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Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is the largest annual literary festival in Aotearoa New Zealand. The programme 'Constellations' brought together writers not typically paired together for alchemic conversations.
"I come from a lost lineage of Peranakan wāhine — Peranakan, translating to ‘my ancestors are from elsewhere, but my home is now here’. I think about this when I think about the Asian diaspora community here in Aotearoa, and what it means to tell our stories specifically from this place, as tangata Tiriti, and to write and walk alongside the many communities that live in our country. The writers in this series are carvers of paths: they throw light into the murky unknown, drawing maps we didn’t think possible. Their work is fearless, messy, unpredictable, sharp. The maps they draw are of home."
— Rosabel Tan
There’s no such thing as a new idea, but what happens when your writing draws on the people in your life – and what happens when they don’t want to be written about? Taking as inspiration the ‘Bad Art Friend’ tussle over telling someone else’s story that dominated literary conversations in the US last October, join: Madeleine Chapman, editor of The Spinoff and author of books on Jacinda Ardern and Steven Adams; Rebecca K. Reilly, winner of the 2022 Ockham NZ Book Awards Best First Book of Fiction for Greta and Valdin; and Himali McInnes, author of essay collection The Unexpected Patient; for an exploration of where their boundaries lie when it comes to writing their own and other people’s lives into their work. Chaired by Mohamed Hassan. Listen to the talk here.
Three writers crafting work for stage and screen discuss writing themselves into their projects for an audience beyond their own community (or in some cases, refusing that entirely), and the mistakes, compromises, and wins along the way. They share their secret tactics for creativity, collaboration and care in the writers' room, and reflect on the big conversations our next generation is having. Join writer, director and producer Nahyeon Lee, whose new play The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom premieres at Silo Theatre this year; comedian and creator of Raised by Refugees, Pax Assadi; and novelist and Aroha Bridge writer Coco Solid (aka Jessica Hansell) in conversation with Nisha Madhan. Listen to the talk here.
The Future Inherits and Loses Everything
In his poem, Love Theme for the End of the World, award-winning poet Chris Tse writers: “My favourite type of gay porn is when two men talk about their day and nobody dies.” So let’s press play. Join him and award-winning theatre-maker and performance poet Nathan Joe as they discuss writing into the messy, sad, beautiful, angry parts of their lives: the unforgettable moments that have bloomed into prose and the work that gives them hope.