On Being Chinese - Poetry

5 May

This event showcases New Zealand Poet Laureate Chris Tse, writer, performer, poet Zephyr Zhang and award-winning playwright, dramaturge and performance poet Nathan Joe. Each poet will read a few of their pieces of writing, including a response to Guo Pei: Fashion, Art, Fantasy 郭培：时装之幻

SHOULD I HAVE READ THAT?

Friday 17 May

Eight writers share the moment they realized they were ‘reading beyond their age’... Saraid de Silva, Rachael King, Sam Orchard, Nathan Joe, James Wenley, Jess Karamjeet and romesh dissanayake will be your confessors for the evening, alongside event curator Claudia Jardine as MC.

Location: Rocketman — 10 Roukai Lane

Part of Auckland Writers Festivals’s Streetside: Britomart programme

Let's Get Physical: The Importance of Horny Stories

18 May

In Aotearoa New Zealand, award-winning playwright Nathan Joe (Scenes From A Yellow Peril) commented that: “I always find myself drawn back towards smut and sexuality...the feeling of horniness as well as horny representation.” Halfway across the earth in Scotland, poet and author K Patrick (Mrs S) similarly said “sexuality can also be expressed in a really intense and sudden and electrifying way … that’s why I started using the word ‘horny’ instead of ‘erotic’”. And away from the literary world, Elina Ashembayeva (Storyo) advocates for more conversations and sex positive stories around pleasure.

Ockham NZ Book Awards shortlisted writer Pip Adam (Audition) sits down with these three storytellers to investigate the empowering nature of writing sex, representing queer joy, and why we should all be reading more smut.