Booker and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, feminist icons, literary funny men, blockbuster children's writers and some of the world's best political, historical and philosophical thinkers and standout New Zealand writers are lined up for the Auckland Writers Festival.
Now in its 16th year, the festival will host more than 150 writers at the Aotea Centre for six days from May 10.
International authors include Marlon James, the Jamaican/US writer whose novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize; 2015 literary superstar Hanya Yanagihara; writer, composer, musician, comedian, artist, ornithologist and conservationist Bill Oddie, who starred in the UK TV comedy classic The Goodies; US novelist Jane Smiley, who won the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres; former Midnight Oil frontman-cum-Aussie-politician and memoirist Peter Garrett; the UK's Paula Hawkins who wrote the international bestselling psychological thriller The Girl on the Train; and one of the world's leading contemporary poets, Ireland's Paul Muldoon.
Feminist writers also feature prominently with Gloria Steinem, Susie Orbach and Jeanette Winterson coming to Auckland. There'll be a chance to hear from authors from farther afield such as Zimbabwe's Petina Gappah; Financial Times Chinese columnist Xu Zhiyuan; Samanth Subramanian, a New Delhi-based writer and journalist known for his food and cultural travel stories; Middle East specialists Emma Sky, Yossi Alpher and Palestinian conservation architect Suad Amiry; and French doctor, diplomat, historian, novelist and co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres Jean Christophe Rufin.
