WORD in the Media

2025

Dame Anne’s Command Performance: Newsroom roundup of WORD 2025

WORD 2025 roundup in The Spinoff

Becky Manawatu’s Kataraina reviewed in the Guardian

Six authors at WORD share in Kete what they are excited about seeing at the festival

Kete interview with romantic fantasy superstars Andrea Eames and Rachael Craw

Gilbert Enoka RNZ interview

WORD in The Press

Tom Sainsbury in Metropol

Kate de Goldi in Metropol on why books are critical to our wellbeing

Hot Mess in Metropol

Erik Kennedy and Ray Shipley in The Spinoff

Charlotte Wood interviewed on Plains FM’s Bookenz

Charlotte Wood on RNZ’s Saturday Morning

Becky Manawatu ‘What I’m Reading’ in The Post

Gilbert Enoka in The Post

Eden Hore in Cityscape

Charlotte Wood interview in The Press

Petra Bagust in NZ Herald

Charlotte Wood interview for The Spinoff

Duncan Sarkies on the Joy of Discovery for RNZ

Petra Bagust and Nikki Bezzant in Metropol

WORD Celebrates our Māori and Pasifika World in The Press

WORD Executive Director Steph Walker Toi Ōtautahi Q&A on creativity

The Press covers some of the more joyous events in the festival

WORD Programme Director Kiran Dass on Creativity on the Toi Ōtautahi website

‘Guilt, Murder and Laughs at WORD Christchurch’ – line-up announcement in The Press.

Steve Braunias on his latest book about the Polkinghorne trial on RNZ

Plains FM Bookenz radio interviews with Catherine Chidgey, Duncan Sarkies and Kiran Dass

Kate De Goldi on the pleasures of reading: in The Press and on Radio New Zealand

RNZ’s Saturday Morning Playing Favourites with WORD’s Programme Director Kiran Dass

New Zealand Geographic feature about Rosemary Baird’s The Middle of Nowhere

Plains FM Bookenz interviews

2024

The rule of Christchurch
Steve Braunias reports on the most creative literary festival in NZ
The Rule of Christchurch – Steve Braunias on Newsroom

The Christchurch City Libraries Team were across the whole festival. Check out their amazing coverage
The Christchurch City Libraries coverage

Review: The Savage Coloniser Show – raw, fierce, triumphant
Review of The Savage Coloniser Show: Raw, Fierce and Triumphant on Flat City Field Notes

Best of the Fest: Word Christchurch with Tina Makereti and Pip Adam
Best of the Fest with Tina Makereti and Pip Adam on RNZ Culture 101

Megan Dunn’s lifelong obsession is turned into a midlife memoir
Megan Dunn Mermaid Chronicles RNZ Nine to Noon interview

“I was so hungry for anything other than the way I grew up” – writer and poet Sasha LaPointe
Sasha LaPointe RNZ Culture 101 interview

Oscar Kightley: ‘You get a bit more frightened as you get older’
Oscar Kightley interview NZ Listener

Whakataukī of the Week with Kommi Tamati
Whakataukī of the Week with Kommi Tamati on RNZ

Tayi Tibble isn’t up and coming. She’s here
Tayi Tibble SUNDAY magazine cover story

Inside the secret diaries of writers
Bad Diaries Salon Your Weekend cover story

A Christchurch writer remembers the city’s post-quake weirdness
Amy Head Signs of Life in The Press

Catherine Taylor – The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time
Catherine Taylor The Stirrings RNZ interview

Dr Jo Burzynska: Why books smell so good
Jo Burzynska RNZ Interview Why Books Smell So Good

Word festival brings sniffable books and reclaiming Māoritanga to Chch
Jo Burzynska’s Fragrant Texts and Isaac Martyn’s He Māori in The Press

Bookshop detectives: Gareth and Louise Ward
Louise and Gareth Ward: The Bookshop Detectives RNZ interview

The Mixtape: WORD Christchurch director and beloved book reviewer Kiran Dass
Kiran Dass RNZ’s The Mixtape

Tina Makereti on her new novel The Mires
Tina Makereti: The Mires RNZ interview

Stories of bravery and imagination
WORD Christchurch programme launch in The Press

Book review: The Stirrings by Catherine Taylor
Kiran’s RNZ review of Catherine Taylor’s The Stirrings

WORD Christchurch Festival 2024
Ngā Kete Wānaga-o-Ōtautahi | Christchurch City Council Libraries coverage of WORD

Kiran Dass – A Guide to This Year’s WORD Festival
WORD in Toi Ōtautahi

Plains FM Bookenz
Bookenz
With a life long passion for books and for New Zealand authors, programme host Morrin Rout utilizes her wealth of radio broadcasting experience to bring you Bookenz, a weekly programme that brings you the latest on new books and their authors, from both New Zealand and abroad.