Writers on Mondays
A series of events highlighting the very latest work from Aotearoa New Zealand writers. A lively and stimulating way to begin the week—and it’s free!
Every Monday from 12.15–1.15pm
Download the current programme (1.5MB PDF)
July—September 2026 programme
6 July
Lucky Creatures and Childish Palates: Joseph Trinidad and Shariff Burke
Two fresh new immigrant voices burst onto Aotearoa's literary scene this year, offering rich, delicious, challenging, and vibrant tales. At the launch of his short story collection, Childish Palate, Shariff Burke said: "It is through the emotional truth of outsiders in this city that we glimpse…who we might want to be, of freedom, of possibility, and of the things that get in its way—what we hold in, what we give up." Those words are also apt for Joseph Trinidad's essay collection, Lucky Creatures, winner of the 2023 Adam Foundation Prize and the inaugural Sarabande Prize. They join Tina Makereti in a conversation about food, memory, belonging, love, and quiet revolutions.
13 July
The Aliveness of Things: Haro Lee, Helen Rickerby, and Airini Beautrais
Deubt poet Haro Lee's Watching Television in a Love Motel takes on self, family, and past through the cultural lens of TV. Helen Rickerby's genre-bending poetic memoir, My Bourgeois Apocalypse, is made with fragments from journals of the 'weird years', including the pandemic, while Airini Beautrais's return to poetry finds her crafting portraits of an uneasy time in The Salt Quilt, both sharp-witted and self-aware. These three innovative poets are joined by Chris Tse for a conversation about bending poetic form to make past and future come alive.
20 July
Night, Ma: Elizabeth Knox
Acclaimed novelist Elizabeth Knox's brilliant, unflinching and beautiful memoir, Night, Ma, was 12 years in the making. It tells the story of three-and-half years of calamity in which her sister suffered a psychotic break, her husband's brother died by violence, her mother was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and life as she thought she knew it came undone. She appears in conversation with Ingrid Horrocks to discuss illness, family, care, love, how we story our lives, the art and ethics of memoir, and the loneliness of unutterable experiences.
27 July
Small Maps of the Heart: Ingrid Horrocks and Lawrence Patchett
Ingrid Horrocks's Acorn Prize-winning book All Her Lives explores the layered selfhood of women across generations in stories of defiance, love, and hope against the backdrop of political crises, from the French Revolution to climate change. Have This Heart sees Lawrence Patchett apply an unwavering gaze to contemporary men at work, examining privilege and upheaval, parenthood, and patriarchy. They join fellow award-winning short fiction writer Anthony Lapwood to discuss the art of the short story and writing both private and public lives.
3 August
Poetry—What's It For?: Tusiata Avia
The iconic Tusiata Avia (MNZM, Arts Foundation Laureate and winner of a roll call of awards including the Prime Minister's Award for Poetry, a CNZ senior Pacific Artist award, and a Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry), has been making poetic waves in Aotearoa since her debut collection Wild Dogs Under My Skirt (2004). Her most recent volume, Giving Birth to My Father, is a rich poetic work of grief and renewal. Currently Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), she joins Dr Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu in conversation about how to take poetry out of rarified spaces and make it accessible to more of us.
10 August
Sacrifice and Rebellion: Claire Mabey and Rachael King
Two new novels for young people take readers into imaginary worlds where tyranny holds an iron grip. Claire Mabey's The Raven's Eye Rebellion returns her fans to the medieval world of Wyle, where reading and writing are forbidden. Rachael King's folk horror fantasy Song of the Saltings unfolds on the isolated isle of Brack, where a creature that haunts the salt marshes demands an annual sacrifice. Join these two beloved authors in conversation with Elizabeth Knox, as they discuss these stories of courage and resistance.
