Our 2026 Authors
The Marlborough Book Festival returns this winter with an exceptional line-up of acclaimed writers from Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. Across three inspiring days, festival-goers will enjoy conversations with award-winning novelists, historians, memoirists, travel writers and storytellers whose work challenges, entertains and sparks the imagination.
The 2026 programme features 16 guest authors, including Ockham New Zealand Book Award winners Ingrid Horrocks and Elizabeth Cox, alongside internationally celebrated Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka. From fiction and memoir to history, travel and young adult literature, this year’s festival promises a rich and diverse programme for readers of all interests.
Tickets go on sale from 2 June, with the festival taking place from 24–26 July 2026 in Blenheim.
Catherine Chidgey
Catherine Chidgey is one of New Zealand's greatest living writers (Radio NZ). She has twice won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards: The Wish Child won in 2017 and The Axeman's Carnival in 2023. Her latest novel The Book of Guilt was shortlisted for the award in 2026.
Chris Stuart
Chris Stuart is a crime writer with a social conscience who lives in Nelson. She won the Best First Novel at the 2021 Ngaio Marsh awards for For Reasons of Their Own, which introduced Detective Inspector Robbie Gray to readers. Her second book is The Glasgow Smile. Chris has previously won the Elyne Mitchell Short Story Australian Writing Award.
Dominic Hoey
Dominic Hoey is a poet, author and playwright currently living in Ōtautahi, Christchurch. His latest novel 1985 was longlisted for the 2026 Ockham Book Award. His earlier books are Poor People With Money and his debut novel Iceland, which was a New Zealand bestseller and long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award.
Elizabeth Cox
Elizabeth Cox is a Wellington historian who specialises in New Zealand social and architectural history. Her latest book, Mr Ward’s Maps (2025), is shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026 (BookHub Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction). Elizabeth is also the author of Making Space: A History of New Zealand Women in Architecture.
Elizabeth Knox
Elizabeth Knox is an acclaimed novelist and essayist. Elizabeth’s most recent novel is the bestselling The Absolute Book; her memoir Night, Ma is published in 2026. Elizabeth is an Arts Foundation Laureate, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002, and was awarded a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2019.
Ingrid Horrocks
Ingrid Horrocks won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction 2026 for her beautiful book of linked short stories All Her Lives (2025). She is also the author of the memoir Where We Swim (2021), and two collections of poetry. Her writing has appeared in Lithub, The Ninth Letter, The Sydney Review of Books, The Spinoff, Landfall, and the Guardian.
Dr Madi Williams
Dr Madi Williams (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Rangitāne o Wairau) is the author of an important new book about the history of Ngāti Kuia, He Pūtake, Hei Pakiaka Ora | A History. Madi is a senior lecturer at Aotahi – School of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha.
Naomi Arnold
Naomi Arnold is an award-winning journalist and natural history writer. Her book Northbound, Four seasons of solitude on Te Araroa was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026. Naomi has contributed to many national publications. Her acclaimed story of New Zealand astronomy, Southern Nights, was published by HarperCollins in 2019.
Ngarino Ellis
Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) is a Professor in Art History at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. Her latest book Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art (2024) co-written with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki won the Bookhub Award for Illustrated Non-fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Noelle McCarthy
Noelle McCarthy is an author, broadcaster and producer. Her first memoir, Grand: Becoming my mother’s daughter, won best first book of non-fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in 2023. Noelle grew up in Ireland and started her radio career at 95bFM in Auckland in the early 2000s before going on to work at Radio New Zealand for more than a decade.
Peta Carey
Peta Carey is the author of The Hollows Boy, the story of the helicopter deer recovery era in Fiordland, told through the lives of three brothers, Gary, Mark and Kim Hollows. The Hollows Boys was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards General Non-fiction Category.
Rachael King
Rachael is a writer, reviewer, former literary festival director and ex-bass player who lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Song of the Saltings, published worldwide this year, is her first book for young adults. Her novels for middle readers include The Grimmelings, which won the Booksellers’ Choice Award and was named one of New York Public Library’s best books of 2025.
Rachel Clare
Rachel Clare is a gardening writer who is obsessed with flowers. She has written hundreds of articles on botanical subjects ranging from kōwhai to compost, and is editor of Kiwi Gardener magazine, a former editor of Get Growing e-zine and OrganicNZ magazine, and former deputy editor of NZ Gardener magazine.
Ron Crosby
Blenheim historian Ron Crosby is well known for his history books including The Musket Wars, Te Kooti’s Last Foray and NZSAS: The First Fifty Years. Ron’s association with the New Zealand Special Air Service began when he was invited to write the history of the Regiment’s first 50 years.
Shehan Karunatilaka
Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize in 2022 for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. His first novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. His writing has been translated into 36 languages. Born in Galle, Sri Lanka, in 1975, Shehan grew up in Colombo and moved to Aotearoa New Zealand at 15.
Tryphena Cracknell
Tryphena Cracknell (Rongomaiwahine) is a passionate gardener, crafter and foodie. She has spent a large part of her career working in museums and art galleries as a curator, historian and kaitiaki for amazing taonga tuku iho. Her published writing tends to focus on art, textiles, Māori arts practice and contemporary jewellery.
Witi Ihimaera
Witi Ihimaera Smiler DCNZM, QSM, is a diplomat, professor, and one of Aotearoa’s most distinguished living writers. Witi’s many books include Pounamu, Pounamu (1972), The Matriarch (1986) and The Whale Rider (1987). He has received numerous awards, including the Wattie Book of the Year, the Montana Book Award and a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.
Our 2026 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:
- Jane Forrest Waghorn
- Liz Ward
- Meriana Johnsen
- Peter Anderson
- Dr Peter Meihana
- Robbie Burton
- Tania Miller
- Tessa Nicholson