EDITORIAL: Nine authors coming to Whanganui Literary fest

IN JUST a few weeks, Wanganui will play host to nine New Zealand's authors in this year's Whanganui Literary Festival.

It is a celebration of the written word and the people who put it on the page, so it is only right that they should be honoured by being asked to speak, to impart their wisdom to people who really want to listen.

It always surprises me that authors can speak. They indulge in a solitary occupation in which their only communication is twixt keyboard and screen, and yet they are capable of standing in front of a crowd of admirers (mostly) and delivering an unscripted (mostly) monologue of substance.

Obviously, some are better than others, but they all have something to say and they all have people who want to hear them say it.

Of the nine authors coming to Wanganui next month, some are already well known and the rest will be by the time they leave.

Their writing varies from supernatural romance to political expose with a whole lot in between, so their talks will be assorted and interesting, appealing to all manner of people, not just those of a literary bent.

How many Wanganui people realise that there are "populist" writers among the more "serious" wordsmiths? I use these terms for easy reference with no judgment intended.

Paul Thomas, for example, writes crime novels as well as sports biographies; Quinn Berentson is a writer, documentary film-maker and photographer who has written the Quinn-tessential work on the New Zealand moa; Sarah O'Neil writes about gardening; Tim Wilson is a novelist and short story writer - and you would have seen him on the telly. That's just four of the nine.

The Whanganui Literary Festival is for everyone, not just the literati. If you like to read, you'll be interested in the inside story. Hearing the authors speak is the book equivalent of a DVD's special bonus features.