Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival 2025 program announced

The 2025 program for the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival, which runs 17–19 October, has been announced.

Across the program, over 50 local authors and artists will be speaking at more than 30 events, including workshops, panel discussions, satellite events and a schools program. Among guests are Catherine Chidgey, Becky Manawatu, Apirana Taylor and Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan.

This year’s festival opens with ‘Ahi Kā — The Long Burning Fire’, a dinner event around a fire. Featured at this event are, among others, Taylor, Sullivan, Tāme Iti, Ati Teepa, Nadine Hura and Jeanette Wikaira.

Other panel and conversation topics include ‘World Building at the End of the World’, ‘Telling Truth Through Fiction’, ‘Pasifika Publishing’, and the Hone Tuwhare Trust Poetry Series.

Festival co-chairs Jeanette Wikaira and Mary McLaughlin said, ‘Our 2025 theme is Ahi Kā, keeping the home fires burning. This theme acknowledges the rich literary and creative vein that runs through our city – Ōtepoti Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature – and the incredible writers and poets who keep our literary community thriving. We aim to ignite hearts and minds through imagination, ideas and creativity with a big dose of manaakitaka – southern hospitality straight from our hearth.’

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

Category: Festivals Local news