Inaugural New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival

Media Release

8 August 2013

Inaugural New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival to celebrate top authors and poets

New Zealand’s top authors will be celebrated in their home towns as part of the first ever New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival, from 12-18 August.

The finalists for the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards were announced in July - with the winners, including the supreme winner, to be announced at a ceremony in Auckland on 28 August.

The New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival will build on the success of the National Poetry Day event, which has celebrated New Zealand poetry and poets since 1998.  The Festival expands that celebration to include fiction and non-fiction authors.

National Poetry Day itself – which takes place during the Festival on 16 August – will feature 57 wide-ranging poetry events; including Poetry Flashmobs in Nelson, a poetry street performance with visual projections in Whanganui, and pavement poetry event ‘Chalking Station Square’ in Newmarket, Auckland.

There will also be 9 hometown events during the Festival in bookstores around New Zealand, featuring finalists in the fiction, non-fiction and poetry categories.

For a full list of Festival and Poetry Day events, visit www.booksellers.co.nz/festival

Festival coordinator Siobhan Harvey says the week-long festival will be a huge celebration of New Zealand writers and writing and its on-going ability to connect with individuals and communities the length of the country.

“This year there really is something book and poetry-themed on offer for everyone. This series of events reaches out to people; where age or geographical location isn't a barrier.

“That's the biggest buzz in being New Zealand Post Book Festival coordinator, seeing literature of all kinds, including poetry happen everywhere,” Siobhan Harvey says.

ENDS

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