We are asking quick questions of writers and thinkers coming to the WORD Christchurch Festival 2025 (Wednesday 27 August to Sunday 31 August).
Thanks to Laurence Fearnley, author of At the Grand Glacier Hotel, for her answers.
What are you looking forward to doing in Ōtautahi Christchurch?
I have signed up for the Bookbinding Workshop at Tūranga. I do a lot of my writing in notebooks and I've wanted to know how to make small sketch/ writing journals for a long time, so I'm very excited about this.
What do you think about libraries?
I love that libraries can provide a place of calm and quiet within a noisy inner-city environment. When my son was young, I often spent Saturdays at the Dunedin Public Library writing my novels and in more recent years I have spent hours undertaking research in various heritage collections. I appreciate the time, patience and knowledge various librarians have offered me over the past twenty-five years. I am very grateful for all their help.
What would be your "desert island book"?
My father's copy of Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selborne.This book of letters was published in 1788, and shows how much knowledge and understanding can be gained simply by observing your local environment. It is a book that goes deep, as the author makes sense of the natural world.
Share a surprising fact about yourself
I used to do a lot of white-water kayaking and have canoed many of the rivers in the South Island / Te Wai Pounamu. Floating down a gorge in a remote river, seeing long-finned eels/tuna below, provides a sense of timelessness that I have seldom experienced elsewhere.
What makes you JOYOUS?
In late July the Grey warblers/ riroriro start singing in my neighbourhood and it is one of the earliest signs that spring is on its way.
Laurence at WORD Christchurch
You can hear Laurence at the session In Praise of Gentle Fiction with Damien Wilkins at Tūranga, Saturday 30 August 2.30pm to 3.30pm.
More about Laurence
Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. In 2025 At the Grand Glacier Hotel was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. In 2016 she won the NZSA/ Janet Frame Memorial Award and in 2017 she was the joint winner of the Landfall essay competition. She was named a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2019. She lives in Dunedin.
More Quick questions with WORD Christchurch guests
More WORD
Check the programme online or pick up a printed copy from your library.
- WORD Christchurch website
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- Our WORD Christchurch 2025 page - Find books by writers coming to this year's festival
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