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Momentous moves or daily small calls. Carefully considered from all angles or those made on the fly. Choices we’d take back or ones we’d defend to our last breath. Our lives and paths are shaped by choices. Whether they’re the choices we wanted to make, the ones we didn’t, the ones made for us or the ones that led us somewhere unexpected. They are all inextricably linked in a complex chain reaction that form our lives. In the Festival’s major opening night event, eight stellar writers speak to a moment of choice that led them to where – and who – they are today. Featuring: Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen; Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan; National Poetry Slam Champion and Young People’s Poet Laureate Elizabeth Acevedo; Award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker and crime author Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue); National Humanities Medal Recipient Abraham Verghese; scholar and former Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh; Ockham NZ book award-winner Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu) and 2023 Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch.

Hosted by Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi).

Supported by Craigs Investment Partners.