Witty way with words
Author Beautrais tells own story at Central Hawke’s Bay writers festival
Award-winning writer Airini Beautrais will visit Central Hawke's Bay to speak at “Between The Lines, the CHB Readers and Writers Festival” which launches on September 8.
Airini's strong command of story is one of the reasons she won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Bug Week & Other Stories, receiving an award of $57,000, New Zealand's largest cash book prize.
Kiran Dass, the category's convener of judges, said: “Casting a devastating and witty eye on humanity at its most fallible and wonky, this book is a tightly wound and remarkably assured collection.”
It was only the second short-story collection to win the top fiction prize in the history of the New Zealand Book Awards.
Airini's writing draws on her personal experiences, and is often set in her hometown of Whanganui.
Bug Week & Other Stories is a collection of diverse, sometimes disturbing but finely honed tales with no superfluous words. All the stories take the readers by surprise and Central Hawke's Bay is offered a real treat to hear Airini discuss her writing with Alexa Cook, a senior Newshub journalist, at her parents Julia and Bill Cook's unique straw house in Ashley Clinton.
Airini's first collection of poetry, Secret Heart, was awarded the NZSA Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her book, Dear Neil Roberts, was longlisted in the poetry category of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award and in2016 she was shortlisted for the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize.
Airini also won the 2016 Landfall Essay Competition.
Between the Lines opens on Thursday, September 8, with an evening session talking all things rugby with author Gregor Paul (NZ Herald), sports commentator Tony Johnson and former All Black John Ashworth.
Will they be able to provide an insight into the plight of our boys at the moment? Either way, organisers are predicting it will be a great evening.
Tickets to these and all the Between the Lines events are available through eventfinda.