A riotous and engaging showcase jump-starts three days of public programming. Eight writers deliver a seven-minute true story, propless and scriptless, inspired by the theme Straight Talking. This annual sellout event features: NZ comedian and author Michele A’Court; lauded US novelist and short story writer Amy Bloom; The Good Wife star and memoirist Alan Cumming; former Wallaby, sports columnist and author Peter FitzSimons; Australian public intellectual and writer Helen Garner; Waitangi Tribunal member, lecturer and co-author of seminal book Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History Aroha Harris; Melbourne-based New Zealand short story writer Nic Low; and Booker Prize winning Nigerian novelist Ben Okri.