Voices of Aotearoa: 25 Years of Going West Oratory

Since 1996 the Going West Writers Festival has brought together literary voices from around Aotearoa to share a feast of ideas and words. Eminent New Zealand writers and commentators have launched each year with an opening address on the festival’s theme, most as part of the Douglas Orators series.

Voices of Aotearoa draws on the Going West Trust’s complete sound archive to reproduce addresses about literature, politics, the environment, culture, personal lives and national identity. The stellar line-up of writers is:
Dame Christine Cole-Catley • Nigel Cox • Allen Curnow • David Eggleton • Patricia Grace • Charlotte Grimshaw • Stephanie Johnson • Dame Fiona Kidman • Michael King • Elizabeth Knox • James Littlewood • Bernard Makoare • Paula Morris • Rod Oram • Geoff Park • Vincent O’Sullivan • Chris Price • Te Radar • Dame Anne Salmond • Maurice Shadbolt • Tony Simpson • Robert Sullivan • Ngahuia te Awekotuku • Marilyn Waring • Ian Wedde • Peter Wells • Maualaivao Albert Wendt

An introduction by Naomi McCleary records the festival’s origins and evolution, and a postscript from current festival director James Littlewood takes Going West into the Covid-19 era.

This beautifully designed hardback is destined to become a must-have collection from an A-team of New Zealand writers and thinkers, recorded at one of our most distinctive literary festivals.