Our Authors at Auckland Writers Festival 2025
Ian Rankin
Sir Ian Rankin is the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. In 2024, a new Rebus six-part TV series was broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Sir Ian Rankin is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, including the Diamond Dagger, the UK's most prestigious award for crime fiction. In the United States, he has won the celebrated Edgar Award and been shortlisted for the Anthony Award. In Europe, he has won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the German Deutscher Krimipreis. In 2022, he received a knighthood for his services to Literature and Charities.
EVENTS
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
FRI, 16 MAY 2025: 10:00am – 11:00am
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
IAN RANKIN
SAT, 17 MAY 2025: 8:45pm – 9:45pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Chris Whitaker
Chris Whitaker is the author of the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling All The Colours Of The Dark. His other acclaimed and bestselling novels include We Begin At The End, Tall Oaks, and All The Wicked Girls. Chris's novels have been translated into thirty languages and have won the CWA Gold Dagger, the CWA John Creasey Dagger, the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year, the Ned Kelly International Award, and numerous awards around the world. His books have also been selected for the Read With Jenna Book Club, Waterstones Thriller of the Month, Barnes & Noble Book Club, Good Morning America Book Club, and for BBC2's Between The Covers. All The Colours Of The Dark is currently in development with Universal Pictures. Chris was born in London and lives in the UK.
THE SCENE OF THE
CRIME
FRI, 16 MAY 2025: 10:00am – 11:00am
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
A Voice for the Lost: Jacqueline Bublitz and Chris Whitaker
SUN, 18 MAY 2025: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre
David Nicholls
David Nicholls is the bestselling author of Starter for Ten, The Understudy, One Day, Us, Sweet Sorrow and You Are Here. One Day was published in 2009 to extraordinary critical acclaim: translated into 40 languages, it became a global bestseller, selling millions of copies worldwide. His fourth novel, Us, was longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. On screen, David has written adaptations of Far from the Madding Crowd, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Great Expectations, as well as of his own novels, Starter for Ten, One Day and Us. His adaptation of Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for an Emmy and won him a BAFTA for best writer. The Netflix adaptation of One Day was executive-produced by David.
EVENTS
Festival Gala Night: The Moment I Knew
Thu, 15 May 2025: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Unfinished Business?
Sat, 17 May 2025: 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Airanga Ngarewa
Airana Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine) was born and raised in Pātea, a small town in Aotearoa famous for the song Poi E. He was a reluctant reader turned cage fighter, only discovering his love of books when he put the gloves down.
His first novel, The Bone Tree, published in 2023 was the number-one bestselling book of fiction in New Zealand for 11 weeks. His second book, Pātea Boys, was released in 2024. It is a collection of stories about young boys and girls getting into mischief. The book reads one way in English and the other in te Reo Māori.
EVENTS
Kaliane Bradley
Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor. Her debut novel, The Ministry of Time, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, was named one of the Observer’s best new novels for 2024, and sold in 27 languages. The novel has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature (among other prizes) and was the Dymocks Book of the Year. She won the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize and the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize. Her fiction has appeared in Catapult, Electric Literature and Extra Teeth, among others. She works in publishing and lives in London with her husband.
EVENTS
Kaliane Bradley
Sat, 17 May 2025: 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Lars Mytting
Lars Mytting, a novelist and journalist, was born in Fåvang, Norway, in 1968. His novel The Sixteen Trees of the Somme) was awarded the Norwegian National Booksellers' Award and has been bought for film. Norwegian Wood has become an international bestseller, and was the Bookseller Industry Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2016. His novel The Bell in the Lake was a number one bestseller in Norway and nominated for the Norwegian National Bookseller's Award 2018.
EVENTS
Meet the Nordic Delegation
Fri, 16 May 2025
11:30am – 12:30pm
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre
Norse Mythology & Folklore
Sun, 18 May 2025
10:00am – 11:00am
Waitākere Room, Aotea Centre
Marcel Dirsus
Dr. Marcel Dirsus is a political scientist and the author of How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive. Dirsus writes The Hundred, a politics newsletter. In addition to being a Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) in Germany, he is a member of the Standing Expert Committee Terrorism and Interior Security at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. He has advised democratic governments, foundations, multinational corporations and international organisations like NATO and the OECD.
EVENTS
How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive
Sat, 17 May 2025
10:00am – 11:00am
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre
2025: A Billionaire’s Playground?
Sat, 17 May 2025
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
No Stupid Questions: Marcel Dirsus
Sun, 18 May 2025
12:30pm – 1:00pm
KŌRERO CORNER LEVEL 5
Saraid de Silva
Saraid de Silva is a Sri Lankan Pakeha writer and creative based in Tamaki Makaurau. She is the co-creator and co-host of Radio New Zealand's Conversations with My Immigrant Parents, a podcast and video series in which immigrant whanau across Aotearoa have frank conversations about love, ancestry, home, food, expectation and acceptance.
Saraid was a contributor to A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, and her work has been featured in The Spinoff, Fashion Quarterly, Pantograph Punch and Tupuranga Journal.
