What an incredible lineup for this must-see annual event. I am currently loving Tracy Farr’s novel, am big fan of Fiona Kidman and Emma Neale’s most recent poetry collections and am itching to get a copy of Frankie McMillan and Josie Shaprio’s’s new books. Oh and loved Sonya Wilson’s novels.

tickets here

Ladies Litera-Tea Ticket 2025

An afternoon of women’s wit, wisdom and words.

Sunday 2 November 2025, 1pm to 5.30pm
Raye Freedman Arts Theatre, Epsom Girls Grammar 

1pm Tracy Farr – Wonderland In a ’wonder-ful’ leap of imagination, this glorious novel brings Marie Curie to Aotearoa to recuperate with a joyous, loving family, including 3 delightful little girls. Utterly original & life-affirming, this book, like radium, shines like sunlight.

1.20 Nadine Hura (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Pakeha) – Slowing the Sun  These wise, enlightening essays explore climate change through the lens of whakapapa, highlighting the intersectional impacts on whānau, communities & the environment. In beautiful writing, they demonstrate the urgent need for an anti-colonial action that affirms & activates indigenous knowledge, Te Tiriti o Waitangi & te reo Māori.

1.40 Vanessa Croft – Where In All the World  This epic saga based on real events moves from Aotearoa to England to Africa, capturing the language, style, & mores of the Victorian era. Harriet is a bold and determined young woman whose marriage to a charismatic but controlling adventurer soon reveals a darker truth, & forces her to fight for her own voice beneath the shadow of Empire. 

2pm Emma Neale – Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit   Winner of the 2025 Ockham NZ Book Award for Poetry, these clever poems explore subterfuge, from little fibs to porkies to whoppers to serious social & political deceptions. A novelist & freelance editor, Emma also writes poetry that is both tender & astute.

2.20 Josie Shapiro – Good Things Come and Go This poignant, redemptive second novel, deals with grief & regret, friendship & betrayal, lost dreams & ambitions, but also moments of bliss & risk-taking & renewal. Subtle, brilliant writing from the author of Every Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts.

2.40 Kirsty Senior & Sophie Gilmour – Fatimas From our ‘local’ Middle-Eastern just down Ponsonby Road, more than 100 recipes from 30 years of business. For any day of the week & for cooks of all skill levels, this gorgeous book will inspire you with zesty flavours & fill you with satisfying sighs!

3pm Afternoon Tea & book signing in the foyer. With lammingtons, melting moments, savouries & more!

3.50 Kaarina Parker – Fulvia  Take a lively chariot ride to Ancient Rome to meet vivid, audacious Fulvia who dared to take on the men at their own power games. The parallels with many of the maniacal manipulating male leaders of today are illuminating!

4.10 Lucy O’Hagan – Everything But the Medicine: A Doctor’s Tale In her long career as a GP Lucy has come to understand that consulations involve a clash between biomedical science & human experiences. Tackling health inequity requires us to understand peoples’ stories first. Lucy works in a Pasifika Māori practice in Porirua & this superb memoir is candid, wise & moving.

4.30 Frankie McMillan – Eddie Sparkle’s Bridal Taxi  These dextrous, inventive prose poems & small stories explore the unusual in the everyday with curiosity & sharp insight. From angels & thieves, to drownings & infidelities, to reclusive aunts &  nuclear warfare, Frankie reveals the absurdity of life, with all its brokenness & beauty.

4.50 Sonya Wilson – Spark Hunter & The Secret Green  In the densely beautiful bush of Fiordland, Nissa & Tama urgently need to assist the Sparks to preserve their precious natural environment. For ages 9 to 90, these enthralling novels are written by the organiser of the brilliant charity Kiwi Christmas Books.

5.30 Dame Fiona Kidman – The Midnight Plane: Selected and new poems What an honour to celebrate the long, illustrious writing life of this remarkable woman, in the same year as the film about her, The House Within, has been released. Poet, novelist, activist, feminist, her contribution to the literature of Aotearoa and to our lives as women, is enormous. Her writing ‘has the power to shake the heart’.

5.30  Authors signing in the foyer

Warm thanks to: Allen & Unwin, Bateman Books, Beatnik Books, Bridget Williams Books, Canterbury University Press, Cuba Press, Echo Press, Massey University Press,  Otago University Press