction
writer Peter FitzSimons; critically acclaimed novelist Helen Garner
whose most recent novel is The House of Grief; The Good Women of China writer
Xinran who will talk about her latest work Buy Me The Sky; multi-award
winning New Zealand novelist Witi Ihimaera; globally-celebrated
British author of Alex Rider fame, Anthony Horowitz; New Zealand
playwright Fiona Samuel and New York’s most irresistible literary critic
Daniel Mendelsohn.
Tickets to the festival go on public sale from 9.00am,
Thursday 19 March from www.ticketmaster.co.nz
, by calling 0800 111 999, by post to Auckland Writers Festival: Bookings,
Ticketmaster NZ, PO Box 106 443, Auckland 1143 or in person at the Aotea
Centre box office or any authorised ticketmaster seller.
The Auckland Writers
Festival warmly thanks its Gold Partners: The University of Auckland,
Freemasons Foundation, New Zealand Listener, ASB Community Trust,
Creative New Zealand and ATEED; and all our Silver, Bronze and Supporting
Partners.
We are enormously grateful
to our Festival patrons for their enthusiasm and generosity.
For the full 2015 Auckland Writers Festival programme go
to www.writersfestival.co.nz.
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