VERB READERS & WRITERS FESTIVAL 2023
WELCOME!
Ten years ago we pulled a lot of favours to put on a one-night celebration of Wellington’s indie lit culture.
A decade later and LitCrawl Wellington remains one of the most exciting and unique events in Aotearoa and it’s all down to the cast of hundreds who have put time and resource and love in, fuelling it from the inside out: from the businesses and venues who keep their doors open on a Saturday night, every single year; to the indie publishers who enable beautiful, celebratory events with beautiful, brilliant writers; to the sound technicians tweaking mics and hefting amps; to our remarkable staff and volunteers who slick the ship and welcome everyone in. Here’s to words on the street, here’s to the LitCawlers, you who listen, support, and lend your energy.
We're so proud to offer you this 2023 festival programme, piled high with beautifully crafted, knock-your-socks-off events created by our new team of programmers: Rangimarie Sophie Jolley, Trinity Thompson-Browne, Damien Levi, Rosabel Tan and Chris Tse. These remarkable artists have jointly envisioned our 2023 programme in an exciting reframing of how festivals can come to fruition. Their events are spectacular, surprising and inventive.
Our 10-year anniversary programme recognises just how essential it is for us to meet in art, in books, and in ideas. Enjoy!
Photo credit Vanessa Rushton
We are really thrilled to be pioneering a new way of programming. Verb's foundations are built on a collective model with ideas coming from all parts of our lit community. Our approach to the 2023 Festival builds on that foundation with five superstar artists joining us to programme our tenth anniversary this year.
The Verb Readers & Writers Festival 2023 programmers are: Rangimarie Sophie Jolley (Waikato-Tainui) and Trinity Thompson-Browne (Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko) – ngā kaitiaki o te mauri o Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori; Damien Levi (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi); Rosabel Tan; and Chris Tse
VERB 2023 PROGRAMMERS
Rangimarie Sophie Jolley
Rangimarie Sophie Jolley (Waikato-Tainui) is a māmā, writer, editor, curator and art critic whose ear is always resting on the heartbeat of ngā toi Māori and the Māori Writers’ community. A weaver of words and an alchemist of micromomental change, she is a founding member of the Hine Pae Kura and Toi Wāhine Māori female artist collectives. In 2014, she published a collection of short stories for children alongside Robyn Kahukiwa and has since been involved in numerous storytelling workshops and poetry readings. Her poetry has been included in exhibitions in Porirua, Wellington, Auckland, Tāneatua, Melbourne and New York. Her work focusses exploring the perspectives of Māori women. Rangimarie is second to none at facilitating space and making room for the wānanga we seek to have as Māori, as ancestors and as descendants.
Trinity Thompson-Browne
Trinity Thompson-Browne (Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko), is a poet and photographer. Last year, Thompson-Browne, alongside fellow writer and poet Rangimarie Sophie Jolley, co-curated events on behalf of Te Hā o Ngā Kaituhi Māori for Verb 2022. Thompson-Browne was a finalist for the biennial Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 for their poem – searching for haana hirini, a poem about searching for your tīpuna despite colonisation blurring the lines back to them. Their upcoming debut, three-volume, bilingual box collection of poetry i am navigator will be released at the rising of Matariki next year. They are this year’s recipient of the Penguin Random House Māori & Pasifika Publishing Scholarship and currently studying towards their Graduate Diploma in publishing through Whitireia.
Damien Levi
Damien Levi (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) is a wannabe publisher, occasional writer and general menace. He is a graduate of Whitireia Publishing’s Class of 2022 and received the inaugural Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand Best All-Round Student award. Damien is the lead editor for the online takatāpui LGBTQIA+ journal bad apple, the founder of Āporo Press and co-editor of the forthcoming poetry anthology Spoiled Fruit (2023) alongside Amber Esau. Last year Damien volunteered at the festival and is very surprised and grateful to have fallen up the ladder to programming.
Rosabel Tan
Photo credit Greta van der Star
Rosabel Tan is a writer, researcher and producer of Peranakan Chinese descent. She is the Director of Satellites — currently working on an archive of Asian diaspora artists and art-making in Aotearoa — and Programme Manager for The Next Page, a national training programme for early-career magazine editors. She is a founding editor of arts and culture journal The Pantograph Punch and was the inaugural Curator: Asia for the 2022 Auckland Writers Festival. Verb is her favourite writers festival in Aotearoa and it is an honour to be part of its programming team in 2023.
Chris Tse
Chris Tse is New Zealand’s Poet Laureate for 2022-24. He is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, HE’S SO MASC, and Super Model Minority. He and Emma Barnes edited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa. Chris was LitCrawl’s inaugural guest curator in 2018 and is delighted to be part of the programming team for 2023.
GUEST PROGRAMMERS
Crip the Lit
Crip the Lit advocate for Deaf and disabled writers having their unique voices, perspectives and stories included and valued in mainstream writing. Formed in 2016 by Trish Harris and Robyn Hunt, Crip the Lit challenges stereotypes so that disability is represented and celebrated as part of the richness and diversity of humanity in all genres of literature, and in film, television and video.
- Universe-Hopping with Radical Crip Imagination, St Peter’s, Saturday 11 Nov, 2pm-3pm
- Letters to Disabled Friends, Arty Bees, Saturday 11 Nov, 6pm-6.45pm (LitCrawl)
Tracy Farr
Tracy Farr is co-curator, with Melbourne writer Jenny Ackland, of Bad Diaries Salon, a live literary series that features writers reading, to a theme, from their diaries and unpublished notebooks. 2023 will mark the sixth annual edition of Bad Diaries Salon at LitCrawl.
- Bad Diaries Salon: EX, Meow, Saturday 11 Nov, 7.15pm-8pm (LitCrawl).
Sweet Mammalian
Rebecca Hawkes and Nikki-Lee Birdsey are the editors of Sweet Mammalian, a warm-blooded literary journal that will again, host a LitCrawl poetry lineup (except this year, they’ll be celebrating their tenth issue, to mark their tenth birthday!)
- Sweet Mammalian, Left Bank Cuba Street, Saturday 11 Nov, 8.30pm-9.15pm (LitCrawl).
Starling
Starling is an online literary journal showcasing the best new poetry and prose from young New Zealand writers. They will be returning to Verb for LitCrawl with an all-star lineup of poets.
- Starling: All Stars, Ferret Bookshop, Saturday 11 Nov, 7.15-8pm (LitCrawl)
Nicole Titihuia Hawkins
Nicole Titihuia Hawkins (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) facilitates Poetry with Brownies, an open mic event for indigenous poets.
- Poetry with Brownies, Pātaka, Friday 10 Nov, 4pm-5pm.
THE VERB READERS AND WRITERS 2023 TEAM
Festival Programmers: Rangimarie Sophie Jolley (Waikato-Tainui) and Trinity Thompson-Browne (Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko) - ngā kaitiaki o te mauri o Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori; Damien Levi (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi); Rosabel Tan; Chris Tse.
Executive Director: Melanie Hamilton
Creative Producer & Comms Manager: Ishbel Offer
Graphic Designer: Ian Hammond
Social Media Manager: Maeve O’Connell
Production Manager: Emily Hakaraia
Marketing interns: Anna Gilmour and Ruby-Rose Whitcher
Verb Wellington Founders: Claire Mabey and Andrew Laking
Special thanks to all of our venues; our Guest Programmers: Crip the Lit, Tracy Farr, Starling, Nicole Titihuia Hawkins, and Sweet Mammalian; the Front of House, Technical Crew, Drivers and many Volunteers who make the festival happen, and to our Supporters.