Events
Kaliane Bradley: The Ministry of Time
Sat, 17 May 2025
2:30pm – 3:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Shilo Kino
Shilo Kino (Ngā Puhi, Tainui) is a Newsroom columnist and a contributor to The NZ Herald, The Spinoff, The Pantograph Punch and The Guardian. She is taking an immersion te reo Māori course and making the podcast Back To Kura, and is the author of children’s book The Pōrangi Boy. All That We Know is her second book. She currently lives in Tamaki Makaurau.
EVENTS
Monty Soutar
Fri, 16 May 2025
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Tangata Tiriti for Te Tiriti
Sun, 18 May 2025
10:00am – 11:00am
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Sun, 18 May 2025
5:30pm – 6:30pm
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre
Philippe Sands
Philippe Sands KC FRSL FBA is Professor of Law at University College London and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard. He is a practising barrister at 11KBW, appears as counsel before the International Court of Justice and other international courts and tribunals, and sits as an international arbitrator. His books include East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide (2016), The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive (2020) and The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy (2022). His new book, 38 Londres Street: On Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia, will be published in April 2025. He is translated in more than 30 languages.
EVENTS
Laws & Legacy: Confronting Colonisation
Fri, 16 May 2025
5:30pm – 6:30pm
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre
Trump: The Next Four Years
Sat, 17 May 2025
11:30am – 12:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Philippe Sands
Sun, 18 May 2025
2:30pm – 3:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Jessica Townsend
Jessica Townsend lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Her pet fascinations include public transport, ancient cities, hotels, opera singers, Halloween, secret societies and gigantic cats - all of which have weaselled their way into Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, her award-winning first novel released in 2017. This record-breaking and New York Times bestselling series continues with Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow, Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow and Silverbon: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow was the biggest-selling Australian children's debut since records began. It has won the 2018 ABIA for Book of the Year, Book of the Year for Younger Readers and Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year; the 2018 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year and Children's Category; the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction; the 2018 Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Younger Fiction and was named a CBCA Notable book.
EVENTS
Nevermoor Unveiled
Sat, 17 May 2025
11:30am – 12:30pm
Limelight Room, Aotea Centre
Alba Gil Celdran
Alba is from Barcelona, Spain. Now based in Auckland she works as an art teacher for adults. She has a Bachelor Degree in Criminology and has worked as a lab technician.
After studying at Browne School of Arts and participating in every illustration workshop in Auckland, she finally decided to change the pipette for the brush!
She loves creating peculiar characters in humorous situations that both kids and adults can enjoy. She really likes working with different styles and different media and feels very comfortable trying new techniques.
EVENTS
A Big Night Out for Little Bookworms
Fri, 16 May 2025
6:00pm – 7:15pm
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre
Harriet Walter
Dame Harriet Walter DBE is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations, including a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama. In 2024 she received a BAFTA TV Award nomination for her role in the international hit series Succession and has been seen regularly on our screens in Killing Eve, Ted Lasso, Silo, and This is Going to Hurt to name a few.
EVENTS
Festival Gala Night: The Moment I Knew
Thu, 15 May 2025
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Harriet Walter: All the World’s a Stage
Fri, 16 May 2025
8:30pm – 9:45pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
Rachel Paris
Rachel Paris’s debut novel, See How They Fall, will be published in 2025 by Hachette and Moa Press in Australasia and by Penzler Publishers in the United States. In 2024, Rachel graduated with a Master of Creative Writing (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland and received the Phoenix Prize for the best creative portfolio.
Rachel came to writing after an international legal career. She holds a Master of Laws from Harvard, and practised law in London for many years before returning to her native Aotearoa. For almost a decade, she was a banking and finance partner at a major law firm and received a Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award for her advocacy work for the advancement of female lawyers. Rachel also served for 10 years as a trustee of Silo Theatre.
Rachel lives in Tāmaki Makaurau with her family.
EVENTS
The Ranks of the Rich
Fri, 16 May 2025
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Waitākere Room, Aotea Centre
Donovan Te Ahunui Farnham
He kaiako, he mātanga hāpai, he kaiārahi rautaki hoki a Te Ahunui i roto i te ao mātauranga. I kuraina katoatia ia ki te reo Māori, mai i te kōhanga reo, ā puta noa tōna ihu i te whare wānanga. He ika a Whiro a Te Ahunui i Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau (Bachelor of Education: Huarahi Maori Specialisation) me Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (Te Panekiretanga o te Reo). Kua whai raihana hoki ia ki te whakawhiti reo, ki te whakamāori, ki te whakapākehā anō hoki (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori).
Donovan is a te reo Māori teacher, a consultant, and a strategic leader in Māori-medium education. His education was through the medium of te reo Māori, from kōhanga reo, through to university. Donovan is an alumnus of The University of Auckland (Bachelor of Education: Huarahi Māori Specialisation) and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (Te Panekiretanga o te Reo). He is also a licensed interpreter and translator of the Māori language (Māori Language Commission).
EVENTS
Whānau: Reo Māori Phrases to Share
Fri, 16 May 2025
10:00am – 11:00am
Limelight Room, Aotea Centre
