Welcome!

Curious readers, passionate book lovers, conversationalists and art fans: we invite you to take a well-deserved break and enjoy a festival jam-packed with local and international writers. 

For four days, writers and artists from across Aotearoa and the world come together in Pōneke. They’ll take to the stage of the iconic Hannah Playhouse and Verb’s long-time home Meow for inspiring conversations, and pop-up across the Cuba St precinct for everyone’s favourite literary party, LitCrawl Wellington.

Writers are converging from the USA, UK, Ireland, China and Australia, including a Carnegie Medal winner, a Granta Best of Young British Novelist, and a Booker Prize longlister. We have events headlined by international leaders in Indigenous publishing, activists who have changed our country for the better, and rangatahi who are proudly extending literary art forms in exciting new directions. 

We're so proud to offer you our eleventh festival programme where you can find events spanning the range from nourishing and heartwarming to joyous and wildly fun. There is something for all book lovers across genre and form. 

At Verb, we look to a bright future, a radical one, where the creative work that keeps people and communities going is at the centre of national and international conversation. And where the literary arts are supported and celebrated for the enormous contributions they make to our cultural wellbeing and community vibrancy. Welcome to the festival: enjoy!


Meet the Verb 2024 Festival Progammers

Trinity Thompson-Browne (Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko), is a poet, photographer and returning programmer for Verb festival on behalf of Te Hā o Ngā Kaituhi Māori. Thompson-Browne was a finalist for the biennial Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award 2023 for their poem ‘– searching for haana hirini’ and their debut, three-volume collection of poetry i am navigator will be released at the end of this year.

Trinity Thompson-Browne

Mariwakiterangi Paekau (she/they) (Tainui, Waikato, Maniapoto, Kahungunu ki Heretaunga) is a multidisciplinary artist and first-time programmer for Verb on behalf of Te Hā o Ngā Kaituhi Māori. She is halfway through her Te Reo Māori me ōna tikanga degree at Te Wānanga o Raukawa. Her primary work is poetry, her poem was displayed in Auckland for Pride (2022). She has been on the Verb Rangatahi panel (2022, 2023) and was one of Verb’s 2023 MicroResidents. You can find her poetry on Instagram, @mariwakiterangi.

Mariwakiterangi Paekau

Damien Levi (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi) is an independent publisher, editor and arts facilitator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He is the lead editor of the online arts and literature journal bad apple, founder of micro press Āporo Press and co-editor of the poetry anthology Spoiled Fruit: Queer Poetry from Aotearoa (2023) alongside Amber Esau. Damien is a graduate of Whitireia Publishing’s Class of 2022 and received the inaugural Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand Best All-Round Student award. His poetry and essays have been published online and in print.

Damien Levi

Emma Ng is a writer and editor who has contributed to art and design publishing in all its forms. She is the current Editorial Director of Satellites, which is building an online archive of Aotearoa Asian arts practice, and the author of Old Asian, New Asian, a BWB Text published in 2017. Emma is also a former Curator/Manager of Enjoy Contemporary Art Space and has curated exhibitions for the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts, Objectspace, Te Papa, the Dowse Art Museum, and Pātaka.

Emma Ng


Guest programmers

Crip the Lit

Crip the Lit advocate for Deaf and disabled writers of Aotearoa having their unique voices, perspectives and stories included and valued in mainstream writing.

Disability Literati: writing for children and young people

Tracy Farr

Tracy Farr is co-curator, with Melbourne writer Jenny Ackland, of Bad Diaries Salon, a live literary series that features writers reading from their diaries and unpublished notebooks.
Bad Diaries Salon: SILVER—it’s the 25th salon ever!

Sweet Mammalian

Rebecca Hawkes and Nikki-Lee Birdsey are the editors of Sweet Mammalian, a warm-blooded literary journal.
Sweet Mammalian’s LitCrawl event

Starling

Starling is an online literary journal showcasing the best new poetry and prose from young New Zealand writers.
Starling’s LitCrawl event

Nicole Titihuia Hawkins

Nicole Titihuia Hawkins
Nicole Titihuia Hawkins (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) facilitates Poetry with Brownies, an open mic event for Indigenous poets.
Get Ready For Verb with Te Hā and Poetry with Brownies

Rangimarie Sophie Jolley

Rangimarie Sophie Jolley, (Waikato-Tainui) is a maamaa, writer, editor, curator and art critic, and a returning programmer for Verb festival on behalf of Te Hā o Ngā Kaituhi Māori. Poems to End Colonialism

Sarah Connor

Sarah Connor is a writer, speaker and advocate who founded the grassroots project Menopause Over Martinis.
Ageing into the Page

Emma Hislop

Emma Hislop (Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha, Kāi Tahu) is writer, and won the Hubert Church Best First Book of fiction at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
How We Write: Whakapapa Māori

Claudia Jardine 

Claudia Jardine is an Ōtautahi-based author and musician, and performs in new indie-rock band Goodbye Starlet.
There's something gay about the process of inhabiting two worlds


Verb 2024 festival team

Festival Programmers
Trinity Thompson-Browne
(Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko) and Mariwakiterangi Paekau (Tainui, Waikato, Maniapoto, Kahungunu ki Heretaunga) - ngā kaitiaki o te mauri o Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori; Damien Levi (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi); and Emma Ng.

Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori - whose current co-chairs are Nadine Hura (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) and Anahera Gildea (Ngāti Tukorehe) - have been working collaboratively with Verb for the past four years, creating vibrant festival events that give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Executive Director
Melanie Hamilton

Programme Coordinator
Damien Levi

Marketing Designer
Ian Hammond

Publicist
Cheree Ridder

Production Manager
Emily Hakaraia (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kapu)

Festival Assistant
Becks Popham

Marketing Intern
Mary Locker

Volunteer Coordinator
Ash Davida Jane

Verb Wellington Founders
Claire Mabey and Andrew Laking

Wellington Treasure Trust
Emma Marr, Brannavan Gnanalingam and Catherine Robertson

Special thanks to all of our venues; our Guest Programmers: Crip the Lit, Tracy Farr, Starling, Sweet Mammalian, Rangimarie Sophie Jolley, Sarah Connor, Emma Hislop, Claudia Jardine, and Nicole Titihuia Hawkins; and the Front of House, Technical Crew, Drivers and many Volunteers who make the festival happen.