My weekend at the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival 2025

I had a wonderful time at the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival 2025 – a fabulous and fascinating weekend away with friends!

I’ve pulled together some of my notes and photos from the weekend…

Saturday 10 May 2025

Our first day involved an early start and driving over the hill. We had a quick pitstop for coffee and cheese scones in Greytown, then split up for our various morning sessions around Featherston.

My first session was ‘Going Coastal’ with Damien Wilkins, Mandy Hager, Tracy Farr, and Mary McCallum. The panellists spoke of living on the edges, writing with a mixture of reality and imagination, a sense of place built from memory and history, grief, dogs outnumbering people, fear of the ocean, amusement parks, and much more!

Going Coastal panel of three authors and a publisher sitting on stage

Then I enjoyed a wander around the Bookseller Marquee…

Bookseller Marquee. Big white tent with book stalls and people wandering around looking at books.

… and coffee in the sun on my way to my next session.

Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival 2025 programme held in hand with a takeaway coffee.

‘Aotearoa Over There’ featured Becky Manawatu, Pip Adam, Carl Shuker, and Mary McCallum talking about international editions, translations, audiobooks, ebooks, screenplay adaptations, and just getting NZ books out to the world.

Aotearoa Over There panel of three authors and a publisher sitting on stage

Next up was a long lunch in the sun at a very busy cafe before we had to sneak into the back of the ANZAC Hall for our third session.

‘The Pluck of the Irish’ featured Claire Mabey, John Connell, Noelle McCarthy, and Dame Fiona Kidman discussing their touchstones for Irish literature, connection to the land, the mysticism of Catholicism, motherhood, the majesty of cows, rebellion, and the importance of supporting literature.

Hall full of people seated and listening to a panel on stage including moderator, two authors in person, one author on big screen on video call.

Then I had a wander around Featherston’s many bookshops before I headed to the library for my fourth and final session of the day: a live recording of the ‘Better Off Read’ podcast with Pip Adam and this episode’s guest: Saraid de Silva. They discussed the financial reality of writing, the impact of housing security, the rise of the novella, constraints put on characters fuelling creativity, writers drawing from their own experience, and the ability to imagine up but not necessarily down.

Two authors sitting at table with microphones and headsets, talking.

A busy and inspiring day! Then it was time for a wine and a debrief over dinner at The Royal Hotel before we came back for more sessions the next day!

Sunday 11 May 2025

Sunday started with an overwhelmed eatery, inhaling our eggs bennies in under two minutes, then hurtling towards our first session of the day.

‘Rogernomics: 40 Years On and its effect on the Wairarapa’ featured six panellists – Richard Prebble, Marilyn Waring, Rick Barker, Tracy Watkins, Liz Mellish, and Bob Francis – sharing many fascinating insights, reflections, and brilliant one-liners.

Political panel with one moderator and five panellists sitting on stage in front of a seated crowd

Before my next session, I warmed up in the sun and befriended an elderly Corgi who was having the best time rolling around in the wet grass. Unfortunately no pictures of my new friend as I was too busy supplying the requested pats.

Next up was ‘Criminal Minds’ with Gareth and Louise Ward (The Bookshop Detectives), Cristina Sanders, and Claire Baylis. Their talk featured a dead body on the beach, a lot of murders, rolling the dice, a courtroom drama from the perspective of the jurors, dark crime handled with a light touch, leaving it up to the readers to decide how bad the bad guys are, knowing of the crimes but not yet who is doing them or why, asking where the line lies, research, real people and situations informing fictional stories, going down historical rabbit holes, work experience as research, and people behaving badly.