The keynote address of our opening night is named in honour of the late Sir Graeme Douglas, a long-time supporter of the Going West Festival, and whose family and estate continue that tradition in 2018. Every year, we invite a writer of note to engage with the festival theme on their own terms and in their own words.
 
This year our Orator is Paula Morris, award-winning novelist, short story writer and essayist. Beyond her own writing, Paula strives through her teaching and academic work to bring new voices into the light, to question the status quo of New Zealand literature and to spread the love of words far and wide.

Paula Morris (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua) is the author of the story collection Forbidden Cities (2008); the essay On Coming Home (2015); and seven novels, including Rangatira (2011), fiction winner at both the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards. She teaches creative writing at the University of Auckland and is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature (www.anzliterature.com). Her most recent book is the essay and story collection False River.