27 Sep 2011
True Stories Told Live
Seven award-winning writers will lay down their pens and step away from their laptops to tell stories the old-fashioned way to raise funds for the Book Council in its first True Stories Told Live event for Wellington.
The Book Council’s True Stories Told Live events have been exhilarating and entertaining sell-out Auckland audiences for the past two years. Now, True Stories comes to Wellington with a stellar literary line-up.
Elizabeth Knox, Kate De Goldi, Neil Cross, Duncan Sarkies, Jenny Pattrick, Craig Cliff and Chris Bourke will have ten minutes each. No notes. No readings. No questions. Just true stories that promise to inspire, entrance and entertain.
The October 6 event (at St Andrew’s on the Terrace) will raise funds for the Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme, which has been bringing books, authors and children together since 1973.
‘At True Stories Told Live, the story must have a beginning, middle and an end, and it must be true, but that’s all’ says the Book Council’s Susanna Andrew.
Andrew says it is the compression, the construction and the sheer originality of each person’s retelling that makes being in the audience so fascinating. ‘The length is too short to be boring, and yet long enough for plot, pace, adventure and humour to sneak in and light up the threads, the contradictions and the beauty of the story.’
Book Council CEO Noel Murphy says he is excited to have some of the biggest names in New Zealand writing come out to raise money for Writers in Schools. ‘We think this programme is about creating the writers and readers of the future, so to have the support of these incredible authors is very special.’
The Book Council’s True Stories Told Live events in Auckland have been sell-out successes. Internationally, live storytelling events are the hot new literary ticket, especially in the US and UK. Trademarked storytelling organizations such as The Moth or The Stoop have been selling out within 48 hours and creating the sort of buzz that rock concerts are usually famous for.
ENDS
True Stories Told Live
Where:St Andrew’s on The Terrace, 30 The Terrace, Wellington
When:OCTOBER 6th
Starts 6.00pm
Tickets:$20.00 or $15.00 for NZBC members, on the door or online at www.bookcouncil.org.nz
Further Information
Writers in Schools
The Book Council’s flagship programme, Writers in Schools, has been encouraging and inspiring children to read, write, create and learn through books for more than 35 years, providing free writer visits for more than 50,000 students each year.
New Zealand Book Council
The New Zealand Book Council is a non-profit organization, whosemission is to inspire more New Zealanders to read more; to promote reading in general, but particularly to represent and promote New Zealand writing and writers.
Writers
Elizabeth Knox is a novelist and Young Adult writer. Her novel The Vintner’s Luck was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and she has received various prizes for her Young Adult novels. Knox was awarded an ONZM for her services to literature in the 2002 New Zealand Queen's Birthday honours list,and received the Arts Foundation’s Laureate Award in 2000.
Kate De Goldi is a novelist and children’s writer. This year De Goldi won the prestigious Corine International Book Prize Young Readers Award.Her novel, The 10pm Question, took out the 2009 New Zealand Post Book of the Year prize. She received the Arts Foundation’s Laureate Award in 2001.
Neil Cross is a scriptwriter and novelist. He has written for Spooks, and is creator and writer of BBC series Luther, which won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for Best Television Teleplay. Cross has written ten novels. Always the Sun was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Jenny Pattrick is best known as a historical novelist. Her novels The Denniston Rose and its sequel Heart of Coal are two of New Zealand’s biggest selling books. Pattrick won the 2009 NZ Post Mansfield Prize.
Duncan Sarkies is a playwright, screen writer and fiction writer. Sarkies wrote the screenplay for the hugely successful Scarfies, and has been a script writer for Flight of the Conchords. His short story collection, stray thoughts and nose bleeds, won the Hubert Church NZSA Best First Book of Fiction Award.
Chris Bourke is a writer, book and music reviewer and radio producer. He won the 2011 New Zealand Post Book of the Year award for Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964.
Craig Cliff is a writer and a Dominion Post columnist. His debut short story collection, A Man Melting, won the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Best First Book Prize in 2011.
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