17 August
Who's That Girl?: Kate Camp and Noelle McCarthy
For one year in 1986, Kate Camp kept a daily diary. In her new book, Leather & Chains, she writes back to that 13-year-old self. Encountering the pages from the distance of 40 years, Kate finds iconic '80s touchstones, swaggering bravado, vulnerability, and the linguistic fireworks of the proto-writer. Noelle McCarthy's new book, Stakes, brings her Irish Catholic girlhood obsession with Dracula into collision with the world of the 2020s, #MeToo, and the horrors emerging from Irish soil. These two memoirists join Kate Duignan for a conversation about hungry girls, and the ones who get invited through the door.
24 August
Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2025
Join chair Chris Price in celebration of the 2025 edition of Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems (as selected by Cilla McQueen). We will hear poems from a stellar line up of local poets including Nick Ascroft, Tusiata Avia, Jenny Bornholdt, Kate Camp, Mauatua Fa'ara-Reynolds, Jackson McCarthy, and Chris Tse. Our poets will share their featured poems and their own favourite poems of Aotearoa in this warm-up to National Poetry Day.
31 August
Uncanny Valley: Pip Adam, Terri Te Tau, and Tim Corballis
Three novelists working in the realm of speculative fiction come together to discuss their new works. Terri Te Tau's The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances brings alive the ngāhere of Wairarapa in a future time. Tim Coballis's Nova invites readers into a strange and prescient dialogue between humanity and its systems. pip adam's kluge ia a workplace satire about artificial intelligence and the value of a body. These unique writers will be in conversation with Dougal McNeill on contending with both re-envisioned pasts and our increasingly strange present.
7 September
The Year of the Horse: Abby Letteri and Marty Smith
In the Chinese Zodiac , the horse rules 2026, and local publishing follows that lead with the appearance of two wonderful books about the equine world. Abby Letteri's Perfectly Themselves and Marty Smith's It Gets in Your Blood take very different approaches but both offer radical new insights into the fascinating and complex lives of horses. From wild herds to the Hastings racecourse, these intimate, moving and funny explorations of horses and horse people will challenge and delight readers.
15 September (Tuesday)
The Next Page 1
6–7.30pm at MEOW
Grab a drink and settle in for a preview of the next generation of Aotearoa's writers in this lively night of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from the IIML's MA (Page) workshops, featuring Robin Peace, Lauren Connolly, Christine Siaosi, Corrina Connor, Stephanie Sommerville, Tania Joy Norfolk, Trinity Mairs, Quentin Brown, Meghan Doherty, Viv Cutbush, Ava Straw, Elena Smout, Lucy McCorkindale, Miles Duffy, and Kaia Costanza-van den Belt.
16 September (Wednesday)
The Next Page 2
6–7.30pm at MEOW
The second wave of words comes in with Mona Williams, Alex Vincent, Marianne Elliott, Jean Teng, Lily Hacking, Georgia Merton, Katrina Larsen, Noa Noa von Bassewitz, John Gibbs, Aquila Merewitikau, Emily Winter, Neve Hopman, Nicky Won, Arihia Latham, and Juliette MacIver.
21 September
Short Sharp Script 1
Circa Theatre
Actors perform dynamic new work by MA scriptwriting students from the IIML in this entertaining hour of theatre. This week, scripts by Finn Bilsborough, Kieran Craft, Tom Fletcher, Quintessence McGee, and Poata Alvie McKree are introduced by Ken Duncum.
28 September
Short Sharp Script 2
Circa Theatre
Another fast, funny, and furious set of scripts from the IIML's scriptwriting students. This week, the spotlight falls on work by Lynnette Harris, Nova Moala-Knox, Annika Peterson, Sarah Powell, and Sam Pretious, introduced by Ken Duncum.
Venue Information
Events run on Mondays from 12.15–1.15pm at Rongomaraeroa, Level 4, Te Papa Tongarewa, except for:
- The Next Page 1 & 2: Meow (9 Edward Street), Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 September, 6–7.30pm
- Short Sharp Script 1 & 2: Circa Theatre, Monday 21 and 28 September, 12.15–1.15pm
Admission is free. All Welcome.
Writers on Mondays is presented with The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Circa Theatre, and Meow.
