WORD Christchurch 2025 program announced

WORD Christchurch Festival, which will run this year 27–31 August, has announced its full program.

With the theme ‘Share the Joy of Words’, this year’s program includes over 90 writers and speakers and will take place online and across Ōtautahi Christchurch.

The festival will open with word quiz night ‘Lost the Plot!’ and youth poetry slam competition ‘Word’ and close with ‘Book (Fight) Club’. Also among festival sessions are workshops and masterclasses, a schools day for both primary and secondary students, a poetry dating show, music performances and discussions, and a fashion show from the Eden Hore Central Otago Collection.

Among international and Australian guests attending this year’s festival are US fantasy author Andrea Eames, Booker Prize–shortlisted writer Charlotte Wood, and Australian First Nations poet and artist Dominic Guerrera.

Aotearoa New Zealand–based writers on this year’s program include Catherine Chidgey, Chris Tse, Tom Sainsbury, Becky Manawatu, Steve Braunias, Ali Mau, Rosemary Baird, Rachael Paris and Brannavan Gnanalingam.

The 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards will also be presented as a festival satellite event on 25 September.

WORD Christchurch began in 1996 as Books and Beyond. The organisation ran the Press Christchurch Writers Festival. In 2014, the festival was rebranded to WORD Christchurch Festival. Then, in 2021, the festival moved from biennial to annual.

More information, including the full program, is available on the festival website.

Category: Festivals Local news