Fully booked – Hamilton Book Month begins at the Lido

A group of enthused Hamiltonians showed up at the Lido cinema on Thursday night with no intention of going to the movies – they were there for the start of Hamilton Book Month.

Current and former journalists Angela Cuming, Gary Farrow, and Dani Simpson were on hand to share their experiences of online publishing and answer the questions of curious attendees.

Former Hamilton News reporter Gary Farrow said he was stoked with the turnout at their event called Cracking the code: How to get published online and get paid for it.

“I was really pleased, I think we were all thinking that it might have been a small turnout, but the people showed up and seemed really engaged,” he said.

“I just think it speaks so well for the city that there’s such a vibrant, diverse and encouraging creative community.”

Hamilton Book Month was started 10 years ago by senior lecturer at Wintec’s School of Media Arts, Gail Pittaway.

It used to attach itself to New Zealand Book Month, which is now New Zealand Book Week, but the dates of that event often moved because of sponsorship changes.

“We got fed up with this because we rely on donations and sponsors and volunteers ourselves,” Pittaway said.

“So we decided to make it in August because the one date that never changed was National Poetry Day which is always the last Friday in August.”

Another reason the event runs in August is to coincide with Wintec’s Spark Festival which started on August 14

“Spark is wonderful, that’s a week I don’t have to drive out in the night to pick up microphones and screens, or pick people up from the airport,” Pittaway joked.

She started Hamilton Book Month because she teaches writing and knew that there were a lot of writers in Hamilton, but she did not expect so many to come out of the woodwork.

“The main evolution has been that we were able to secure some funding through Trust Waikato in the last two years and that has enabled us to make things more professional,” Pittaway said.

“Instead of picking authors up and having them stay at our houses, we’ve been able to pay them to come and also fly one or two of them in from far away and put them up for accommodation.

“We only get a couple of thousand dollars, but we make it go a long way.”

She says that reading is imperative for the development of young people.

“The most important thing is that people can read, to keep ideas going, and emotions generating, and songs being written, all of those things. The most important thing is to read.”