Hamilton Book Month goes solo
It’s March and that means it’s Book Month, at least in Hamilton.
Hamilton Book Month is kicking off this weekend with award winning authors such as Kate Camp, Hamish Clayton and Elizabeth Knox.
Hamilton Book Month has branched off from the New Zealand Book Month, which has been hosted annually in March.
successful Book Month. Photo: Manpreet Farrar
After a strong turnout last year the Hamilton team organised funding and began planning this year’s event.
Then in January the Book Council changed the NZ-wide date to August.
The Hamilton based team regrouped and decided to continue hosting the event in March.
“Last year we had a very successful book month in March and so on the strength of that we went ahead and organised a whole lot of people and a whole lot of funding to plan a fabulous month of activities for the month of March,” committee member Gail Pittaway said.
“We had sorted everything out, so we came together and called it Hamilton Book Month and we’ve made it much more local.”
The event is sponsored by local businesses and institutions around Hamilton.
The organisers hope to make people aware of the wonderful writers there are in New Zealand.
“We want to offer them some of the diversities of writing that’s available, so we want to really promote books,” Pittaway said.
Hamilton Book Month is held at various locations including Garden Place, Waikato University and Creative Waikato.
All events are free.
Gail Pittaway is also open to suggestions for future events. Email Gail at Gail.Pittaway@wintec.ac.nz
