The Ockhams turn 10

For ten years now, our big sister Ockham Residential has been sponsoring the New Zealand Book Awards and we're proud to bask in the reflected glow. 'The Ockhams', as they're affectionately known, are this country's top gongs for literary excellence. This year's ceremony is taking place on Wednesday 14 May at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre at the Aotea Centre. OCer Nigel Gavin is providing the musical accompaniment and Miriama Kamo is hosting. Tickets are only $16 (via Ticketmaster), so come along to hear the nominees read from their works and to cheer on the winners. It's always an entertaining and illuminating evening.

The awards are one of the signature events of the hugely popular Auckland Writers Festival. In our last newsletter we gave a heads up about the return to the festival of the Poetry and Music session, where the four finalists in the poetry category of the Ockhams (C.K. Stead, Richard von Sturmer, Emma Neale and Robert Sulivan) are paired with four musicians from the Ockham Collective (Hinekoia Tomlinson, Tom Knowles, Rachel Fuller and Catrin Johnsson). You're clearly fast clickers as all of the tickets were snapped up weeks ago.

If you're still looking for festival events to attend, two of our Ockham Collective whanau are leading sessions. On Saturday 17 May, Paula Morris is hosting Imagined Futures, in conversation with Silvia Park (Korea) and Titaua Peu (French Polynesia). The following day she will be talking with Japanese trailblazer Asako Yuzuki about her cult bestseller, Butter, before returning to the main stage to interview one of the festival's most famous guests, beloved Irish author Colm Tóibín.

Sonya Wilson is leading the Life on the Land session on Friday 16 May featuring Lars Mytting (Norway) and John Connell (Ireland). Then on Saturday 17 May she's chatting with Monty Soutar, Catherine Chidgey and Robbie Arnott in an event entitled Bringing the Past to Life: Researching Historical Fiction.