Free-wheeling authors hit town

Christchurch City Libraries hosted five top writers at the beginning of March 2009 to launch the annual Words on Wheels tour.

Organised by the New Zealand Book Council, Words on Wheels whisks writers away from their desks to visit libraries, schools and town halls in a different area of the country each year. This year's tour started at Central Library on March 2, before the writers took off on a busy schedule that included Darfield, Tai Tapu, Methven, Fairlie, Twizel, Wanaka and Queenstown.

Mix of styles and genres on offer

The writers are a varied bunch, with everything from crime fiction to poetry under their belts.

David Geary is a script writer, who has written plays and screenplays since 1988. he also writes short stories such as Death of a fence-post modernist and the 2003 collection A man of the people. He works in Canada and New Zealand.

Based in Hastings, Anna Mackenzie writes teen fiction. She has penned four novels, the first, High Tide, published in 2003, and the most recent, Shadow of the mountain out last year.

Janet Charman’s sixth poetry collection, Cold snack, won Best Book of Poetry at the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She has published since the 1980s and has a career as a teacher at secondary and tertiary level.

Steve Braunius is a columnist and non-fiction writer known for satire and humour. He is currently working on a comic novel after being awarded the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship. He also contributes to television programmes Eating Media Lunch and the Unauthorised History of New Zealand. Read more about Steve Braunius.

Vanda Symon is a novelist who writes crime fiction and visited Christchurch last year for the The Press Christchurch Writers Festival. She is working on the third instalment in her crime series based around central character Sam Shepherd. Read her profile on our website or browse her books in the catalogue.

Listen to Vanda Symon talk about the event and her third novel Containment. [MP3 2.9 Mb, 3:11]