Whanganui festival features Ockham winners Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku, Damien Wilkins
Damien Wilkins is in the speaker line-up for the Lit Whanganui 2025 booklovers festival. Photo / Ebony Lamb
Whanganui’s annual booklovers festival will return in September with two major award-winning authors in the line-up.
Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku and Damien Wilkins, both of whom won awards at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards on May 14, will speak at the festival.
“We knew we were on to a good thing when we made our author selection and it is wonderful to have this confirmed with not one but two Ockham winners speaking at Whanganui’s booklovers’ festival this year,” Lit Whanganui chair Karen White said.
“The Ockhams are New Zealand’s top book awards, the literary equivalent of the Oscars, so it’s a huge deal to have these two celebrated authors headlining our festival.”
Wilkins is the author of 14 books, the most recent of which, Delirious, won the 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockhams.
He is the director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.
Aauthor Witi Ihimaera called Delirious a novel of “grace and humanity”.
“These are flawed and immensely satisfying characters – you close your eyes at the faulty, circuitous routes they take. Delirious is a marvel of a book,” he said.
Te Awekōtuku is an academic specialising in Māori cultural issues, a lesbian activist, and the first Māori woman to earn a PhD.
Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku won the General Non-Fiction award at the Ockham Awards for her memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery. Photo / Tracey Scott
She was awarded the General Non-Fiction Award for her memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery.
Novelist and poet Dame Fiona Kidman called the memoir “extraordinary, vivid, riveting”.
“I learned, I laughed and I wept over this book,” she said.
Eight more acclaimed speakers for the Whanganui festival will be announced in June, with the full event programme released in July.
“We can assure you that we have some exciting surprises in store,” White said.
“There’s a fantastic mix of voices and genres, something for every kind of booklover, as well as some interesting events in the pipeline.”
The festival was a good reason for out-of-towners to visit Whanganui, she said.
“This is the perfect excuse to start planning a weekend escape to one of New Zealand’s most creative and culturally rich cities.
“With numerous literary festival events hosted at the iconic Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, it’s also a great opportunity to explore this stunning gallery, which has recently reopened after a major redevelopment and to soak up the charms of Whanganui’s heritage and cultural precinct with Whanganui Regional Museum nearby.”
The festival is on September 19-21. People can keep up-to-date with festival announcements by signing up for the Lit Whanganui e-newsletter at literaryfestival.co.nz and following Lit Whanganui on social media.
