Verb Wellington Announce Three New Events!

Verb Wellington is thrilled to host a series of unmissable events across April and May featuring three engaging and inspiring authors.

The first of the event trifecta is an in-conversation with Rt. Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern on her remarkable memoir A Different Kind of Power, which has been shortlisted for an Ockham New Zealand Book Award and is the biggest-selling locally published book of the year as well as an international bestseller. Ardern will join writer Emily Perkins to discuss the memoir and offer insights into leadership shaped by compassion and courage.

In this wide-ranging event, Ardern will reflect on her childhood, her path to becoming New Zealand’s youngest female prime minister, her experience as only the second world leader to give birth while in office, and the extraordinary events she navigated during her time in leadership. Audiences will be able to experience this illuminating conversation at the stunning Embassy Theatre in Wellington on Wednesday 15 April 2026.

Prolific author R.F. Kuang, known for the award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling novels Yellowface and Babel, joins Brannavan Gnanalingam to discuss her gripping and darkly funny new novel Katabasis. The book sits firmly within the hugely popular dark academia meets fantasy genre and follows two Cambridge graduate rivals who journey into hell in search of their Professor.

Kuang has been one of the most talked-about writers of recent years, publishing six bestselling novels in just seven years. She is a trailblazing author celebrated for her sharp, intellectually driven satire, her bold imaginative worlds, and her creation of complex, unforgettable characters. This magnetic event for fiction and fantasy fans will take place on Tuesday 19 May at Student Union Building Kelburn Parade.

To complete Verb’s autumn event series, we are delighted to welcome Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate), Michael Pedersen, an award-winning author and poet whose work has drawn praise from Stephen Fry, Irvine Welsh, Bernadine Evaristo, and many others.

Pedersen will discuss his sumptuous debut novel Muckle Flugga, which has earned rave reviews, multiple award nominations, and is already being adapted for the stage. The novel is also on its way to readers around the world, with translations underway in German, French, Spanish, Italian, and more.

Renowned for his lyrical, absorbing prose, Pedersen will be in conversation with Harry Ricketts about this atmospheric, windswept and wildly imaginative work, as well as the inspirations behind it. Muckle Flugga explores the complexities of familial bonds, love, grief, and the human longing for connection delivered with Pedersen’s trademark humour, tenderness, and gorgeous poetic style. We look forward to welcoming audiences to this event at Meow on 13 May.

Three remarkable writers, three memorable conversations, this series of events is bursting with imagination and insight and promise to be a real highlight of the 2026 arts calendar. Tickets go on sale 12 March and can be purchased through verbwellington.nz

Note:

Jacinda Ardern: A Different Kind of Power

15 April, Embassy Theatre, 6pm

Muckle Flugga: Michael Pedersen

13 May, Meow, 6pm

R.F Kuang: Katabasis

19 May, Student Union Building Kelburn Parade, 6pm

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