The Verb Readers and Writers Festival 2024 Programme is out—now how the heck does one choose?
Last Thursday, the hotly awaited programme for Pōneke’s annual lit festival was unveiled. This year’s Verb Readers and Writers Festival will be officially running from Thursday 7 November to Sunday 10 November, and it is looking to be tasty.
For many of us, Verb is a golden opportunity to engage with the community of people who like books, words, songs—and enjoy thinking critically about all these things! It is an opportunity to learn and celebrate; to support your favourite authors, artists and publishers. In the spirit of this, I am going to share some of my top picks for each day of Verb 2024 (while trying not to sound like a weatherperson on the six o’clock news).
Thursday 7 November is forecasting a reflective conversation between esteemed wāhine Māori Patricia Grace and Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku as they will draw on both personal histories and pivotal events in Aotearoa. We also have Paddy F#$%ing Gower in conversation with Toby Manhire about his journey from youth to his present career. How does one choose?
Personally, I am leaning towards ‘Manu Tīoriori: Songwriting and the world’ to really kick off Verb in a more unconventional fashion (i.e., by not strictly attending a ‘book’ event). ‘Manu Tīoriori’ features Lee Stuart, Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Hinemoana Baker and Kahu Kutia, forming a rich panel of musicians as crafters of written and performative words. They will be looking at how te ao Māori enriches the form of lyricism, and the importance of having true diversity of voices reflected in the arts.
As the festival ramps up it will naturally become So Much More Difficult to decide on what to attend, with a huge selection of events cropping up over the weekend. Friday 8 November welcomes daytime panels on the memoir, publishers championing Indigenous writers, and on editing poetry. The evening eases into a conversation between Booker Prize longlisted poet Elaine Feeney and 2023 Best First Book Award for General Non-Fiction winner Noelle McCarthy; the launch of Carl Shuker’s The Royal Free; the Poetry with Brownies open mic; self-publishing; live anthologising; and a late-night SLIDESHOW SHOWDOWN.
Seriously, there are things to tickle an array of fancies here. Not to be biased, but I will be attending Whitireia’s Publishing’s ‘The Secret Art of Editing Poetry’—sure to be a thrilling conversation on how on earth one edits a form that is so undefinable and fluid. The panel will include the brilliant Adrienne Jansen, Ruby Solly, Josh Toumu’a, Always Becominging, and me (hi!).
As for the evening, I am torn. Shall I go to ‘From Inception to Print, Uninterrupted: All about self-publishing’ led by an inspiring group of Māori practitioners—Kahu Kutia, Meriana Johnsen, Nadia Solomon and Trinity Thompson-Browne? Or perhaps ‘Anthologising in Action: A poetry showcase’, featuring eight immensely talented emerging and established poets working to craft an anthology on the spot? Maybe I can coordinate with someone? Please send me your notes.
Okay, Saturday 9 November has twelve events scheduled, excluding LitCrawl (programme to be announced on 10 October). The good news is that many of them are pretty spread out over the day. Of the morning selection, I am leaning towards ‘Sight Lines’, wherein kaituhi Kirsty Baker and a group of talented contributors discuss a selection of visual works done by women artists—how did these works shape, and how were shaped by, the artists’ views of Aotearoa?
Also on offer in the morning are enriching sessions on expressions of whakapapa on the page and the great worth of continuing the fight for Aotearoa’s conservation and environmental prosperity. The day ripens into an expansive range of kōrero—how the past persists into the present, on essay collections as time capsules, from the team of rangatahi behind the culture mag WOZER, and even a discussion surrounding Ryan Bodman’s Rugby League in New Zealand.
What I am heading to, though, is the ‘future ANCESTORS: LGBTQ+ lineages’ panel at 2:00pm, in collaboration with our very own bad apple and featuring Sinead Overbye, Rangimarie Sophie Jolley and Herbee Bartley. The kaupapa of this discussion is sure to strike some important notes, especially regarding the environment and the current political climate here in Aotearoa.
Also on the Saturday, there is everything from having your cake and eating it too, to adapting a novel to a film, to the annual NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Lecture. I am particularly interested in hearing Shanghai author Danyan Chen’s take on geographical reading—her pull to finish reading the literary beast that is Ulysses while travelling to Ireland? Tell me your secrets. This event is scheduled for 4–5pm, so there’ll be time before LitCrawl . . . which is always my most anticipated part of Verb, with its fluidity, bite-sized discussions, and the accessibility of koha entry.
Sunday 10 November offers a concoction of memoirs unpacked, activism hot topics explored, and a dive into the realm of children’s literature. The latter includes a kōrero with internationally bestselling author Patrick Ness (sure to draw a crowd) and ‘Disability Literati’— a conversation on representation of disabilities in stories for children and youths. Again, a very tough choice, but my literary cocktail of choice would have to be ‘Story Sovereignty as a Living Practice: Trans-Tasman Edition’ at 1:15pm, followed by Talia Marshall and Meriana Johnsen’s kōrero on Whaea Blue, and last (but certainly not least) Johnsen’s evening kōrero with Becky Manawatu on Kataraina, the fresh-off-the-press sequel to Aue.
One small thing I observe is that there are a fair few slots allocated to discussing recently published memoirs. While this is a popular and hugely creditable format—especially given the strong vulnerability and self-assurance required, and the particular platform that the memoir holds for established kaituhi to voice their experiences—it does make me wonder if there could have been more space for others. For instance, it would have been nice to see a bit more in the realm of emerging writers and artists, especially given the rise of numerous small indie publishing collectives over the last couple of years, each with their own kaupapa and redefinings of Aotearoa’s literary landscape. However, as the LitCrawl programme is yet to be released, and this is historically a place where small presses/journals thrive, we are sure to have any lingering hungers attended to.
Whichever events you decide to attend, there’s much to anticipate this Verb Festival. If you haven’t already, it’s definitely worth checking out the 2024 programme yourself—happy planning to all the ambitious lit nerds out there!
You can find the full programme for Verb Readers and Writers Festival on the Verb Wellington website. Most events have an earlybird ticket price of $18, with a few exceptions—so make your picks, quick!
Disclosure: bad apple Lead Editor Damien Levi is one of the programmers for Verb, however, this piece has been independently written by Brooke Soulsby.
