{"id":33022,"date":"2016-08-29T06:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T18:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33022"},"modified":"2016-08-28T14:00:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T02:00:26","slug":"wordchristchurch-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/08\/29\/wordchristchurch-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"WORDChristchurch Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wordCHCH-HomeImage\"<\/a>From the 24-28 August, despite some fairly bleak weather, the Christchurch books, writers, and readers festival still managed to rock.<\/p>\n

Because I am still recovering from being ill these past few weeks I didn’t get along to as many events as I would have liked, but I did manage to make it to a few, as well as catching up with some friends-in-writing in person. This is my very first ever selfie with YA writers Joanna Orwin and Rachael Craw.<\/p>\n

\"Joanna,<\/a>L-R: Joanna, Rachael, me<\/p>\n

We had just been attending the Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture<\/strong> by David Levithan, speaking among many other matters of the way stories shape us and the part literature can play in building empathy and greater understanding of our common humanity. An inspirational hour.<\/p>\n

\"Ted<\/a>

Ted Dawe, reading<\/p><\/div>\n

From there it was on to Teens In Peril<\/strong>, with readings by four of NZ’s best-known YA authors from their latest work: Rachael Craw (Shield<\/em>), Ted Dawe (Into the World<\/em>), Jane Higgins (Havoc<\/em>) and Anna MacKenzie (Evie’s War<\/em>). From contemporary NZ realism to nursing in WW1, future dystopia to a scifi action thriller, these were all gripping readings. Interestingly, too, these writers, too, spoke of stories shaping us, not just the other way around.<\/p>\n

I also caught author (non fiction and crime) and human rights advocate, Tara Moss, in conversation with The Press’s Joanna Norris on her new book, Speaking Out<\/em>. She took us through the parlous statistics on just where women have really (not) got to in terms of an equal place in society (yep, that’s even western societies) and why it’s important to keep Speaking Out<\/strong> — the title of both her book and the session.<\/p>\n

\"Tara<\/a>

Tara Moss in conversation with Joanna Norris.<\/p><\/div>\n

I also managed to catch the National Poetry Day event<\/strong> on Friday with some great guest poets reading, as well as hearing from the winners of the Christchurch Writers’ Institute Poetry Day competition — I was impressed by the strength and standard of what I heard read.<\/p>\n

I’ll catch you up on my own event, Making It Overseas<\/strong>, with Tania Roxborough, Ben Sanders, and convenor Vanda Symon, on Wednesday — I hope with a few pics as well! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the 24-28 August, despite some fairly bleak weather, the Christchurch books, writers, and readers festival still managed to rock. Because I am still recovering from being ill these past few weeks I didn’t get along to as many events as I would have liked, but I did manage to make it to a few, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-friends","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33022"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33030,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33022\/revisions\/33030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}