Our upcoming speakers...

Rachael King

Programme Director, WORD Christchurch

Rachael King has a background in media, sponsorship and literature, three things that collide beautifully in her role as programme director for  WORD  Christchurch, which runs year-round events (with writers such as David Walliams, Lee Child and Nigella Lawson) and a booming biennial festival. 

In her other life, she is an award-winning author with three novels under her belt: The Sound of Butterflies, which was published internationally and translated into nine languages; Magpie Hall, a gothic novel set in Canterbury; and Red Rocks, a junior novel that won the Esther Glen medal in 2014. In 2008 Rachael held the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence position at  Canterbury University, which brought her to Christchurch for one year. She never left.