The Press Christchurch Writers Festival

Over twenty international and forty New Zealand writers will converge on the Christchurch Town Hall from 4 – 7 September for The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival 2008.

The largest number of international writers to ever attend a South Island writers’ festival will read, discuss, debate and entertain with topics as diverse as Cook’s abilities as a cartographer through to modern day migration, Middle East conflict to women in modern China, the art of science through to the art of painting. There will be sessions and panel discussions at the Christchurch Town Hall, exhibitions at Canterbury Museum and Christchurch Art Gallery, a song-writing panel, a political theatre satire, a visit to Dame Ngaio Marsh’s house and plenty more.

Writers include:
Robert Fisk, bestselling author and journalist based in Beirut as Middle East correspondent of the Independent, Xinran, author and journalist now living in London, whose latest book China Witness unlocks the secret history of modern China, Kate Atkinson who wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and has been an international bestselling author ever since, Kate Mosse, whose historical thriller Labyrinth has been translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries, Norman Doidge, Canadian research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has presented his scientific research at the White House, Vanessa Collingridge, whose book on Captain Cook was made into the prize-winning documentary series Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery, Mark Billingham, UK crime writer, Lloyd Jones, freshly back from his writer’s residency in Menton, Jill Trevelyan whose biography on Rita Angus coincides with a major exhibition on this much-loved New Zealand painter, and many, many more.

For the full programme, check out the website.