Talented authors from around the region and across the country will share their stories with local bookworms during the upcoming Māpua Community Library Literary Festival.
The festival is held every second year by volunteers from the library. This year’s theme, Love, Lies and Legacy, features award-winning authors of crime to poetry who will be part of the festival’s conversational format in the Māpua Community Hall.
Library chairperson, Helen Jeffery, says it is a boutique event that is a “celebration of reading” for people who love books and love to read.
The festival is a fundraiser for the small, self-funded library which is run entirely by volunteers.
The author lineup includes some of the country’s most celebrated writers. Jenny Pattrick, who holds an Order of the British Empire and is a Katherine Mansfield fellowship winner, will discuss her writing and latest book, Sea Change.
Michael Bennett is the only author to win Ngaio Marsh Awards for both fiction and non-fiction, while Rose Michel von Dreger won the Robert Burns Award for poetry in Canada and New Zealand and is one of six poets to perform some of their work during Poetry at Night, during the festival.
Golden Bay author, Gerard Hindmarsh, will talk about his latest book, Hard-Case Heroes – Stories from the Abel Tasman. The festival kicks off with a solo performance of Red Heavens by Martine Baanvinger, which is inspired by his book, Angelina.
Other authors feature throughout the festival, either through the conversation sessions or in writing workshops.
Tickets for the festival, which runs from 12 September to 14 September, are on sale via the Māpua Community Library website https://mapuacommunitylibrary.com
