2009 is the tenth anniversary year of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival! Created in 1999 by a committed group of writers and book lovers eager for an Auckland festival of ideas celebrating books and reading, this year the Festival is on from 13 -17 May 2009 at the Aotea Centre.
Our library cousins from Christchurch City Libraries always come up and write a comprehensive report on the event so there's no need to miss out if you can't make it into the city. Here's their report from last year.
This year there are a number of free events along with ticketed events.
One of the free events is "Can you hear me Whangaparaoa?" Friday 15 May 1.30pm Lower NZI Room – Aotea Centre.
"Janet Frame and Charles Brasch in their own words. The Janet Frame Literary Trust presents the première of a tribute session in honour of Charles Brasch's 100th anniversary in 2009. This performance consists entirely of original passages written by Janet Frame and Charles Brasch, sourced mostly from their unpublished letters.
The readings portray the relationship between Frame and Brasch, and range from their early correspondence concerning Frame's submissions to Landfall in the 1940s, to Frame's reminiscences about Brasch after his death in 1973. "Can you hear me, Whangaparaoa?" is the first line of a poem Brasch dedicated to Frame on his deathbed. The readings were selected by Frame executors Pamela Gordon and Denis Harold with the cooperation of Brasch executor Alan Roddick."
We've all heard of Janet Frame (and her house on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula) but Charles Brasch was a mystery to me until I looked him up. Here's a description from a past exhibition at the University of Otago. "Charles Brasch (1909-1973), literary editor, poet and patron. Born in Dunedin, and educated at Waitaki Boys' High School and St John's College, Oxford. He lived abroad for many years working as a teacher in England, as an archaeologist in Egypt, and as a civil servant in wartime London. He returned to New Zealand and founded Landfall in 1947."
Next I checked the library catalogue and found a couple of titles that look interesting. I'll let you know what they're like.
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