Hamilton Book Month 2025
Every year in 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 down below.
Come and join panellists Alison Mau, Susie Ferguson and Diana Wichtel, in conversation with chair Venetia Sherson to hear these newswomen tell their stories. Poppies Bookstore will have books available.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Friday 1 August
Event Room 1, Wintec
Free Event, no registration required
Venetia Sherson will guide you through the process of feature writing including structure, tone, subject matter, sources and audience analysis. She will give ideas on where and how to pitch your story to a commissioning editor.
9:30 - 12:30pm, Saturday 2 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Come to the Hamilton premiere screening of a feature length documentary on author Dame Fiona Kidman, The House Within, followed by a Q&A after the film with Joshua Prendeville, film producer, and Andrea Haines, Hamilton Film Society chair. Poppies Bookstore will have Fiona’s books available.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Tuesday 5 August
The Lido, Centre Place, 500 Victoria St
$21/$17/$15, book at The Lido
Panellists Catherine Chidgey and Carl Shuker join chair Damien Wilkins in conversation about their best-selling, prize-winning novels The Book of Guilt, The Royal Free and Delirious. Poppies Bookstore will have books available.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Friday 8 August
The Atrium, Wintec
Free Event, no registration required
How can fiction approach grief? In this workshop Damien Wilkins will explore with us various ways fiction can dramatise moments of personal loss and how to give grief emotional force on the page.
9:30 - 12:30pm, Saturday 9 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Join other blokes to discuss what you’ve been reading with the August theme of thrillers, facilitated by Wintec Librarian Mark Caunter.
6:00 - 7:30pm, Wednesday 13 August
Lido Foyer Centre Place, 500 Victoria St
Free Event, no registration required
Be guided through the process of making your own journal with new pages and upcycled book covers from damaged library books. We will learn about different stitches to bind
your pages together and create a new spine.
10:00 - 1:00pm, Thursday 14 August
Rototuna Library, 30 North City Road
This workshop is now FULL.
Chair Tina Shaw guides Deborah Challinor and Monty Soutar in conversation about the power of historical fiction and how they make their stories come alive. Join us at 6pm for refreshments before the panel. Poppies Bookstore will have books available.
6:00 - 8:00pm, Friday 15 August
Waikato Museum, 1 Grantham St
Free Event, no registration required
Monty Soutar offers tips from his own experience writing the Kāwai series to inspire beginner or practising historical fiction writers to start or complete their manuscripts. Look no further if you are seeking motivation!
9:30am - 12:30pm, Saturday 16 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Joan Fleming, the current Kaipukahu Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato, is in conversation with the Waikato Branch of the NZSA about new directions with The Fig Book. She calls it a poet's novel: a failed love story that cracks open into an ecological folktale.
1:30 - 3:00pm, Sunday 17 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
Free Event, no registration required
Come and hear Peter Sergel, the original director and mastermind behind the Hamilton Gardens themed gardens, talk about his book that shares all the hidden secrets and history behind each garden. Peter's book will be for sale on the night.
6:30 - 8:00pm, Thursday 21 August
Chartwell Room, Hamilton Gardens Pavilion
$10 cash, no registration required
Join us to celebrate National Poetry Day at Waikato Museum. Our invited poets Dadon Rowell and Peter Dornauf will read their poems then curators will guide you through some of the exhibitions. Poet Cassandra Barnett will lead you in poetry writing and sharing some work.
12:30 - 3:00pm, Friday 22 August
Waikato Museum, 1 Grantham St
Free Event, registration required
Claire Baylis talks with Charity Norman & Michael Bennett about exploring social issues in fiction & how their backgrounds working in the legal system have shaped their writing. Poppies Bookstore will have books available and refreshments for you to enjoy to begin.
6:00 - 8:00pm, Friday 22 August
Rototuna Library, 30 North City Rd
Free Event, no registration required
Create complex and believable characters for crime, thriller, and mystery fiction with workshop facilitator Charity Norman. Explore techniques that let you walk in your characters' shoes as they develop.
9:30 -12:30pm, Saturday 23 August
Trust Waikato, Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
A fun, fast-paced tour through the writing toolbox of acclaimed screenwriter Michael Bennett, using short films, music videos, and clips from great movies to dive into the fundamentals of storytelling for the screen.
9:30am - 12:30pm, Saturday 23 August
Trust Waikato, 4 Little London Lane
$30 cost, registration required
Get a team together and test your literary knowledge with quizmasters Richard and Janine Swainson.
Email bagfullofdeath@yahoo.co.nz to register your team.
6:00 - 9:00pm, Thursday 28 August
The Londoner, Victoria St
$10 cost, registration required
28 school teams from Year 5 & 6 and 28 teams from Year 7 & 8 face off to test their book knowledge. Who will be crowned the 2025 Book Battle Champions?
9:30 - 11:00am and 12:30 - 2:30pm, Friday 29 August
Second Floor, Central Library, Garden Place
Free Event, no registration required for audience
Follow Us
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 funders Creative New Zealand, Hamilton City Council, Wel Energy Trust, Trust Waikato and National Poetry Day.
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.
