Our Authors at Marlborough Book Festival 2025!
Marlborough Book Festival is on 18 - 20 July 2025 - check out the Hachette and Moa Press lineup below or download the full programme here.
EVENTS
Opening Night - Stories Told Live
Friday 18 July 2025: 6.15pm-8.30pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Make It Make Sense
Sunday 20 July 2025: 3.45pm-4.45pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Lucy Blakiston
Lucy Blakiston is the co-author of Make It Make Sense, a collection of essays written alongside her friend, the poet and writer Bel Hawkins. Lucy is the CEO and editorial director of global media platform Shit You Should Care About (SYSCA). SYSCA helps primarily young people make sense of the news through its popular Instagram account (with 3.4 million followers), a daily newsletter with over 230 thousand daily readers, and two podcasts (currently on hiatus). Lucy has been recognised internationally for her work—she was named on the News Media Association’s Global 30 Under 30 list in 2023 and nominated for Young New Zealander of the Year in 2021. She regularly speaks and advises on engaging Gen Z audiences globally. Lucy is from Blenheim and was head girl at Marlborough Girls’ College in 2015.
Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh is New Zealand’s rock star of romance and a bestselling thriller author with more than three dozen novels and a devoted global following. Best known for her Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter, and Rock Kiss series, Nalini has captured the hearts of readers worldwide. Since her debut in 2003, her books have been translated into more than 20 languages, including German, French, Japanese, and Turkish. Nalini is a two-time Sir Julius Vogel Award winner. Her novel Alpha Night won Favourite Paranormal Romance at the 2020 Australian Romance Readers Awards, and her 2021 thriller Quiet in Her Bones was a finalist for Best Crime Novel at the 2022 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Born in Fiji and raised in Auckland, she holds an honours degree in Law and English Literature from the University of Auckland.
EVENTS
Romance Rockstar, Crime Queen
Saturday 19 July 2025: 6.15pm-7.45pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Workshop: Worlds of her Own
Saturday 19 July 2025: 10.30am-12.30pm
Marlborough District Library
Book Chats with Book Lovers
Sunday 20 July 2025: 12:00pm-1:00pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
EVENTS
Amma
Saturday 19 July 2025: 1.15pm-2.15pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Amplifying New Voices
Sunday 20 July 2025: 2.30pm-3.30pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Saraid de Silva
Saraid de Silva is a Sri Lankan Pākehā writer and creative based in Tāmaki Makaurau. In 2025 her debut novel Amma was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and named one of the best NZ books of 2024 by The Spinoff and Newsroom. She was the co-creator and co-host of Radio New Zealand's Conversations With My Immigrant Parents, a podcast and video series in which immigrant whānau across Aotearoa have conversations about love, ancestry, home, food, expectation and acceptance.
Olivia Spooner
Olivia Spooner is the number one bestselling author of two historical fiction novels, The Girl from London and The Songbirds of Florence. Olivia is also the author of two contemporary novels, A Way Back to Happy and A Bumpy Year. She has worked as a Community and Hospital Pharmacist in Auckland, Wellington and London and gone on to complete a number of writing courses, including a Masters in Creative Writing at AUT and has had several short stories published. Olivia lives with her husband and three children in Auckland, and runs an independent bookstore The Booklover Bookshop in the seaside suburb of Milford. She is the host of the Booklover Banter podcast where she chats with other booksellers, authors, publishers and others working in the book industry.
EVENTS
Wartime Stories
Saturday 19 July 2025: 5:00pm-6:00pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
Book Chats with Book Lovers
Sunday 20 July 2025: 12:00pm-1:00pm
ASB Theatre Marlborough
