Undercurrent of controversy

BY TOM HUNT

One might imagine Laura Kroetsch's job taking her around the world but the reality is more like a walk across Wellington's Civic Square.

Kroetsch is the manager of New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week, which is officially launched tonight.

It is she, with the help of an organising committee, that is responsible for 56 writers from New Zealand and around the world descending on Wellington for the coming week.

There are some heavy-hitters in the literary world among that lineup, including controversial evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, Columbia University art history and history professor Simon Schama, and prolific writer of prose, poetry, film, essays, comics, song lyrics, and drama, Neil Gaiman.

Gathering these big names did involve travelling overseas, but "my big trips were to the Wellington Public Library", Kroetsch says.

Unlike Lissa Twomey - the artistic director of the arts festival - Kroetsch does not need to travel to see the works of the artists she is bringing to New Zealand - they are available in book form.

To see them talk, all she has to do is log on to YouTube.

Technology has also helped build hype for the week, with the festival and Writers and Readers Week organisers Twittering updates.

They have been helped by the artists themselves, attracting 1.5 million "followers on Twitter". Gaiman particularly, is a giant in the digital world, as he is in the literary one.

Kroetsch says the process of creating the Writers and Readers Week lineup started about 18 months ago with a "dream list" which was whittled down and altered depending on artists' availability.

Themes are also important, she says. In 2008, the Writers and Readers Week focused on war. Kroetsch says this year, the plan is to focus on peace and reconciliation.

Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, whose novels examine modern global politics, and Ilija Trojanow, the author of Mumbai to Mecca, particularly fit the bill, Kroetsch says.

Alongside reconciliation, there is an undercurrent of controversial writers this year. Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, has courted criticism for his dismissal of intelligent design and faith.

Peter Singer has been described as possibly the world's most controversial philosopher. Among his arguments is that large-scale agriculture is poisoning the environment.

Kroetsch is aware of criticism that Writers and Readers events can seem a little like preaching to the converted - for example, that only those who already agree with the authors buy tickets.

For this reason, she has at times intentionally put the cat among the pigeons. When Singer speaks, financial journalist and social commentator Rod Oram will ask what Singer's ideas mean in an agriculture-based economy such as New Zealand's.

There has been just one change to the lineup. Chloe Hooper, who spent years writing a book on the true story of the death in police custody of an Aboriginal man, has stayed in Australia to cover an inquest into the case after a police officer who previously refused to testify said he would now do so.

British literary agent and novelist Derek Johns - the author of "English coming of age stuff" - will be taking her place on stage at the Embassy on Friday night.

Perhaps he isn't the most controversial writer but amid a diet of controversy and reconciliation, a "coming of age" author may be a refreshing change of tune.

New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week's opening is at the Embassy Theatre, tonight, 7.30pm. It runs until Sunday, with most events at the Embassy and Downstage theatres, or Wellington Town Hall.

- © Fairfax NZ News