Over the weekend I caught two excellent sessions at the Featherston Booktown Festival 2021. It was a real privilege to experience the festival in person, listen to some fascinating discussions, meet some great people, wander around the town’s many book shops, have coffee, and eat a delicious pub lunch.

The first session was Catherine Robertson discussing wildly differing roads to publication with three authors at the gorgeous Royal Hotel, Featherston. Rachel Kerr approached a small traditional publisher to publish her novel ‘Victory Park‘; Philippa Cameron was discovered by a large traditional publisher via her Instagram, and together published ‘A High Country Life‘; and Lucy Revill took charge herself, crowdfunding and self-publishing ‘The Residents: Made in Wellington‘.

The second session was John Campbell (NZ TV/radio royalty) discussing ‘Stories for Short Attention Spans’ with three essayists (Ashleigh Young, Noelle McCarthy, Madison Hamill) and one novelist (Carl Shuker). An action-packed hour in front of a full house at the Anzac Hall.

I can’t wait to visit again for next year’s festival! But until then, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve joined any great literary events recently, either online or in person. Drop me a message!