Name: Booktown - Bookten Gala Night
Start: 2025-05-10T18:00:00+12:00
Location: Anzac Hall, 62 Bell St, Featherston 5710

Let’s celebrate the inspiring Pasifika writer and poet Albert Wendt, and Featherston Booktown’s 10th birthday.
Join us for Pasifika-inspired food when you arrive.
Pasifika Power: Celebrating Albert Wendt
Albert Wendt ONZ CNZM was one of the first writers to weave words into written stories where Pasifika people could see themselves, hear their own voices and glimpse the future. Maualaivao Albert Wendt’s legacy as the forefather of Pacific literature spans more than half a century and stretches across Oceania.
We are proud this includes our corner of the world, as Maualaivao spent a year as a student teacher at Greytown’s Kuranui College.
A panel of leading Pacific writers — Selina Tusitala Marsh, Tusiata Avia, Victor Rodger, Barbara Dreaver, Karlo Mila and Oscar Kightley — will share their favourite excerpts from Maualaivao’s works and a few of their own.
We are welcomed by Wairarapa Pacific community leader, Mena Antonio.
In partnership with the Creative New Zealand Pasifika Arts Strategy Team.
Let’s blow out the candles and cut the cake to celebrate Featherston Booktown turning 10!
Ten Out Of Ten
For 10 years Featherston Booktown has featured the best of this country’s literary talent.
Our gala night birthday party will gather 10 of the hundreds of writers who’ve yarned and shared with us so generously.
And now we’ve asked them to bring one more gift to the table. Each one will read from work – published or unpublished – that they think best expresses them and what they want to say to the world.
Anything goes!
The 10 out of 10 are: • beloved writer and writer advocate Dame Fiona Kidman • West Coast fiction sensation Becky Manawatu (Kāi Tahu) • Poet Laureate Chris Tse • international academic and activist Marilyn Waring • provocative poet Tusiata Avia • rock icon and writer Shayne P Carter (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) • short story master Owen Marshall • broadcaster and memoirist Noelle McCarthy • playwright and producer Victor Rodger • poet, illustrator and storyteller Selina Tusitala Marsh. Chaired by Featherston Booktown’s Peter Biggs.
Generously sponsored by Luke Pierson.