Our 2023 Authors
This year’s Marlborough Book Festival features 23 sessions with 16 wonderful authors speaking at the ASB Theatre Marlborough and the new Marlborough Library and Art Gallery in Blenheim. It's going to be a fabulous weekend of inspiring, informative and entertaining conversations. You don't need to be a book reader to love a book festival. We look forward to seeing you there!
Festival Gala Opening
Come along and hear a selection of guest authors take their work off the page and onto the stage. Read more
Catherine Chidgey
Catherine Chidgey won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her novel The Axeman’s Carnival... Read more
Cristina Sanders
Cristina Sanders is a historical novelist whose latest novel Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards... Read more
Eileen Merriman
Eileen Merriman's first young adult novel, Pieces of You (2017), was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and a Storylines Notable Book... Read more
Gavin Lang
Wānaka mountaineer and photographer Gavin Lang’s book, Seeking the Light, is about climbing New Zealand’s 24 highest peaks, and highlights the healing power of nature... Read more
Joanna Preston
Joanna is an award-winning poet whose second collection, tumble, won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award at the 2022 Ockham Book Awards... Read more
Joanne Drayton
Joanne Drayton is an art historian, biographer and nonfiction writer. Her personal memoir The Queen’s Wife was published in January this year... Read more
Julie Kennedy
Author, poet, editor and historian Julie Kennedy lives in Picton and is inspired by the Marlborough Sounds and local landscape... Read more
Luke Elworthy
Luke Elworthy’s first novel The Last Letter of Godfrey Cheathem was published to rave reviews last year... Read more
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, is an acclaimed screenwriter, director, and crime writer... Read more
Nick Bollinger
Music journalist and broadcaster Nick Bollinger is the author of Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand... Read more
Dr Peter Meihana
Dr Peter Meihana is of Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Apa ki Te Ra Tō and Ngāi Tahu descent...Read more
Robbie Burton
Robbie Burton is a tramper, mountaineer and book publisher who has had a lifelong love of the New Zealand mountains... Read more
Ron Crosby
Ron is a lawyer turned biographer and historian. His explorations of New Zealand bush and backcountry areas led him to author eight history books... Read more
Soraya Lane
Soraya Lane graduated with a law degree before realising that law wasn't the career for her, and instead, her future was in writing... Read more
Tessa Nicholson
Tessa Nicholson is the author of Fifty Years, Fifty Stories: Marlborough the Region that Turned the Wine World Upside Down... Read more
WJ Moloney
W J Moloney discusses Invincible, a novel based on the incredible story of one man’s journey through a world war and onto worldwide sporting glory... Read more
Our 2023 Interviewers
The Marlborough Book Festival thanks our fabulous interviewers for all their support and good work. This year we have a number of regulars joined by some new hands:
- Belinda Jackson
- Courtney Clark Michaels
- Emma Tucker
- Jane Forrest Waghorn
- Jason Henry
- Mike White
- Nikki Macdonald
- Pete Anderson
- Robbie Burton
- Tania Miller
- Tessa Nicholson
- Sally McLennan
Our podcasts
Did you know you can listen to podcasts of sessions from past festivals in the comfort of your own home? Listen now...