Last weekend, a Writers’ Festival was held in Christchurch. The earthquakes of 2010 meant that the festival was cancelled that year so people have waited a long time for this event. The various sessions were held in the Geo Dome in Hagley Park and the nearby YMCA building. The programme ran for several days and was sponsored by ‘The Press’, the Christchurch daily newspaper.
Many kinds of writing and topics featured including biography, memoir, fiction, poetry, travel, food, history and politics. There were talks by New Zealand authors as well as authors from overseas. Also there were panel discussions, poetry readings and writers’ workshops, to name but a few of the events. Many of the new books by the visiting authors were available for people to buy.
New Zealand has a strong tradition of reading so events like this festival really help to encourage reading and writing. Other cities in New Zealand also host Writers’ Festivals in other years. There was a great atmosphere at the latest Writers’ Festival in Christchurch and people obviously enjoyed themselves.
Vocabulary
Geo dome – a tent which is the shape of half a sphere
featured – were an important part
biography – the life story of a person written by another person
memoir – a person’s life story told by him/herself, similar to an autobiography
panel discussion- several speakers talk about a topic
writers’ workshop – a practical writing session
Thanks to Wendy Kissel for this contribution.