Auckland Writers Festival: Friday

Australian David Malouf and Kiwi Owen Marshall.

Australian David Malouf and New Zealander Owen Marshall have completely different writing styles but one thing they do have in common is drawers full of unfinished stories.

In a panel chaired by Sue Orr, the short story masters gave a glimpse of the mysterious and often frustrating writing process during the Short and Sweet discussion alongside Kiwis Charlotte Grimshaw and Paula Morris.

Of the four, Marshall was the only one who approached his short stories knowing what they'd become – for the others, many were the result of novels that didn't work out or ideas they'd shelved. All agreed that endings – the more surprising the better – are the hardest to write, with Malouf revealing he often looks for his within the prose he's already written. The serious mood was lightened when the writers read witty and lyrical excerpts of their work.

Next, Kiwi young adult's writer, Kate De Goldi showed she is a fan of the works of both MT Anderson and Mal Peet in a colourful discussion that veered from the notion of the young adult genre – indefinable, they said – to their obsession with history and the importance of creating a suitable lexicon to communicate it.

Peet says he knew nothing about the world of occupied Holland in World War Two but was determined to learn in order to "hide a secret agent" for his Carnegie-winning novel Tamar.

Anderson was just as zealous, reading countless 18th Century novels to come to terms with the language he uses so deftly in his Octavian Nothing series. As a voracious teen reader, Anderson often felt underestimated. It was part of the reason he set out to create the dense and challenging world of his fictional hero. Peet added that he often hears from young fans grateful he doesn't necessarily write about teens.

The after-work crowds filled the Aotea Centre's ASB Theatre in time to hear James Surowiecki, financial writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Wisdom of Crowds, in a mesmerising discussion chaired by Lewis Holden.

Like his punchy writing, Surowiecki was a charismatic speaker who successfully brought the potentially dry world of markets and the economic crisis to a human level.

Drawing on the fascinating discoveries he made in his book, Surowiecki painted the markets as a representation of collective intelligence driven by irrational and emotional human beings.

After a spooky tale about a missing submarine located by a group, none of whom had guessed the location correctly on their own, it was hard not to leave the room with a sense of awe.

That feeling continued downstairs in a fascinating panel with science writer, Marcus Chown, chaired by Veronika Meduna. Chown attempted to convince the full NZI Theatre –himself included – that quantum theory cannot hurt you.

The author of the book of the same name was no mad scientist with his relaxed stage presence and casual clothes, his unassuming nature belying his huge knowledge of the "Alice in Wonderland" forces of the universe.

Perhaps the best thing he could have imparted was that it was liberating to accept that the human mind cannot comprehend all of it, particularly the concept of quantum theory and its relation to parallel universes – being in more than one place at once.

Meduna led Chown on an intriguing discussion covering the likelihood of quantum computers to the myth of gravity and such conundrums as there being so much empty space in the world the human race would fit into a sugar cube. As the audience questions grew more hypothetical, even Chown admitted to having a sore brain.

Professor Richard Dawkins appeared to be testing quantum theory when he beamed live onto the big screen from Oxfordshire, neatly dressed in suit and tie and fresh from his morning coffee.

Sean Plunket chaired the popular session with the controversial evolutionary biologist, questioning, and at times, challenging Dawkins' assertions there can be no God in the face of the evidence of evolution. The Professor sought to downplay the controversy that his book The God Delusion has caused, in an extremely articulate, plain-speaking, and amusingly honest manner.

Insisting he was only being upfront about the "virus" of religion, when pressed if he thinks people going to church on Sundays are wasting their time, he answered with a simple yes. He also reiterated his abhorrence towards the indoctrination of children. It's a shame his scientific work was overlooked in this discussion – it would have been interesting to hear more about what brought him around to this way of thinking and perhaps how evolutionary biology itself evolves.

The Professor was also given the responsibility of announcing the winner of the inaugural 2009 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize. Rebecca Priestly won for her book, The Awa Book of New Zealand Science.