Hamilton Book Month 2026
Every August, Hamilton Book Month celebrates New Zealand authors and their writing, with events covering different genres and age groups. Readers from the Waikato and beyond are invited to meet authors, listen to them discuss their work, and ask questions. With activities and events for all ages, all month, this is a local celebration you won't want to miss. Check our full schedule below.
Best-selling spicy-romance author Steffanie Holmes will walk you through marketing a book and being a career author in the current market. You’ll come up with a launch plan for your book, write a compelling hook, and learn how to sell more copies, whether you’re indie or trad. Books will be for sale.
9:30 - 12:30pm, Saturday 1 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
We are thrilled to host Hamilton's premiere screening of a documentary following Joy Cowley's recollections of trauma and triumph from an astonishing life as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most prolific, widely published and much-celebrated authors of fiction for adults and children.
6:30 - 7:30pm, Tuesday 4 August
The Lido, Centre Place, 500 Victoria St
$25 plus refreshment options, bookings required via our website
Come and join panellists Julie Legg and Suzanne Miller in conversation with chair Karina McHardy to hear about their journeys with autism, ADHD and OCD. Books will be for sale.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Thursday 6 August
Rototuna Library, 30 North City Road
Free Event, no registration required
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Join best-selling, prize-winning authors Nalini Singh and Catherine Robertson as they discuss writing their range of latest titles blending romance, murder mystery, and suspense thrillers. Books will be for sale.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Friday 7 August
Central Library, Garden Place
Free Event, no registration required
Ever thought about becoming a romance writer but have no idea where to start? Best-selling New Zealand novelist, Catherine Robertson, will take you through her journey into romance writing, and give you a solid list of to-do’s and an even longer list of to-don’ts, so you can embark on your own romance career with confidence. Books will be for sale.
9:30am - 12:30pm, Saturday 8 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Join other blokes to discuss what you’ve been reading with August focus on authors, facilitated by Wintec Librarian Mark Caunter.
6:00 - 7:30pm, Wednesday 12 August
Lido Foyer Centre Place, 500 Victoria St
Free Event, no registration required
Rachel Clare and Tryphena Cracknell celebrate our native flowering plants with their illustrated talk. Their book presents a range of flowering plants, from beloved blooms like kōwhai and pōhutukawa to the lesser-known, like our tiny native forget-me-nots, fragrant toropapa and our many orchid species. Books will be for sale.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Thursday 13 August
Central Court, Hamilton Gardens Pavilion
$10 cash, no registration required
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Chair Tina Shaw guides Rachel Paris, Megan Nicol Reed and Josie Shapiro in conversation about the power of fiction and how they make their stories come alive. Books will be for sale.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Friday 14 August
Waikato Museum, 1 Grantham St
Free Event, no registration required
Hemingway might have said 'All you have to do is write one true sentence', but what does that mean? In this workshop with bestselling author Josie Shapiro, we look closely at sentences and how to unlock your prose to build better narrative flow. Books will be for sale.
9:30 - 12:30pm, Saturday 15 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
A conversation between award-winning author Dr David Coventry and one of New Zealand's foremost practitioners of the short story and poem, Dr Tracey Slaughter. The pair will discuss Coventry's critically acclaimed hybrid-novel, Performance, and talk to the impossible challenges faced and surprising victories won when composing chronic illness narratives for the page. Books will be for sale.
1:30 - 3:00pm, Sunday 16 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
Free Event, no registration required
Get a team together and test your literary knowledge across a variety of genres with quizmasters Cate Prestidge and Gail Pittaway.
6:00 - 9:00pm, Thursday 20 August
The Londoner, Victoria St
$15 cost per person, team registration required via our website.
A special storytime with mystery local guest author for our youngest readers and their families.
10:30 - 11:15am, Friday 21 August
Chartwell Library, Lynden Court
Free Event, no registration required
Join us to hear award-winning journalists and former foreign correspondents Charlotte Glennie and Mike McRoberts discussing their memoirs. Books will be for sale.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Friday 21 August
Central Library, Garden Place
Free Event, no registration required
From television news and radio documentaries to long-form features, podcasts, Substacks and memoir, different forms of storytelling demand different skills. Award-winning journalist and former foreign correspondent Charlotte Glennie shares how to adapt voice, structure and storytelling techniques across platforms while finding the human stories that make audiences care. Books will be for sale.
9:30am - 12:30pm, Saturday 22 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Youth workshops led by S. R. Manssen and Jan Goldie, adult workshops led by Joshua T. Calvert, Melissa Gunn and Gareth Ward plus the Te Pae Tawhiti Awards Gala including the presentation of the inaugural Te Pae Tawhiti Awards for Speculative Fiction with keynote speaker Pip Adam. Books will be for sale.
9:30-10:30am, 11:00-12:00pm, 1:00-4:00pm & 6:00-9:00pm, Saturday 22 August
Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, University of Waikato, Knighton Rd
Costs vary, registration required via website
Come and hear Browsers Bookshop owner Rachel Pope talk about what makes books valuable and collectible. If you think you have a rare book and you are curious about its value or its history, bring it along so Rachel can assess it for you. Enjoy refreshments while you browse the store. Standing room only, very limited seating available.
6:30 - 7:30pm, Wednesday 26 August
Browsers Bookshop, 298 Victoria St
Free Event, no registration required.
Teams from Year 5 & 6 and teams from Year 7 & 8 face off to test their book knowledge. Who will be crowned the 2026 Book Battle Champions?
9:30 - 11:00am and 12:30 - 2:30pm, Friday 28 August
Second Floor, Central Library, Garden Place
Free Event, no registration required for audience
In Siobhan Harvey’s workshop, we'll consider the role of inspiration, language, music, structure and technique in shaping a poem's meaning and message by reading, examining and reflecting on existing poems, and apply our learnings to the development of a poem of our own from draft to completion. For serious and emerging poets, songwriters and short-form aficionados. Books will be for sale.
9:30 -12:30pm, Saturday 29 August
Trust Waikato, Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
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About us
Every August, Hamilton Book Month celebrates New Zealand authors and their writing, with events covering different genres and age groups. Readers from the Waikato and beyond are invited to meet authors, listen to them discuss their work, and ask questions. With activities and events for all ages, all month, this is a local celebration you won't want to miss. Click the "Download Programme" for a PDF with our programme information.
We are passionate about providing free and low cost events and are extremely thankful to our Creative New Zealand Creative Communities, Glenice and John Gallagher Foundation, Hamilton City Council Community Initiatives Grants, WEL Energy Trust and Trust Waikato.
We'd love to hear your comments and ideas. You can use the Contact Us form above and subscribe to our email newsletter by filling in your details above.
We suggest you follow us on our Facebook page Hamilton Book Month to get regular updates, information and photos before and during this time. We are also on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
