Our guest writers this year have dozens of literary awards between them, but thanks to the New Zealand Society of Authors Caroline Barron and Fiona Kidman now have two more to add to the collection.
That’s because Caroline and Dame Fiona were announced as winners at the NZSA Heritage Book Awards in Christchurch on Thursday.
Caroline, who will lead a sold-out writing workshop at our festival, won the Non-Fiction award for her honest and unsparing book Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. In 2018 she was a Short Prose winner in the same awards with an excerpt from the book.
Dame Fiona was announced as the winner of the Fiction section for All the Way to Summer, a collection of short stories released this year to mark her 80th birthday. At the festival she will talk with local journalist Debbie Jamieson about the book’s themes of love and longing.
Interestingly, two more writers who feature at this year’s festival were among the judges. Dr Maxine Alterio, who was a guest speaker last year, will interview historical novelists Tess Redgrave and Sandra Arnold this year. She also judged our short story competition. Becky Manawatu will talk with Debbie Jamieson about her searing debut novel Auē.
The Queenstown Writers Festival runs from 5 to 8 November 2020 at three venues. Tickets are still available for most events – buy three tickets and you’ll get 20% discount!
More information in the programme.
