True Stories Told Live: Award-winning Writers Lay Down Pens

Seven award-winning writers will lay down their pens and step away from their laptops to tell stories the old-fashioned way to raise funds for the Book Council in its first True Stories Told Live event for Wellington.

The Book Council’s True Stories Told Live events have been exhilarating and entertaining sell-out Auckland audiences for the past two years. Now, True Stories comes to Wellington with a stellar literary line-up.

Elizabeth Knox, Kate De Goldi, Neil Cross, Duncan Sarkies, Jenny Pattrick, Craig Cliff and Chris Bourke will have ten minutes each. No notes. No readings. No questions. Just true stories that promise to inspire, entrance and entertain.

The October 6 event (at St Andrew’s on the Terrace) will raise funds for the Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme, which has been bringing books, authors and children together since 1973.

‘At True Stories Told Live, the story must have a beginning, middle and an end, and it must be true, but that’s all’ says the Book Council’s Susanna Andrew.

Andrew says it is the compression, the construction and the sheer originality of each person’s retelling that makes being in the audience so fascinating. ‘The length is too short to be boring, and yet long enough for plot, pace, adventure and humour to sneak in and light up the threads, the contradictions and the beauty of the story.’

Book Council CEO Noel Murphy says he is excited to have some of the biggest names in New Zealand writing come out to raise money for Writers in Schools. ‘We think this programme is about creating the writers and readers of the future, so to have the support of these incredible authors is very special.’

The Book Council’s True Stories Told Live events in Auckland have been sell-out successes. Internationally, live storytelling events are the hot new literary ticket, especially in the US and UK. Trademarked storytelling organisations such as The Moth or The Stoop have been selling out within 48 hours and creating the sort of buzz that rock concerts are usually famous for.

Further information:

Writers in Schools
The Book Council’s flagship programme, Writers in Schools, has been encouraging and inspiring children to read, write, create and learn through books for more than 35 years, providing free writer visits for more than 50,000 students each year.

New Zealand Book Council
The New Zealand Book Council is a non-profit organisation, whose mission is to inspire more New Zealanders to read more; to promote reading in general, but particularly to represent and promote New Zealand writing and writers.