Save the Dates: 8-10 MAY 2026
Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival 2026
Aotearoa New Zealand's
Official Booktown
We are grateful to our major funders
Ngā mihi nunui ki a koutou!
...And that's a wrap! A massive thank you to everyone who attended the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival 2025, the warm and engaged audiences, the enthralling presenters, our generous supporters, our booksellers, our community, our volunteers... thank you all for making the tenth anniversary of Featherston Booktown, 'BookTen', the mighty success that it was!
Reflections on the 2025 Festival from our International Guests
"There is no doubt that the Featherston Booktown Festival is one of the absolutely best festivals I have been to during my 20 years as a writer. It is unique because it is a small community that draws large crowds of readers, and you are not only a guest of the festival, but a friend of the whole town. If you are going to Featherston, set aside ample time for excursions, Māori culture, fun dinners, fishing, hunting and another fun dinner."
From Lars Mytting, Norway - Presenter at the 2025 Karukatea Festival
"I was a guest at the Featherston Booktown Festival this year. It was a huge honour to be the first Irish writer at the Festival. Due to a farm injury I was unable to travel but joined my events online. I found the festival to be so well organised and a wonderful engaging place. The talks, of which they were many, highlighted the best of New Zealand culture, ideas and thought. It was so well run and stimulating. Featherston Booktown explored big ideas from men's mental health to colonisation. The Festival offers is the best of culture and brings arts to underserved communities in a rural place. Books are for everyone and the festival lives and breathes that. It was wonderful. I’m keen to support Featherston Booktown’s ambition to establish a lasting and deep relationship with Irish writers and writing – and I’ll do all I can to support that, including promoting the Featherston Booktown Festival and the Wairarapa to my wide network of writers – both nationally and internationally.."
From John Connell, Ireland - Presenter at the 2025 Karukatea Festival
Paper Cuts: A Spurned Lover's Ode to Featherston Booktown's 10thAnniversary (2015-2025)
Dedicated to Biggsy and Mary…and John Campbell. By Selina Tusitala Marsh.
In 2015 we first met,
My heart was yours, on that you bet.
Your bookish charm, your fishy chips,
You caught me with your saucy quips.
Lincoln Gould as founding Chair,
A kaumātua with wisdom rare,
Set our romance off with zest,
I gave my heart at your behest.
Biggsy took up the festival call,
While Mary B arranged it all.
Eight bookshops strong you grew in time,
Each shelf a verse, each book a rhyme.
The board of trustees stoked our flame:
First Kate and Ross, then Mary M, Christine, Dave,
With Penny, Pete, Darrin, Craig, and Liz,
Plus the Operations Team—what a biz!
I watched as Joy, your patron fair,
Won children's hearts everywhere.
Mrs Wishy-Washy swept all the awards,
While Mophead just mopped the floor!
Albert, Patricia, Witi too,
First-wave writers breaking through.
Their stories sang of moana shores,
While I pined at your bookshop doors.
Your Fish'n'Chip Supper drew the crowds,
While I stood by, my love avowed.
At Longwood Lodge in Queenly style,
I'd await your beckoning smile.
Three times you called me to your side,
Then years of silence I'd abide.
I was your girl on Gala night,
But the next year— I was nowhere in sight!
"Come back!" you'd plead with eyes so bright,
"Your verse and song give such delight!"
I'd rush to please, my heart aflame,
Yet the next year, I’d not find my name.
Your spine so straight, your pages hard,
My fingers traced your every word.
Your font fit so perfectly,
The way your margins made me breath!
Your binding tight, your cover slick,
Your chapters made my pulse tock tick!
I thumbed you gently with finesse,
Yet my advances bore no success!
For ten long years this dance we swayed,
One year wooed, the next year waylaid.
Your invitation sets my heart aflutter,
Your silence left me in the gutter.
You've brought me back for BookTen's bash,
One final fling of grand panache!
But whispers say when curtains close,
My name won't grace next year's shows.
Then came the truth—oh bitter pill!
You never loved me, you never will!
For you're a Festival, not flesh,
My heart caught up in your bookish mesh!
A town cannot return a kiss,
Paper cuts—my only bliss.
