Murakami to headline 2015 Auckland Writers Festival

Wednesday, 18 March 2015 Books+Publishing

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami will headline the 2015 Auckland Writers Festival, featuring in just one session on 16 May at the Aotea Centre.

Joining Murakami will be more than 150 authors in events over five days. International authors include children’s author David Walliams; ‘Captain Underpants’ author Dav Pilkey; novelist David Mitchell; novelist and YA author Anthony Horowitz; Helen Macdonald, who won the 2014 Costa Book of the Year Award winner for her memoir H is for Hawk; actor and writer Alan Cumming; UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy; medical writer Atul Gawande; and investigative journalist Nick Davies, among others.

New Zealand and Australian authors at the festival include Stephanie Alexander, Peter FitzSimons, Helen Garner, Tim Winton, Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Samuel, Gregory O’Brien and C K Stead, who is the festival’s 2015 Honoured New Zealand Writer.

Special events include a New Zealand literary salon hosted by Damian Barr; the New Zealand Listener Gala Night, with eight writers delivering seven-minute ‘propless and scriptless true stories’; the University of Auckland Festival Debate, which will ask whether people have an absolute right to offend; and a free Family Day.

Festival director Anne O’Brien said Murakami’s acceptance was a ‘wonderful coup’ for Auckland and New Zealand. ‘Haruki Murakami is a literary superstar and someone continually invited to Festivals around the world but little seen,’ said O’Brien.

To view the full program, visit the Auckland Writers Festival website here.

Category: Local news