WORD Christchurch

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WORD Christchurch is an organisation which presents a variety of literary events, most notably the annual WORD Christchurch Festival, also known as WORD Festival, established in 1997. Until 2014 the festival was run as the Press Christchurch Writers Festival.

About the festival

The WORD Christchurch festival is the largest literary event in the South Island of New Zealand, and partners with the Auckland Writers Festival in the North Island each year for an autumn season in May.[citation needed] As of 2022 its directors are Steph Walker (executive director) and Nic Low (programme director).[1][2] Rachael King was the literary director between 2013 and 2021.[3][4] The Ngaio Marsh Awards are presented at the festival.[5]

Until 2021, the festival was biennial.[6] In the Festival off-year, WORD Christchurch partnered with the Christchurch Arts Festival for a series of ideas-based events, and also presented events at KidsFest in those years.[citation needed] It also ran an annual schools programme showcasing the New Zealand Children's Book Award finalists.[citation needed]

History

The Festival has run under the WORD umbrella since 2014 but was established in 1997;[7][1] its predecessor was the Press Christchurch Writers Festival.[8]

The 2018 event featured Australian writer and adventurer Robyn Davidson, former Islamist radical turned anti-extremist Ed Husain, Australian author, poet and hip-hop artist Omar Musa, British author Juno Dawson, New Zealand politician Margaret Austin, author and illustrator Gavin Bishop and many others.[9] On 29 November 2019 a special event was held featuring Behrouz Boochani, the award-winning Iranian-Kurdish writer and film-maker who wrote about and filmed his experiences in the Australian offshore detention camp, the Manus Island detention centre, where he was held for six years.[10][11]

In September 2020, the festival was local and focussed on New Zealand writing, as the COVID-19 travel bans in New Zealand made it difficult for international authors to attend.[12] In 2021, the festival was postponed from September to November and its programme had to be downsized, with many events being run as virtual or live-streamed, due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic.[4][13]

References

  1. ^ a b "About WORD". WORD Christchurch. Retrieved 25 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "NZ Literary Festivals". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Rachael King". Read NZ. Retrieved 1 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b Gates, Charlie (4 November 2021). "Word festival co-director Rachael King resigns to spend more time writing". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  6. ^ "WORD Christchurch Festival Celebrates Books, Storytelling and Ideas this August". The New Zealand Society of Authors. 7 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Archive". WORD Christchurch. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  8. ^ R., Donna (12 September 2012). "The Press Christchurch Writers Festival 2012". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  9. ^ "WORD Christchurch Festival 2018: 29 August–2 September" (PDF). Allen & Unwin and others. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  10. ^ "Behrouz Boochani: Writing from Manus Prison". WORD Christchurch. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  11. ^ Doherty, Ben (16 November 2019). "Behrouz Boochani, brutalised but not beaten by Manus, says simply: 'I did my best'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  12. ^ Matthews, Philip (9 September 2020). "Virus expert Siouxsie Wiles to debate 'the end of the world' at Christchurch book festival". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  13. ^ Matthews, Philip (6 July 2021). "Words and music in a time of Covid". The Press. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
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