My footnotes yearned for contents true,
But festivals cannot say "I do."
So here's to your anniversary dear Featherston,
You've booked me solid, left me stunned.
This love affair was doomed, alas—
When I fell for your Booktown…sass.
Live streaming 2025!
"Can’t make it to the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival?
This year, we're live streaming nine major events, with the ability to re-watch them at a later stage. Live stream one event for $10 (and re-watch for a month), or enjoy all nine for just $50 (and re-watch for an entire year).
Changed & Sold Out Events
VICTORIAN GOTHIC 2
THE FISH’N’CHIP SUPPER
BOOKTOWN BOOKTEN GALA NIGHT
ULTRAWILDING THE WELLINGTON REGION
PAPER MAKING WORKSHOP
REPEAT AFTER ME PRINTING IS FUN!
DROP IN FOR LETTERPRESS AND COFFEE
INVASION THE WAIKATO WAR
IN THE BUSH WITH GILLIAN CANDLER
ROGERNOMICS 40 YEARS ON
THE FANTABULOUS ANIMAL ORCHESTRA
BETTER OFF READ
VICTORIAN GOTHIC 1
TOOT HONK VROOM
LATE NITE LIT
COLONISATION AND DECOLONISATION
ON THE COUCH LARS MYTTING
PAPER MAKING DROP IN SESSION
ANIKA MOA THE WITCH OF MAKETU AND THE BLEATING LAMBS
BOOK LAUNCH MY THREE RIVERS
Karukatea Festival 2025 Schedule
Welcome from
the Chair of the Featherston Booktown Trust
Peter Biggs, Chair
Featherston Booktown Trust, Registered Charity: CC52369
Kia ora tātou. Welcome to Featherston BookTen 2025!
This year’s 10th Karukatea Festival will be one to remember as it features our first ever international writers – Lars Mytting, John Connell and romesh dissanayake, along with what booklovers have come to expect: bold and innovative programming across 44 events; 87 of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top presenters, writers and provocateurs; multiple booksellers; absorbing panel conversations about nation-shaping topics; fascinating sessions exploring the craft of the books; and a not-to-be-missed gala evening featuring the writing and storytelling stars who have featured in the Karukatea Festival over the last decade. And, of course, our legendary warm hospitality and manaakitanga.
Many thanks to all who have made this possible: our mana whenua partners; our volunteers; our friends at the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki, our funders, sponsors, donors and the Friends of Featherston Booktown; Featherston’s eight booksellers; our hard-working board of trustees and operations team; our patron Joy Cowley and our founding kaumātua, Lincoln Gould.
Enjoy the 10th Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival!
Ngā manaakitanga
Peter Biggs, Chair
About Featherston Booktown
Booktowns are an international phenomenon, celebrating books, from their stories through to their paper, glue and ink.
Featherston is now a fully-fledged, internationally recognised Booktown.
Special thanks to Pete Monk for putting together this video.
petemonk.com
Featherston's Bookstores
For full details about our town's eight all year round bookmongers, visit our Bookstores page.
Chicken and Frog Bookshop
For the Love of Books
The Dickensian Bookshop & Tea Rooms
Loco Cafe & Books
Featherston Crystals and Curiosities
Messines Bookshop: Military History
Featherston Ferret
Mr Feather's Den
Can we ask you a favour?
Would you consider helping us fill the funding gap by making a donation? We know that not everyone is in a position to do so, but every gift helps us deliver the Karukatea Festival and our other events throughout the year and supports our writers and readers.
We hope you enjoy our online events and that you come away inspired and uplifted. Thank you again for supporting Featherston Booktown.
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Click on the green button below and you'll be redirected to a form on a new browser tab using POLi Pay.
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Type in a donation amount and please provide your name and your email address so that we can email you receipt - as all donations are tax deductible as Featherston Booktown is a registered charity.
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You may be prompted to prove you are a human by selected images from a standard Captcha 'security' feature
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You will be asked to choose your NZ bank and then you'll need to supply your Internet Banking login details, the account you wish to pay from and a 'Payers' code.
...Thank you. We really do appreciate your support.
