Join the Verb Community

Photography: Maeve O’Connell.

“Our Verb Community are part of our family - together we believe that creative, accessible events make our cities better places to live, and that Aotearoa’s incredible writers and poets feed the mind, body and wairua. We’d love for you to join us.” 

-- Claire Mabey, Verb Founder

Verb supports Aotearoa's incredible writers and artists by making space for stories and ideas that surprise, inspire and energise us.

Become a member of the Verb Community, and you’ll be part of a whole team dedicated to gatherings, collaborations and the sharing of ideas that build empathy, sustain the spirit and positively shift the conversation. 

Verb Community members help us to:

  • Keep ticket prices affordable – a huge amount of what we do is free or donation entry, such as our much loved LitCrawl!

  • Create residencies that give artists time, space and money to write, right here in Pōneke. 

  • Boost our advocacy for the creative community; we make sure that everything we do uplifts and showcases the value of arts, creatives and creative places + so much more 

  • Keep inventing. We can hardly believe that we’ve celebrated the 10 Year Anniversary of LitCrawl! 

  • Ensure writers and artists are paid for their work.

  • We want to make Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington a renowned city for writers’ residencies and a hub of dazzling literary activity.



“VERB FILLS PŌNEKE WITH AN IRRESISTIBLE ENERGY: EVERY YEAR I COME AWAY RECHARGED AND INSPIRED. IT’S THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY LITERARY CALENDAR!”
- Chris Tse, New Zealand Poet Laureate

Verb Community members receive:

  • Early access and discounted tickets to our festival programme and special events.

  • The ReVerb: a bespoke, curated monthly read that delivers inspiration to your inbox.

  • Invitations to bespoke Verb Community events where you can meet other members and feed your ideas into what we do.

    Above all, you’ll be a part of helping us support Wellington’s, and Aotearoa’s, writers and artists who enrich our creative landscape.

Meet the Verb Founders: Claire and Andy

Claire Mabey: Founder

Claire is a book nerd from way back. Claire will talk about books to anyone at anytime, anywhere. She loves reading, sea swimming, running, and having a transformative experience thanks to an artist whether a human one or a nature-powered one. That’s what life is all about. Her work has been in the arts festival industry, and in publishing, for her entire career. In 2014 she joined forces in work and in life with Andrew Laking and together they formed Pirate & Queen, the tiny production house behind Verb, LitCrawl and Lōemis (their dark festival baby). She is mum to Charlie and would love to be a good gardener.

Andrew Laking: Founder

Andrew is a musician and spent a big chunk of his life touring the world with the band, Gráda. Andrew is now the production muscle behind a lot of Verb’s work and is the creator and director of Lōemis Festival, a Solstice-timed dark moth that creates a series of bespoke productions with musicians, prop-makers, sculptors, fire artists, designers and his own musical energy.

A note on the image above by Māori Mermaid

The beautiful wahine in our header was created by artist and writer Jessica Hinerangi (Māori Mermaid). We commissioned this artwork because we wanted a unique image to convey what we value: connection, learning, curiosity and the infinite nature of what creative work can offer us all. Read more about Māori Mermaid here.