Verb Readers & Writers Festival will return to Wellington from September 25 to 27, bringing more than 20 events and over 50 writers and artists to venues across Te Aro.
The festival is returning after a one-year hiatus, with several pre-festival events also planned from September 23.
Most of the programme will be staged at The Hannah, alongside book launches, workshops and creative activities at nearby venues.
New co-directors Gabrielle Vincent and Kate McDonald said the programme would retain the festival’s focus on storytelling, curiosity and connections between writers and readers.
“Programming our first Verb Festival is both an enormous privilege and an exciting opportunity,” they said.
“This year’s programme honours that heart while bringing together artists that are familiar to Verb as well as fresh voices, and plenty of surprises to the stage.”
The first two artists confirmed for the festival are former New Zealand Poet Laureate Chris Tse and Shihad frontman Jon Toogood.
Toogood will appear in Jon Toogood: Home Again, an intimate conversation and live performance chaired by music writer Nick Bollinger.
The event will explore Toogood’s 37-year music career, from his Wellington childhood to international performances with Shihad and The Adults.
He will also discuss songwriting, mental health and the personal cost of life in the music industry, while performing several songs.
Tickets for the event go on sale on Thursday, July 23, with general admission starting from $25.
Tse will return with his fourth poetry collection, Dance-Floor Romance, which explores joy, nostalgia, vulnerability and life within the strobe-lit world of nightclubs.
The collection will be published by Auckland University Press on September 10.
Tse served as Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poet Laureate from 2022 to 2025 and is also the author of How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, HE’S SO MASC and Super Model Minority.
Vincent is a curator and live-performance producer from Auckland and is also the family and schools programmer for the Auckland Writers Festival.
McDonald has previously worked with Verb as its volunteer coordinator, front-of-house manager and festival bookselling team leader.
The full Verb Readers & Writers Festival programme will be announced on Friday, August 14, when general festival tickets will also go on sale.
Verb’s weekend crawl event will return on November 14, with its programme to be announced in October.
Unity Books will continue as the festival’s official bookseller, selling books and providing advice at festival events.
